Andy AlderwickMay 16

TIL why (in British English) we don't use a dot after the “St” short form of “Street”.

The “t” in “St” is *not* the second letter of “Street”, but the sixth. So it's not an abbreviation (like “Prof.” for “Professor”, “etc.” in “et cetera”, etc.), it's a contraction (like “Dr” in “Doctor”, “Mr” in “Mister”, “St” in “Saint” and so on) and contractions don't have a dot.

🤯

I assumed it was just a weird English thing, but turns out I found the only language feature that's entirely consistent 

Show threadplungepoolMay 16
@alderwick that is interesting, because in american english we use a dot for Dr. and Mr. and St. (saint) very very consistently, but much more rarely for St (street) when writing out addresses
Show threadAndy AlderwickMay 18
@plungepool I love how “Street” is the partial exception! I read up that US English uses the dot everywhere — yay for consistency!
Show threadSteve GloverMay 22

@alderwick Looks like a step on the "-ise/-ize" pathway and may eventually have a similar effect....

Original English - uses both depending on etymology

American English - settles on -ize

British English - keeps on with both.

But then there's the bit I can't verify: apparently some British English spellcheckers were created from American versions by doing a global search / replace leading to

British English - starts losing -ize.

So, is British English losing the dot across the board?

Show threadAndy AlderwickMay 22
@akicif Thanks to https://mastodon.scot/@allypally/114533536372164122 I see that losing the dots for “Mr” etc. is a very recent phenomenon, so there's bound to be plenty of expert accounts and evidence to suggest why! (Thanks again, @allypally!)
AllyPally (@allypally@mastodon.scot)

@alderwick@merveilles.town In Scotland, still (sadly) part of the U.K., in the 60s I was taught to write St., Dr., Mr., Esq., and so on, all with dots.

mastodon.scot
Show threadAllyPallyMay 22
@alderwick @akicif It’s possible I had old-fashioned teachers. They were almost all approaching retirement age back then, so they were educated before the Great War.
Show threadSteve Glover
@allypally @alderwick I'm a bit younger, then. Most of mine between 8 and 15 had been of military age in WW2 (during which my own parents were at school)
May 24 at 4:07pmWeb