I don't agree Bill regarding the USA's abandonment of the æ. There are
words with different roots and hence meanings that could lose their
distinction if you abandon the æ - e.g. ped--- meaning something do to with
feet (pedicure, etc), and pæd--- , meaning something to do with children
(pædiatrician, etc).
I am not sure about Australia, but I do know that in Canada, official
spelling is to use the æ, though much of that is now lost due to, once
again, US obliteration of other cultures and customs.
Cheers
John F-L
----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Potts" <w...@wfpconsulting.com>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>
Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 4:21 AM
Subject: [USMA:45568] Re: Metric Style Question
No, Carlton, because there is really no a. It should be orthopædics, with
an
ae ligature (æ).
The U.S. has sensibly decided to replace all instances of æ with e.
Bill
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-u...@colostate.edu [mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu] On Behalf
Of Carleton MacDonald
Sent: Sunday, August 09, 2009 12:40
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:45565] Re: Metric Style Question
I've often wondered about the extra letters in words like "orthopaedics" -
do the people in the UK really pronounce the "a" ?
Carleton
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-u...@colostate.edu [mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu] On Behalf
Of James R. Frysinger
Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 15:02
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:45541] Re: Metric Style Question
Jim,
John Steele gave a good answer.
English tends towards simplification of writing style over time. There
was a time that "cooperative" required (!) an "unlaut" over the second
"o" to show that a diphthong ("oo") was not intended. I recall when one
saw "catalogue" more often than "catalog". I still use a comma before
"and" and "or" in a series of equal parts ("Bob, Bill, and Bubba").
My impression is that the "double adjective hyphen" is slowly going
away. The SI Brochure and NIST SP 811 demand that for metric values in
symbolic form ("10 mm bolt"), even when used as adjectives. The world is
still split on spelled out forms ("ten millimeter bolt" or
"ten-millimeter bolt").
Jim
Jim Elwell wrote:
My grammar checker keeps trying to get me to hyphenate a metric unit of
measure when used as an adjective (apparently seeing the number and the
unit as a compound adjective). I wrote:
"put all those resources into a 180 mm industrial panel-mount unit"
And it suggests
"put all those resources into a 180-mm industrial panel-mount unit"
I thought I was quite familiar with metric style, but I am not sure
about this one. Can anyone shed some light on it?
Thanks!
Jim
--
**********************
Jim Elwell
jim.elw...@qsicorp.com
801-466-8770
www.qsicorp.com
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(C) 931.212.0267
(H) 931.657.3107
(F) 931.657.3108
