en-GB-oxford LANGUAGE TAG REGISTRATION FORM

[Michael Everson]

LANGUAGE TAG REGISTRATION FORM

Name of requester          : Michael Everson
E-mail address of requester: everson at evertype.com
Tag to be registered       : en-GB-oxford

English name of language   : English, Oxford orthography

Native name of language (transcribed into ASCII): English, Oxford orthography

Reference to published description of the language (book or article):

Although it is widely believed that en-US and en-GB differ in that 
the former spells "color" and "civilize" and the latter spells 
"colour" and "civilise", in fact this is not entirely the case. 
Oxford spelling prefers the spellings "colour" and "civilize". Oxford 
prefers -ize because this is the etymological spelling (from Greek 
-izein).

"The form -ize has been in use in English since the 16th century; 
although it is widely used in American English, it is not an 
Americanism. The alternative spelling -ise (reflecting a French 
influence) is in common use, especially in British English."

References:

Pearsall, Judy, ed. 2001. The New Oxford Dictionary of English. 
Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860441-6