Re: I want to release a "git-1.0"

From: C. Scott Ananian <cscott@cscott.net>
Date: Jun 1, 2005, 20:16 UTC
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.61.0506011607480.11264@cag.csail.mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.62.0506011304001.21267@qynat.qvtvafvgr.pbz>

On Wed, 1 Jun 2005, David Lang wrote:

>> *1* David says "deltify" and Nico calls it "deltafy".  I am not
>> a native speaker so I cannot tell, but which one is correct?
>
> Nico is correct

Au contraire.  The common *pronunciation* may be 'delta-fy', but the 
correct spelling should be 'deltify'.  The google oracle agrees (1,440 vs 
54) as does the spelling of the svnadmin command.  (Of course, what google 
is really measuring is relative frequency of 'git' vs 'svn'.)

$ grep '[^if]fy$' /usr/dict/american-english-large

shows that the only vowels other than 'i' which preced the '-fy' morpheme 
are 'e's, and they only appear in words like 'liquefy' where the root has 
been substantially altered.  Most sources (eg
http://www.southampton.liunet.edu/academic/pau/course/websuf.htm#IFYVERB
) list the morpheme as '-ify'.  See
     http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=ify
and compare
     http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=fy

Contrary to David's assertion, David is right.
  --scott

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