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“Theater” vs. “Theatre”: The Great New York Times Language Swap

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Re: “Theater” vs. “Theatre”: The Great New York Times Language Swap

#81

Post by CamperBob2 »

gpmcadam wrote: post #43
dewiz wrote: post #22

on a different angle, "smartphone" first occurrence in 1998, which matches with wikipedia reporting it in 1997 from Ericsson blob: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/d4661696-f25d-47be-8a83-8996420...

Something I've noticed (anecdotally) over the past few years in the USA is the switch from the term 'cell phone' to 'mobile phone'. Here in the UK we've used the term 'mobile phone' exclusively I think for the past 20 or 30 years. It's not as clear as other examples, but you can certainly see a visible trend in the last decade: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Mobile%20phone.Cell%20...

Kind of amusing to see the archaic term "wireless" start to recover its popularity around 1990.

Re: “Theater” vs. “Theatre”: The Great New York Times Language Swap

#82

Post by CamperBob2 »

flomo wrote: post #79
thret wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=disk.disc

What this shows is the old NY Times house style oddity where they described CDs as "compact disks" rather than using the trademark Compact Disc. (Pre-1980, it is not clear to me.)

True. The NYT editorial standards have always been downright bullheaded, even with trademarks ("I.B.M.") where they have no authority to contradict anyone else's usage.

Re: “Theater” vs. “Theatre”: The Great New York Times Language Swap

#84

Post by DanBC »

jeffbr13 wrote: post #49
rdwallis wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More interesting for programmers: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=program.programme And programme seems to be having a very slight resurgence since 2012.

It's "programme" in British-English for everything except "computer program" (in my experience). Probably because most programmer-culture is centred in North America. I imagine that it's simply some NYT writer(s) using the British-English spelling, rather than a wider cultural trend, unless somebody is aware of any other examples?

One of the articles is about the World Food Programme, so maybe that's it?

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/06/business/international/fun...

EDIT: Another is quoting a report from 1856

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/arts/music/bar-and-bathroo...

Re: “Theater” vs. “Theatre”: The Great New York Times Language Swap

#85

Post by danieltillett »

tnorthcutt wrote: post #50
danieltillett wrote: post #47

This is exactly what I have been trying to achieve with my CutSpel Chrome extension - so far not too much interest, but I might try another submission in a little while. http://www.cutspel.com

I'd argue there's a vast difference between using two different, accepted spellings of a word, and using a Chrome extension that alters English words, transforming them into not English words.

I think you might have misunderstood what cutspel is trying to achieve. This is the same thing as what NYT did by choosing a different spelling - that is to reform English spelling through familiarity with a new spelling. It worked for theater so why not other words.

The text on the page after modification by cutspel is still English - just more rationaly spelt.

Re: “Theater” vs. “Theatre”: The Great New York Times Language Swap

#86

Post by maxmcd »

itry wrote: post #78

"Yesterday" has suffered greatly lately: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=yesterday

Looks like saying the specific day is now preffered: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=yesterday.monday.tuesd...

I searched some other rough synonyms of yesterday, but this had the strongest match.

Re: “Theater” vs. “Theatre”: The Great New York Times Language Swap

#88

Post by IvyMike »

jsmeaton wrote: post #20
maxmcd wrote: post #2

I think I found another one, and it looks like it swapped twice: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Aesthetic.esthetic Edit: Another: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Archaeology.archeology A very early switch: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=Toward.towards Another: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=catalogue.catalog And another: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=centre.center A weaker one: http…

This is one I've been wondering about for awhile: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=cooperation.co-operati... I thought the change happened somewhere around the 80-90's. Guess it depends on the country also.

I think there's a general trend towards dropping the hyphen in common words.

Knuth talks about this in his discussion over "e-mail" v "email": http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/email.html

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