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>
>
> Speaking of splitting hairs in English. Is the plural of Appendix
> Appendixes or Appendices? (I hope the consensus is Appendices
> cause that's what's in my manuals)
That reminds me of one time in my early days attending international
standards meetings. One working group was led by a rather elderly German
chairman, who seemed to be determined to write rules for everything in
sight, whether or not there was any real need for it. At one meeting, I
spent about a week cordially disagreeing with him, because if the rules had
been written the way he wanted them, my company would have been faced with
the prospect of either making products that met the rules, or making
products that worked with the different versions what we already made for
the different countries in Europe. I didn't think that was a good choice to
have to make!
At the end of the day during one meeting, he sat next me on the coach back
to the hotels, and asked,
"Mr. West. I wonder if you can help me with something. Is the word
'harmonise' spelled with an 's' or with a 'z'?"
I explained that both spellings were in the dictionary, and therefore either
was perfectly acceptable.
"But which one is the *correct* spelling?" he asked.
"Both are." I answered.
This didn't satisfy him. After a few more attempts at explaining, it finally
dawned on me that he believed that just one spelling ought to be ruled as
being correct, and any others removed from the dictionary! I understood a
lot better what he was trying to achieve in the standards after that :-)
Regards
Jonathan West
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