Re: English spelling reform

Tristan scripsit:

> Just a note to say that English, that fanatical borrower that it is,
> uses 'no.' from Italian 'numero' as its abbrev. for 'number'. Unlike
> most abbrevs that end in the last letter of the original, it still gets
> a fullstop to prevent confusion with 'no' (although inflected forms e.g.
> 'nos' don't get a fullstop.
Except to the (linguistically) conservative lot in North America, who
put periods at the end of all abbreviations, period.  (And if "period"
was good enough for Cicero, it's good enough for us -- "full stop", indeed;
sounds like a football position!)  None of this business of writing
"Mr" instead of "Mr.".

--
John Cowan                                   jcowan@reutershealth.com
        "You need a change: try Canada"  "You need a change: try China"
                --fortune cookies opened by a couple that I know

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