Academia › Decisions

Decisions

Every decision is advisory. Each rests on a survey of users, the figures are printed with it, and a decision that later usage contradicts is withdrawn. The surveys are run twice a year on a sample of about 4,000 people, stratified by sub-region and by age.

219 · The contact frame on a locomotive

Divided. Pantograf is entered as the name of the current collector, beside the older descriptive se ramu de contact, which the depots and the broadcast wording still use. The compound curt-circuitu is entered as a fixed noun with the joint written, on the same test that the survey finds it written that way.

Sample 4,090. The railway cooperative asked for the entry after a service announcement carried the descriptive form and drew questions from riders.

218 · The Slovak railway and its alternate name

In force. Adopted this year. Zelenica spocnost slovenska is recorded as the alternate name of the Slovak railway company alongside the correct Železničná spoločnosť Slovensko. The alternate is a mistyping of the correct name and is listed as such rather than as an error, on the ordinary test that the survey finds it in use.

Sample 4,090. Three members recorded a dissent, printed by name, on the ground that recording a typographical error encourages it. The note replies that the register records what is written.

217 · zolt and galbe

Divided. Both words mean yellow and both are current. Zolt is used throughout Ravelluri and on the platforms of every operator; galbe is used in print and in the western sub-regions. No recommendation is made.

Sample 4,090. Multiple answers allowed. The margin is inside the two-to-one test.

216 · prexim against prexa and proxim

Divided. Three words share the sense of next. Prexa stands before its noun and breaks the rule that an adjective follows; prexim follows its noun and obeys it; proxim covers both next and nearby. All three are recorded. The proposal to correct the phrasebook to statiun prexim was refused, on the ground that the phrasebook records the wording broadcasters use and the wording broadcasters use is prexa statiun.

Sample 4,090. The proposal was strongest in Ravelluri and weakest in Lindoma.

215 · The forms of jizde outside the paradigm

In force. The seven person-marked forms of jizde are recorded as a set attached to that verb alone. The grammar is not amended: the verb keeps one shape and the pronoun keeps person, and this verb is an exception to both. A member asked whether the set should be described as a paradigm. The note declines the word, a paradigm being general and this set attaching to one verb.

Sample 4,090. Recognition of all seven was above 90% in the transport communes and above 70% elsewhere.

214 · The numeral and the adjective nove

In force. Adopted March this year, on the third attempt at the question. Nove stays one word for both senses. Position decides: after a noun it is the adjective, in a designation slot it is the numeral. The proposal to write the numeral nov is dropped and will not be put again.

Sample 4,120. The proposal was strongest among people who set timetables and weakest everywhere else.

211 · Emergency wording

In force. The warning instruction is recommended as abaxa e tena. The longer form is not wrong and is no longer recommended. Measured on time to first correct action, not on preference.

209 · The linking vowel in -ment

In force since 1998. The adverbial suffix attaches directly to an adjective ending in a vowel or in l, n, r or s, and takes a linking -a- after any other consonant. The pattern was written down after the fact, every word tested being already made this way.

Sample 3,980.

206 · The plural of a counted noun

Divided. Both tri anu and tri anos are recorded as current. The academy gives no recommendation and prints both in its own text according to register: the short form in speech, the long form in print.

Respondents could choose more than one, so the figures do not add to a hundred.

203 · The abstract noun of an adjective in -al

In force since 1993. An adjective ending in -al forms its abstract noun in -ite and not in -tate, giving actualite, totalite and legalite. Adjectives with any other ending keep -tate. The question was put after a printer asked which of two spellings to set.

199 · The prefix xu- outside xuclar

In force. Xu- is productive and may be attached freely. The academy records that in practice it attaches almost only to words about honesty, and that a speaker who attaches it elsewhere will be heard as making a joke.

193 · The plural of a vowel-final noun in Ravelluri

Divided. The rule gives -s after a vowel. Ravelluri and the lagoon communes give -es regardless, producing coses and porte. Both are recorded and neither is recommended. Comprehension was tested outside the sub-region and was complete in every group.

Sample 3,860. Inside Ravelluri the figures reverse almost exactly.

187 · Loans from Japanese

In force. Four terms entered through the earthquake warning system and are recorded as loans in the technical register: the intensity step, the warning itself, and two instrument names. They are written as heard and stressed on the second syllable from the end like everything else.

178 · The name of the Swiss railway

Withdrawn 2016. The 1979 note recorded that the Swiss railway was written SBB CFF FFS in full, all three, on every occasion. The 2016 survey found the branch abbreviations ahead in every register except the formal, and the full string read as old-fashioned by respondents under fifty. Since the note had recommended nothing, only the description was withdrawn.

Sample 3,940. The full string remains correct and is set in official correspondence.

170 · JR read alone

In force since 1974. Written without qualification, JR is read as JR East. A writer meaning another company names it. The academy notes that the reading has no linguistic basis and rests on which footage reached the country. It is recorded because it is universal.

158 · The plural of statiun

Withdrawn in 2019, having been in force since 1988. The academy had recommended statiunes in every register. The survey of 2018 found statiuny ahead in the eastern sub-regions and gaining, and the academy withdrew the recommendation.

A recommendation is withdrawn when the leading form falls below a two to one margin. The test was adopted in 1996.

143 · The formal register in broadcast

Withdrawn in 2003. The 1979 recommendation of the formal member of each alternate pair was contradicted by comprehension testing across every pair. See the register.

121 · Huclavy

In force since 1971. The name derives from huclav, hungry, by the ordinary place-forming suffix. The derivation from the Ostrava district name Hulvaky is recorded as a competing account and printed alongside. No survey was run; this is a question of evidence and the members were asked to weigh it.

How a decision is taken

1. A question is put by any member, or by any person at all through the contact page.
2. The philologists of the academy write a note setting out the forms in use and where each is found. The note makes no recommendation.
3. A survey is run unless the question is one of evidence.
4. The members vote. The result is published with the figures, the note, and any dissent by name.
5. The decision is reviewed against the next survey that touches it, and withdrawn if the margin has gone.