I know that I am getting on in years as I find items that others seem to find of little import and mentioning them to all and sundry. Fortunately I have the internet to aid me in my quest and I can throw my obsessions out to the world at large in the knowledge that it matters not to them but I feel as if I have declared my viewpoint loudly.
It may have been noticed that I write ‘organization’ rather than ‘organisation’. I am not from the United States of America and I can change the dictionary on my computer with ease. So, why would I use the letter ‘z’ instead of the ‘s’.?
I was idly considering all the words I have composed over the years by pen and keyboard and the frequency of letters scribbled or bashed. It then occurred that some letters are not used as often as they should be as they are written one way but pronounced another, such as organization, realize, and so on. We probably wrote these words at some time with a ‘z’ but for some reason have replaced the letter with the ‘s’. So I strike back for two reasons; nostalgia for the older way of spelling, the words I spell with a ‘z’ are pronounced with a ‘z’ and it is levels up the playing field for a neglected letter.
In a similar wordy vein: what has happened to the word ‘quickly’? Now replaced with the word ‘fast’, which is not half so much fun to say and write. Now, I know that language is ever-changing and that it is an inevitable and even beneficial process: I would be hard pressed to readily understand someone from King Richard’s time and no doubt I would have the same difficulty five hundred years from now. But, that does not mean that I cannot make a plea for some words that still have life left in them. quickly is one of those: say it to yourself three times – see what I mean? So, join me in using quickly whenever appropriate, use AQAP rather than ASAP, let’s make the world a more interesting sounding place – quickly.
