Originally Posted by
ralf-nz
"Majority" by which measure?
You will always be correct as long as your argument is good (enough).
Mmm, not really; you'll always be correct as long as your argument is valid and sound.
In this case, the use of -ise or -ize, it's difficult to form a valid argument using informal logic. Even the English Spelling Society[1] is still flogging the patch of bare earth where the stain of a long dead horse once rotted, i.e.
The <-ise, ize> Dilemma.
Editors in English face the question whether to spell words like organise with <-ise> or <-ize>. America, The Times, the Oxford University Press and Collins prefer <ize>, but Britain otherwise mainly writes <-ise>. The uncertainty arose from disagreement about derivation. If the suffix is seen as deriving directly from Greek <-izein> (-ιξειν), Greek zeta <ξ> transcribes into Roman <z>; but if the words concerned are seen as arriving via French, the French <s> (organiser) might be chosen. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary says: "The suffix, whatever the element to which it is attached, is in its origin Greek, and as the pronunciation is also with z there is no reason why the French spelling should ever be followed." This Journal has hitherto preferred <z>, but only for phonographic, not etymological, reasons: the ending <-ize> unambiguously represents the pronunciation and distinguishes it from the ending of precise. However for spelling reformers there is a counter-argument. Some words with this ending are never spelt with <-ize> because they derive from a Latin or Germanic root using <s>: rise, advise, surprise, advertise, compromise etc. Then there are Greek-derived words like analyse, paralyse which go back to the root analysis etc., which in Greek uses unvoiced sigma <σ>, not voiced zeta. Collins and Oxford prefer analyse but Webster has analyze. So which form should spelling reformers prefer, phonographic <-ize>, with a whole string of exceptions, or ambiguous <-ise>, with fewer and perhaps more manageable exceptions (unvoiced treatise, precise and a few words always spelt with <z>, prize, size, capsize)? Should reformers anticipate a time when all voiced sibilants would be spelt <z>, and accept the awkward exceptions for the present, or should we give priority to the problems of present users, for whom standard <-ise> would be easier to learn and use correctly?
[1] Yes, happily for all of us such an institution does indeed exist.