THE SUBSTITUTION OF " S " FOR " Z." [To
the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I notice an apparently deliberate movement in the Press to substitute the letter " z " by " s " in the words " civilization," " Venizelos," and others of which these may be taken as typical. You, Sir, are not among the innovators, so we may hope that you will nail this false coin to the counter as a fraud on the verbal currency. From Buckle's History of Civilization in England to Lothrop Stoddard's The Revolt against Civilization the word has 'been so written, and in the Concise Oxford Dictionary, published in 1911, no alternative spelling is given. As to M. Venizelos (poor man), why should he suffer another change in his career, or does he authorize it ? " Z " standing where it ought not, as in the singing of " Jerusalem the Golden " by a West Country village choir, is truly an offence (a whisper 'to those born within the " King- dom of Bath " or in the country of the Hwicce to examine themselves on this point, for early environment is sometimes stronger than later education) ; but where our ancestors retained the " z," let us believe that they had their reasons for preferring it to " s." I submit that we cannot make this change in these two words without a loss of strength and dignity in pronunciation. Besides, is it not an impoverish- ment of our lettered wealth to ban " z " so far as possible ? —I am, Sir, &c., Belair, Parkstone. C. H. MiNcinx. [We reserve the right to spell " Spitsbergen " with an —ED. Spectator.]
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