Spelling "gauge" instead of "gage" would also be refinement. ;)
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [USMA:45415] Re: Spelling metre or meter
From: "STANLEY DOORE" <stan.do...@verizon.net>
Date: Fri, July 17, 2009 7:17 am
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>
Spelling is not all that important if understood in context; however using the meter spelling for a gage and the metre spelling for length/distance would be a refinement. When the SI symbol m is used, it's unambiguous.It's a similar problem as the words further (for more) and farther (for distance). They are used interchangeably, and incorrectly, by many here in the United States. It shows a lack of education.Stan Doore----- Original Message -----From: Patrick MooreSent: Friday, July 17, 2009 9:33 AMSubject: [USMA:45413] Re: Spelling metre or meterArguments pro and con about spelling do not matter and may also be addressed to the Spaniards or Czechs or Germans, who also do not conform to British spelling. What matters are the conventions we follow in our discourse, because those conventions ramify.
There is no doubt that the re spelling hurts metrication efforts in the USA, and I pray that the information-deficient congressmen, contractors etc. who oppose metrication will never even see pro-metric literature with the re spelling. What they need to learn are the many reasons why metrication is patriotic rather than yet another unnecessary change in their working habits, one that not merely is foreign but looks so.
It is not a question of logic or science, but of psychology and rhetoric. Why does Obama wear a flag lapel pin? Its not really reasonable and is not important to me, but it does matter to others. Nor would I wear a fright wig if making a presentation at a conference. Details of presentation are rhetorically important because they tell our audience who we are and so become a part of our message. The re spelling has political and rhetorical resonance that we will not discover by poring through dictionaries and science history. So when I tell re apologists that the re spelling is harmful to metrication, I am sharing something that may have not yet entered their calculations.
Members of this group tend to be hidebound and obsessive-compulsive and love our list of rules. Myself included - I am an editor. My workplace follows ASTM by policy, and we must butt heads with U.S. industry on issues like this every week. With numerals for measurements, the symbol alone is enough. The issue of spelling, however, arises in tutorial and administrative literature and provokes a very silly battle where I refuse to waste bullets. This situation is mirrored on a larger scale by a bill in the U.S. Congress. A bill on, say, infrastructure is less likely to be passed with re spellings than with er spellings. Those who prepare the bill for presentation will take care to fix the spelling if they are doing their job. The issues are rhetorical and political. The arguments for re dwindle to insignificance and finally vanish with a little piff sound.
For collateral reasons that Frysinger and others have explained in other threads, the whole question of spelling is off-topic for this group.
From: Pat Naughtin <pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com>
Reply-To: <pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:01:43 +1000
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>
Subject: [USMA:45399] Spelling metre or meter
Dear All,
For those of you who are interested in the spelling question, I have just finished polishing the article, Spelling metre or meter. You will find many arguments to support either of these choices at http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/Spelling_metre_or_meter.pdf including my own Australian oriented view.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the forthcoming book, Metrication Leaders Guide.
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com <http://www.metricationmatters.com/> for more metrication information, contact Pat at pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
