The Prince of Wales has come under fire for using 'American' spellings in a heartfelt letter, written to the French president following the Notre Dame fire.
On Tuesday, a letter of sympathy written by Prince Charles, 70, to Emmanuel Macron, 41, in the wake of the cathedral inferno, was shared to the https://www.instagram.com/p/BwULjg5gOn5/ account.
Despite the touching message, many of the royal's 714,000 followers were distracted by the 'Americanised' spellings - a day after fans claimed Meghan is running the SussexRoyal Instagram account, due to US words and phrases in the captions.
Arguing that the future King should stick to British English, fans pointed out that 'agonizing, realize and civilizaton' were used in the letter, as opposed to 'agonising, realise and civilisaton'.
Others suggested that his spellings could have been autocorrected, with most word processing programmes using American English as their default setting for spellchecking.
Clarence House declined to comment, but it's believed that Charles prefers to use the 'correct' 15th century versions of English, when words were spelled with an 'ize' instead of 'ise'.
Examples of previous letters written by the royal, show that he has always used spellings such as 'recognize' and 'realize'.
The Prince of Wales, seen with Camilla, has come under fire online over his 'American' spelling in a heartfelt letter written to the French president following the Notre Dame fire - with many fans not realising the use of 'ize' dates back to traditional British English spelling
David Adger, Professor of Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London, confirmed to Femail that Prince Charles' spelling is techincally correct, if unusual in 2019.
He said: 'The -ize spelling is a pretty accurate representation of the Ancient Greek suffix from which it derives, which was roughly pronounced -idzo.
'It's still used by, for example, Oxford University Press, instead of the more standard -ise.
'However, for words that don't come from that Ancient Greek affix, like analyse, for example, Oxford University Press sticks with the -se spelling, while American English has generalised even those words.'
The full letter reads: 'My wife and I were utterly heartbroken to learn of the terrible fire at Notre-Dame cathedral this evening and wanted to let you know immediately how much we were thinking of yourself and the French people at this most agonizing of times, and of the emergency services who are so bravely tackling the blaze.
Despite the common belief that the use of 'ize' instead of 'ise' derives from American spelling, it actually originated in England where it was used in the 15th century.
The first example for the verb 'organize' in the Oxford English Dictionary is from around 1425, from an English translation of a treatise on surgery written by the French physician Guy de Chauliac:
The brayne after þe lengþ haþ 3 ventriclez, And euery uentricle haþ 3 parties & in euery partie is organized [L. organizatur] one vertue.
The use of '-ize' spellings is part of the house style at Oxford University Press, and reflects the style adopted in their first edition published in 1884.
The OED's earliest example for realize dates from 1611, taken from a definition in A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, a bilingual dictionary written by Randle Cotgrave:
Realiser, to realize, to make of a reall condition, estate, or propertie; to make reall.
The first recorded use of the verb with an '-ise' spelling in the OED is not until 1755 – over a century later.
In the Oxford English Dictionary (published in parts from 1884 to 1928), the first editions of Hart's Rules (1904) and the Authors' and Printers' Dictionary (1905), '-ize' spellings were used, because they correspond to the Greek verb endings 'izo' and 'izein'.
However, in both American and British English, certain verbs must always be spelled with an -ise at the end, because this is an intrinsic part of the word, rather than being a separate ending.
For instance, the -ise in the word surprise prise, means taking.
Other words that must end in an -ise include, advertise compromise exercise revise.
It's believed that confusion over which words should be spelled with an -ise led to it being commonly adopted in British English, overtaking the -ize.
However, Prince Charles does make a blunder in one of his letters where he spells the word 'advertize', which is not in face correct, and is commonly 'advertise' in both British and American English.
Source: OxfordDictionaries.com
The use of language commonly associated with being American is not just refined to the use of 'ize' but also words such as 'fall', now referred to as autumn.
Words associated with America which are rooted in old England
Fall (autumn)
Fall was used as a noun to designate the season from the 16th century and is thought to have developed from 'fall of the leaf'.
Trash (rubbish)
The word trash has been used since the 14th century and is thought to be from the Old Norse word meaning fallen leaves and twigs.
Diaper (nappy)
This term was used in Middle English and derived from the Old French word diaspre, or earlier Latin and Greek terms relating to white fabric.
Candy (sweets)
The Middle English word began to be used in the late 13th century when it appeared as a combination of spices and sugar in the homes of the very wealthy and used as a form of medicine.
Soccer (football)
The word soccer originated in 19th century England as an abbreviation of association football (several fledgling football clubs around England having formed the Football Association) with the added 'er' suffix which was common slang at Oxford University.
Source: Sandra Rimmer, historian, and OxfordDictionaries.com
'I realize only too well what a truly special significance the Cathedral holds at the heart of your nation; but also for us all outside France it represents one of the greatest architectural achievements of Western Civilization.
'It is a treasure for all mankind, as such, to witness its destruction in its most dreadful conflagration is a terrible tragedy, the unbearable pain of which we all share.
'Cher Monsieur le President, our hearts go out to you and the people of France more than you will ever know, especially in view of our experience with the devastating fire at Windsor Castle twenty-seven years ago.
'We send you
