Fwd: Past tense Spelling

[Wilson Gray]

Impressionly speaking, I've long had the impression - whence it
originates, I know not - that doubling the consonant is a Briticism,
whereas the use of the single consonant is The American Way. When I
came across the "CANCELLED," my impression was that it was some kind
of trivial, pswaydo-Brit, Harvard-assed, Ivy-League-fake-ism.

-Wilson

On Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 10:19 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Fwd: Past tense Spelling
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>
> At 10/27/2008 12:06 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>I think that's one of those things about which one can never tell. I
>>grew up using "kidnaped" and "canceled." When I began to work in the
>>Harvard library system, I noticed that I found myself dealing with a
>>lot of material that had been _CANCELLED_ or _cancelled_. After a few
>>years on the job, the -lled version became not only the spelling to
>>which I was accustomed, but also the one that I now prefer.
>
> I either learned or developed the "rule" that if the vowel was short
> but could also be pronounced long, then the consonant was doubled; if
> the vowel was long but could also be pronounced short then the vowel
> was not doubled.  This probably means "in the context of the word,
> even though there might be no actual word with that vowel pronunciation."
>
> Thus "kidnap" to "kidnapped", like a short sleep but unlike the neck.
>
> "Travel" becomes "traveler", (about twice as many Google hits as
> "traveller", but when there are 34 million of the latter, I suppose
> it's acceptable).  But I would be confused about "canceled" vs.
> "cancelled" (more than twice as many millions as
> "canceled").  Perhaps a doubled L because one might imagine "can sealed"?
>
> As for "when" (David Metevia's original question), in the 18th
> century there were fewer problems with the past tense -- many were
> spelled with 'd.  :-)  But from my reading in the 18th century I have
> a sense that the practice with respect to doubling changed some time
> towards the end of the 18th century.  Not hard evidence, but perhaps
> a time to begin looking.
>
> Joel
>
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