Canadian forces Recruiting 'Center'?

[Machjo]

I'd noticed awhile back that the Canadian Forces Recruiting Center in downtown Ottawa does in fact spell the word according to US English spelling. I've passed it many a time and each time I pass it I can't help but look at the spelling just to be sure it's not my imagination.

Who in the world decided to use US spelling for the Canadian Forces Recruiting "Center". Was this work contracted out to a US company? If so, and that company was offering the best deal, I have no problem with it. But we would have thought the Canadian Armed Forces would have ensured the spelling was correct as per our standards. Are they all so illiterate in Canadian spelling conventions at the recruiting centre that they'd never even noticed this yet? Or are they just blind?

 

[CDNBear]

Or perhaps language is fluid and does change over time, even in the country our "Mother tongue" came from?

Given the fact that it is a word of the same meaning, there is no illiteracy involved. It may have been an over sight, it may have been intentional. Who cares, even you managed to understand what they were saying.

 

[Nuggler]

ccasion9: If you use the Canadian, or Brit, spelling of, say........colour....as opposed to "color"...spellcheck jumps on ya.


Were they flying the Canadian flag or the stars and stripes on the building??

Usually, stupidity trumps literacy, especially when dealing with the armed forces.

:ky:

 

[CDNBear]

Usually, stupidity trumps literacy, especially when dealing with the armed forces.

Geezus Nugg, that was kind of ignorant.

Are the fish not bitin' for ya these days?

 

[Praxius]

Since I do work for the Department of National Defence here in Nova Scotia and I help design the type of signs you speak of, I can tell you that it is most likely designed and built by a sign company located in the Ottawa/Ontario area and was not out sourced to the US.

They do not make the signs themselves, but do provide their corporate logo standards to the sign company in question..... and have usually one or two people who proof the designs before being created and I can bet that what happened is that the designer of the sign was a tad on the amateur side of things and didn't spell it properly and the fault also falls on whoever approved the sign for production.

If you search online, the recruitment centre, in particular the one in Ottawa, is noted as "Centre" not "Center" thus someone sure as hell didn't do their homework and dropped the ball.

In fact, I just did a Recruitment Centre sign just last month for the Halifax area and for the record, I put down "Centre" not "Center"

From what our sales rep said to me, they're going to be using my template as their standard layout across the country.... not too shabby.

Keep in mind, those working in the DND are not artists or designers and they usually rely on the designers at the sign company to make sure things are right since they're supposed to be the experts. So long as what they see matches closely to their standards they usually will approve it....

Though why they didn't pick up on this "Center" before production I have no clue, as the guys I deal with here are very particular with spelling, grammar and occasionally have to tell me how exactly the french is to be laid out, since they sometimes capitalize certain words one day, but then don't the next.

While I'd place blame on the designer.... the majority of the blame falls on the person who's to approve the sign for production, which is the whole point of providing proofs.

Then again, perhaps as Nug said, the spellchecker might have caught it and the designer blindly clicked it to be corrected without thinking..... I however added "Centre" as a correct word in my spellchecker so that doesn't happen.

Added:

Of course, if the sign was made with vinyl applied lettering (Copy) it would be pretty easy to fix it as all they'd need to do is open up the original drawing, fix the wording and then cut the "r" and "e" out of more vinyl, peel off the old letters and stick the new ones on..... done.

But then again, considering the cost of sending out someone to service the sign again for two letters probably wasn't worth it since it still has the same effect of telling the viewer it's a recruitment centre..... and probably won't fix it until they decided to update the sign or replace the sign face sometime down the road.

 

[CDNBear]

Suddenly I'm struck with the thought "Who the f!ck cares". Center, centre, enter entre, it's the evolution of words. Big f!ckin' deal.

Search the forum for the word center and see how often used the word "center" is used.

I bet if I look hard enough I can even find Prax using it.

 

[Praxius]

You could look hard, but you'll find I use Centre more then I use Center.... I've been typing Centre for so long, I'm more used to it.

I'm not saying you won't find examples of where I used the er' but it'd be rare.

 

[VanIsle]

I'd noticed awhile back that the Canadian Forces Recruiting Center in downtown Ottawa does in fact spell the word according to US English spelling. I've passed it many a time and each time I pass it I can't help but look at the spelling just to be sure it's not my imagination.

Who in the world decided to use US spelling for the Canadian Forces Recruiting "Center". Was this work contracted out to a US company? If so, and that company was offering the best deal, I have no problem with it. But we would have thought the Canadian Armed Forces would have ensured the spelling was correct as per our standards. Are they all so illiterate in Canadian spelling conventions at the recruiting centre that they'd never even noticed this yet? Or are they just blind?

Write a letter to the editor of the most prominent newspaper there and I'm sure you'll get results. It is not okay if a US company had the best price and spelled it wrong for Canada. It means they made an error and the sign needs to be repaired. The reason we get corrected on spell check if due to arrogance by the designers of spell check refusing to use Canadian spellings and many of you here just take it laying down and use the spellings. How many of you let spell check change your words like colour to color and surprize to surprise and so on? Do you buy a liter of milk or a litre?

 

[CDNBear]

You could look hard, but you'll find I use Centre more then I use Center.... I've been typing Centre for so long, I'm more used to it.

I'm not saying you won't find examples of where I used the er' but it'd be rare.

My point wasn't a "gotchya" Prax, it was however to point out that it makes no difference. It isn't a US v Canadian thing, it's a simple word. Whose cousin "enter" was changed from entrer. Centre is left over from French origins. For a time in England the correct spelling was center, which is actually older than "re" which was popularized by the Johnson's Dictionary. Or even closer to home, eh, which originated from the same time, late Middle English ey.

It's linguistic evolution, not illiteracy or ignorance.

 

[AnnaG]

WOW! Talk about nitpicking and blowing something out of proportion.
BOTH ways of spelling "center" are correct.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, either spelling is perfectly fine:

I. The centre of a circle, of revolution, of centripetal attraction; and connected uses. 1. a. The point round which a circle is described; the middle point of a circle or sphere, equally distant from all points on the circumference.
c1374 CHAUCER Boeth. IV. v. 132

e sterres of arctour ytourned neye to

e souereyne centre or point. c1391

Astrol. I. §4. c1400 MANDEVILLE xvii. 185 Aboute the poynt of the gret Compas, that is clept the Centre..Alle the Lynes meeten at the Centre. 1413 LYDG. Pylgr. Sowle I. iii. (1483) 4 The Centre of the erthe was wonder derck. 1570 BILLINGSLEY Euclid XI. xiv. 316 The centre of a Sphere is that poynt which is also the centre of the semicircle. 1591 MORLEY Introd. Mus. 18 His signe is a whole cirkle with a prick or point in the center or middle, thus

. 1613 R. C. Table Alph. (ed. 3), Centre, middest of any round thing or circle. 1651 HOBBES Leviath. IV. xlvi. 375 The center of the Earth is the place of Rest. 1683 SALMON Doron Med. I. 91 From the Center to the Circumference. 1774 M. MACKENZIE Maritime Surv. 23 The Lines..will intersect each other in..the Center of the Circle. 1822 J. IMISON Sc. & Art I. 15 They are all drawn towards the center of the earth. 1879 LOCKYER Elem. Astron. vii. xli. 239 A circle is a figure bounded by a curved line, all the points in which are the same distance from a point within the circle called the centre.
b. fig.
1600 SHAKES. Sonn. cxlvi, Poore soule the center of my sinfull earth. a1631 DONNE Poems (1650) 7 This bed thy center is, these wals thy spheare. 1836 EMERSON Nature v. Wks. (Bohn) II. 157 The moral law lies at the centre of nature, and radiates to the circumference.

ccasion9: If you use the Canadian, or Brit, spelling of, say........colour....as opposed to "color"...spellcheck jumps on ya.


Were they flying the Canadian flag or the stars and stripes on the building??

Usually, stupidity trumps literacy, especially when dealing with the armed forces.

:ky:

Why "spellcheck jumps on ya" is because spellcheck is from Microsoft, a USA company. lol

(That's the online version of the OED one actually has to pay for that I quoted the definition from. I refuse to scan, copy and paste the hardcopy version.)

You want to nitpick about a word? Try the pronunciation of "kilometer". Hubby and I both learned the pronunciation was "KILL o meter" and since Turdeau inflicted French on us concerning everything language-wise, some people have been using "ki LOM eter". Excuse me but do they also say "ki LOG ram", ki LOP ascal", ki LOL iter", ki LOT onne? :roll:

 

[YukonJack]

Those who need to use spellcheck were obviously absent from school the day the teacher taught the difference between "it's and its", "there, their and they're", "whose and who's", "where, were and we're", etc.

Center/centre, theatre/theater, who, but a born nit-picker cares?

 

[Praxius]

My point wasn't a "gotchya" Prax, it was however to point out that it makes no difference. It isn't a US v Canadian thing, it's a simple word. Whose cousin "enter" was changed from entrer. Centre is left over from French origins. For a time in England the correct spelling was center, which is actually older than "re" which was popularized by the Johnson's Dictionary. Or even closer to home, eh, which originated from the same time, late Middle English ey.

It's linguistic evolution, not illiteracy or ignorance.

I see what you're saying.... and when it comes to spelling here in the forums, or in an email or letter to whoever, it doesn't really matter how you spell a word..... that is unless you're getting paid to spell it properly.

I'm not getting paid to post in here, therefore I'm not as concerned on my spelling or how I word myself..... but when it comes to a business and creating signage for a company, especially one funded by the government, how you spell something and using "Proper" wording is important and is the difference between an amateur and a professional..... and.... in my professional opinion, using the word "Center" rather then "Centre" for a government-run institution in Canada that technically doesn't officially use US-English is amateur and it not only gives a bad image to the business, but gives a bad image to the company which designed that sign.

I'm sure a good chunk of the average population, such as yourself, don't really give two craps, and indeed it doesn't really matter or affect your everyday life.... but in my line of work, that's a pretty big and obvious screw up.

 

[AnnaG]

I see what you're saying.... and when it comes to spelling here in the forums, or in an email or letter to whoever, it doesn't really matter how you spell a word..... that is unless you're getting paid to spell it properly.

I'm not getting paid to post in here, therefore I'm not as concerned on my spelling or how I word myself..... but when it comes to a business and creating signage for a company, especially one funded by the government, how you spell something and using "Proper" wording is important and is the difference between an amateur and a professional..... and.... in my professional opinion, using the word "Center" rather then "Centre" for a government-run institution in Canada that technically doesn't officially use US-English is amateur and it not only gives a bad image to the business, but gives a bad image to the company which designed that sign.

I'm sure a good chunk of the average population, such as yourself, don't really give two craps, and indeed it doesn't really matter or affect your everyday life.... but in my line of work, that's a pretty big and obvious screw up.

So you think "centre" is more "proper" than "center"? You'd better notify Oxford their dictionary is wrong and "center" is not proper then.

 

[Machjo]

Anna, that dictionary was merely quoting historical uses:

1591 MORLEY Introd. Mus. 18 His signe is a whole cirkle with a prick or point in the center or middle, thus

.

Clearly we do not accept the spelling 'cirkle' now do we, nor 'signe'.

The first part of the quote dealing with the modern spelling limits itself to 'centre' you'll notice, because that is the correct British spelling as per OED. And by coincidence, it also happens to be the correct Canadian spelling. So, would you accept signes and cirkles in your newspaper?

 

[AnnaG]

Anna, that dictionary was merely quoting historical uses:

1591 MORLEY Introd. Mus. 18 His signe is a whole cirkle with a prick or point in the center or middle, thus

.

Clearly we do not accept the spelling 'cirkle' now do we, nor 'signe'.

The first part of the quote dealing with the modern spelling limits itself to 'centre' you'll notice, because that is the correct British spelling as per OED. And by coincidence, it also happens to be the correct Canadian spelling. So, would you accept signes and cirkles in your newspaper?

BS.
When I went to the OED I found the definition under "CENTER" not "CENTRE".
I thought it would be perfectly obvious that OED would have said that the authors who spelled the word as "center" were wrong if they actually were wrong.

 

[karrie]

Those who need to use spellcheck were obviously absent from school the day the teacher taught the difference between "it's and its", "there, their and they're", "whose and who's", "where, were and we're", etc.

Center/centre, theatre/theater, who, but a born nit-picker cares?

*scratches head* all those are spelled correctly, and spell checker doesn't often catch a mistake when you use them in the wrong grammatical context, so I fail to see what that class has to do with spelling mistakes and mistypes.

 

[Machjo]

Any professional organization (and I'm assuming the Canadian Forces pride themselves in being professionals) will follow a style guide that will adopt a consistent standard for all of their written material, be it in letters, letter heads, signs, etc.

Clearly an organization can't be using 'centre' one day and 'center' the next, any more than it can just decide on a whim to use 'cirkle and 'signe' because such spellings were acceptable in the 1500s.

Just read the Decline and Fall by Edward Gibbon. Though that book is a classic and I love it, much of the spelling in that book is no longer acceptable today, not even in the US.

BS.
When I went to the OED I found the definition under "CENTER" not "CENTRE".

And I see it defaulted to 'centre'

*scratches head* all those are spelled correctly, and spell checker doesn't often catch a mistake when you use them in the wrong grammatical context, so I fail to see what that class has to do with spelling mistakes and mistypes.

Add to that that he's confusing casual typing in a forum with professional signs for a government institution.

 

[AnnaG]

Here's the definition that OED gives if you look up "CENTRE":

I. The centre of a circle, of revolution, of centripetal attraction; and connected uses. 1. a. The point round which a circle is described; the middle point of a circle or sphere, equally distant from all points on the circumference.
c1374 CHAUCER Boeth. IV. v. 132

e sterres of arctour ytourned neye to

e souereyne centre or point. c1391

Astrol. I. §4. c1400 MANDEVILLE xvii. 185 Aboute the poynt of the gret Compas, that is clept the Centre..Alle the Lynes meeten at the Centre. 1413 LYDG. Pylgr. Sowle I. iii. (1483) 4 The Centre of the erthe was wonder derck. 1570 BILLINGSLEY Euclid XI. xiv. 316 The centre of a Sphere is that poynt which is also the centre of the semicircle. 1591 MORLEY Introd. Mus. 18 His signe is a whole cirkle with a prick or point in the center or middle, thus

. 1613 R. C. Table Alph. (ed. 3), Centre, middest of any round thing or circle. 1651 HOBBES Leviath. IV. xlvi. 375 The center of the Earth is the place of Rest. 1683 SALMON Doron Med. I. 91 From the Center to the Circumference. 1774 M. MACKENZIE Maritime Surv. 23 The Lines..will intersect each other in..the Center of the Circle. 1822 J. IMISON Sc. & Art I. 15 They are all drawn towards the center of the earth. 1879 LOCKYER Elem. Astron. vii. xli. 239 A circle is a figure bounded by a curved line, all the points in which are the same distance from a point within the circle called the centre.
b. fig.
1600 SHAKES. Sonn. cxlvi, Poore soule the center of my sinfull earth. a1631 DONNE Poems (1650) 7 This bed thy center is, these wals thy spheare. 1836 EMERSON Nature v. Wks. (Bohn) II. 157 The moral law lies at the centre of nature, and radiates to the circumference.


It looks like the same thing, doesn't it?

 

[Machjo]

BS.
When I went to the OED I found the definition under "CENTER" not "CENTRE".
I thought it would be perfectly obvious that OED would have said that the authors who spelled the word as "center" were wrong if they actually were wrong.

In the Concise Oxford Dictionary I have, it is listed under 'centre' with 'center' appearing in brackets thus:

(US center)

It would appear in your dictionary it's even worse as it doesn't even mention it. It just defaults to it and then ignores it altogether from there on in except in archaic historical references.

 

[AnnaG]

Any professional organization (and I'm assuming the Canadian Forces pride themselves in being professionals) will follow a style guide that will adopt a consistent standard for all of their written material, be it in letters, letter heads, signs, etc.

Clearly an organization can't be using 'centre' one day and 'center' the next, any more than it can just decide on a whim to use 'cirkle and 'signe' because such spellings were acceptable in the 1500s.

That is more to the point, although people can switch to one from the other as long as the switch is somewhat long-lasting.

And I see it defaulted to 'centre'

Mine didn't. Here's what I get when I type in both versions:

Find word: center

1 centre, center, n. and a.

2 centre, center, v.

3 centure, center