CENTRE STAGE

Re At The ‘ Center’ Of A Controversy: A Defence Of Canadian Spelling (Opinion, Nov. 27): I couldn’t agree more that Canadian spelling is suffering from creeping Americanisation (with an S). Why stop there? Nothing irritates me more than a dated document in which I am obliged to switch the month and day.

The United States is the only country in which the date form is month/day/year. For the rest of the world, the common form is day/month/year or the more formal year/month/day. Yet because many Canadian business documents originate from U.S. head offices, month/day/year is becoming ubiquitous here.

A common conundrum: Whether 3/4/2021 is the third of April or the fourth of March. 9/ 11? I say 11/9.

As for metric versus imperial – don’t get me started.

Maggie Laidlaw Guelph, Ont.

My angst comes from the need to defend Candianisms in the spoken form.

I cringe when hearing the word “route” said to rhyme with “out.” Nay! Our Canadian root for route is from the French, has an E at the end and rhymes with “root.” I can occasionally celebrate when I hear our heritage pronunciation spoken by (a remarkably few) national news hosts on radio or television.

Heaven forbid we begin to say “shone” to rhyme with “stone” just because of its spelling.

Elizabeth Dolan Calgary

She practises at her practice. After, she drives home (she is, after all, a licensed driver with a licence).

Along the way, she stops for a favourite doughnut. In the car mirror, she scrutinizes (huh?) her mouth for bits and bobs of colourful sprinkles.

Once home, she gets together with a neighbour (and thanks her for a recent favour). She loves this routine. It centres her week.

Mel Simoneau Gatineau

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