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Spelling varies widely across the eras our ebooks were published in. Therefore we attempt to standardize spelling to what a modern reader might be familiar with
by acabal 2y ago
Spelling varies widely across the eras our ebooks were published in. Therefore we attempt to standardize spelling to what a modern reader might be familiar with. We only make sound-alike changes, like to-morrow -> tomorrow.
This is a common practice that editors and publishers have quietly engaged in for centuries. For example, today you are not reading Shakespeare in the way it was spelled in its first printing.
- cenamus 2y agoAnd you're for sure not speaking it like he would have
- frereubu 2y agoFair enough - thanks for the explanation.
- wpollock 2y agoA wonderful project! After reading this comment I couldn't help but picture medieval monks, toiling away copying old manuscripts into "modern" English. Normally a thankless task, so thank you!
- harshreality 2y agoIs there epub-specific html markup you could add to changed words to indicate their original spelling? Like alt text for images, but in a span around a word? There's the html "title" attribute, of course, which would work (mouseover shows the title attribute's value), but that isn't semantically correct for the purpose.
- acabal 2y agoNo, there are too many things to track, but all of it is in the git history. Editorial changes have a commit message prefaced with [Editorial].
- thoroughburro 2y ago> For example, today you are not reading Shakespeare in the way it was spelled in its first printing. However, we call modernised Shakespeare “abridged”.
- wlonkly 2y agoAbridged means shortened, not modernized.