LL-L "Orthography" 2002.04.09 (09) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 09.APR.2002 (09) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Orthography"

> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Orthography
>
> There is, of course, also the verb 'to bus', which creates the problems
> "'busses' or 'buses'?" and "'bussed' or 'bused'?"

I think the real problem here is that the spelling "bus" is
irregular - it's a shortened form of the Latin construction
"omnibus" ("for all"), and the regular English spelling rule
has been ignored. In regular English spellings the rule is
that in a word ending in /s/ (other than when the /s/ is a
morpheme - plural or verb endings) the /s/ should be spelt
<ss> after a lax vowel or <se> after a tense vowel, eg:

lax vowel - hiss miss muss guess less loss pass &c
tense vowel - house mouse &c

So "bus" is an irregular spelling which would be regularized
as "buss", and this may explain the tendency to prefer the
<ss> with lesser-known meanings, and certainly does explain
why "buss-" works better morphologically.

Of course there's also tease, please &c where the <se> is
pronounced /z/, but it's possible to discover rules governing
this, and in fact <ce> seems more usual than <se> (peace, face
&c), presumably for latinate spellings?  Yes, English spelling
is really quite regular if you can deal with hundreds or
thousands of rules!

Sandy
http://scotstext.org
A dinna dout him, for he says that he
On nae accoont wad ever tell a lee.
                          - C.W.Wade,
                    'The Adventures o McNab'

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