>>_ ...... tradition,
>
MSeries wrote
>
> Er,no. my tourer has been around longer than cantilever brakes have ! it has Weinman centre pull
> brakes and mudguards.
Er, yes. Cantilever brakes go back to Oskar Barnack's screw-mount lens era. They were around long
before Weinmann started making center-pull brakes.
Now that I've cleared that up, let me address the more important "centre/center" issue:
Generally, I'm bilingual in English, no problem with tyres/tires, mudguards/fenders,
spanners/wrenches and the like.
However, I do feel that, when writing in the English language, the English spelling "center" is more
correct than the French spelling "centre."
"Centre" is correct and phonetic in French, but not in English, in my not at all humble opinion.
Just try pronouncing the latter syllable by itself: "er" or "re."
I think the only reason the French spelling has survived in the U.K. is because most Brits will drop
the "r" anyway, and pronounce it "cent-uh."
If both the "r" and the "e" are silent, it doesn't much matter which sequence they're in.
On this side of the Pond, however, we _do_ pronounce the "r" and having it before the "e"
makes no sense.
However, I must admit that my own city contains a village called "Newton Centre." I surmise that the
namers of Newton's villages aspired to an air of gentility by using what they though of as a
"British" spelling (though it's actually French.)
Sheldno "Language Kvetching Is Fun!" Bronw +---------------------------------------------+
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