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From: Peter Hullah <Peter.Hullah@eurocontrol.fr>
Subject: Dialling (was Re: Is '#' a "pound sign" or what?)
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Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 15:56:27 GMT
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Andy Holden wrote:
> 
> Peter Hullah <Peter.Hullah@eurocontrol.fr> wrote:
> 
> >As I stated in a much earlier post (this thread is getting repetitive!),
> 
>  This thread has now done a complete loop, and is well into the second
> circuit - but just to add to this I have just noticed that a British
> Telecom payphone calls # a "square".
> 
Talking of British Telecom, I noticed when I was last in the UK the the
Brits (of which I'm one!) write "dialling" and "dialled" with the 'l'
doubled. My Collins dictionary confirms this.

I was always under the impression that consonants were only doubled
if they immediately followed single vowels, not double vowels. 

The rule I learnt was that if the previous syllable was unique, or stressed, 
the consonant was doubled and if it wasn't unique or stressed, the consonant 
wasn't doubled. (The Brits make an exeption of 'l', doubling it whether or 
not the previous consonant is stressed.) This rule only applies, however,
as I said, when the previous syllable contains only one vowel.

e.g.

pit     -> pitted
omit    -> omitted
vomit   -> vomited
cancel  -> canceled (US), cancelled (UK)
control -> controlled
fulfil  -> fulfilled
mail    -> mailed

Why, then, do Brits double the 'l' in "dialed"? (On top of everything else
it LOOKS ugly to write "dialled"!)

Pete

PS For the pedants, the Brits don't double the final 'l' of "parallel" when they
add 'ed' - "paralleled"!

-- 

Peter H.C. Hullah                     Technical Services
e-mail: Peter.Hullah@eurocontrol.fr   EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre
Phone:  +33 1 69 88 75 49             BP 15, Rue des Bordes,
Fax:    +33 1 60 85 15 04             91222 BRETIGNY SUR ORGE CEDEX
                                      France
