Lightsaber or Lightsabre

you can spell those little units of measurement centimetre or centimeter....millimetre or millimeter, meter or metre...potato, potahto tomato tomahto...personal preference

 

If you spell potato 'potahto' and tomato 'tomahto' there's a bigger problem than personal preference.

 

i meant pronunciation w/ the potato tomato thing...its ur personal preference how u pronouce those words, just like its ur personal preference how u spell lightsabre/lightsaber

 

Saber

 

Some of my favorite lightsaber colors are blue and red.

 

when i write, i always make it "lightsabre" and then when i go back and do spell check, it's picked up as "lightsaber".

~aeryn

 

lightsabre is cooler than lightsaber.....


no one gets upset when people spell favorite, "favourite" and that happens in books all the time

 

That's because "favourite" is a legitimate word across the pond. The only official spelling of lightsaber is lightsaber.

 

english is a messed up language

 

Considering that it's officially spelled sabre in Great Britian than I guess in an offical English publication of the book it would officially be spelled sabre. I however, do not own an officially Great Britian publication of the book. Are there any official Briton's who can answer this? Officially?

 

saber = sabre
lightsaber = lightsaber

They're two different words. "English" English only applies to saber.

 

Typical Americans. Saying "lightsaber" is the "official" spelling is like saying American English is the only form of English.

Saber / Sabre

Lightsaber / Lightsabre

American / Canadian

I'm from Canada... I know what's "official" in our English.

 

Bburdit
Yup. Some Americans just can't admit when they're not completely correct.

Actually if you want to get technical, the American English is wrong since it came after the original European English, which was first. Officially.

 

"Personal preference".

Is basic education this bad in the States?

Honestly now, do they not teach you ANYTHING of other countries?

It's not a matter of personal preference at all. If you live in the States you spell it lightsaber... if you live in Canada or Great Britain... you spell it lightsabre. It's politically correct to spell it those ways in those countries... if you think you are above language and care to spell it different... be my guest... let me repeat.

It's POLITICALLY CORRECT to spell it those ways in those countries, for crying out loud.

I cannot believe anyone would have any questions about this, much less post it on these boards.

 

Lightsaber / Lightsabre

Except that lightsaber is not an official English word. Therefore, we must go by how it is spelled in official Star Wars sources. ER is the only correct way to spell it. You don't spell Endor as Endour, do you?

 

"Except that lightsaber is not an official English word."

It's not? So how can it be spelled wrong. Bib, you need to pull your head out of your canon hole and realize you are not correct. However that requires a level of maturity which I'm not sure you posess.

 

It can be spelled wrong if it is spelled any differently than how it is spelled in official Star Wars sources.

Spelling it as "lightsabre" is no different than spelling it as "lihgtsaber." Both are incorrect spellings, because there is no official Star Wars word with that spelling.

 

Uh...I'm British and I spell it both ways.

 

"It can be spelled wrong if it is spelled any differently than how it is spelled in official Star Wars sources. "

Seeing as how anything Star Wars uses the English language, and the rules for said language existed 100's of years prior to Star Wars, the rules of grammer carry more weight than a novel, seeing as how the authors of said novel or novels follow the rules of grammer which existed before Star Wars. Officially.

 

But there are no rules of grammar for the word "lightsaber" because that word does not exist in the English language. Therefore, we must go by how it is spelled in official Star Wars sources.

Other examples:

Jar Jar is spelled Jar Jar in official sources, so that's how is name is spelled.

Coruscant is spelled Coruscant in official sources, so that's how it's spelled.


Lightsaber is no different.

 

Uggggghhhhhhhh.....

 

This is another example of American cultural jingoism, which most Americans are too naive (or unexperienced) to realize. For Americans to insist that they have the singular cultural (and moral) control over the spelling of a word which is derived from a French (and Russian) word imported into the English language smacks of the general cultural insistance that American is better. (And I speak as an American.)

Officially (i.e. Lucasfilm spelling) in America, the spelling is lightsaber. Officially in many non-American countries, the spelling is lightsabre. It depends on the editorial decision of publications in host countries which use the word in their writing.

When I wrote my book on SW lightsaber fighting, I had a couple of friends from Australia go over the manuscript, and the one thing they kept pointing out in my prose was my American-centrist perspective. For a movie that has inspired and entertained people from all corners of the globe, it was critical that my myopic American perspective was was adjusted to reflect a larger human experience.

There's as much room for "lightsaber" in American publications as there is for "lightsabre" in Commonwealth and non-American publications.

 

Zing.

Thanks Plurimus, I didn't feel like saying it.

 

"But there are no rules of grammar for the word "lightsaber" because that word does not exist in the English language. Therefore, we must go by how it is spelled in official Star Wars sources. "

Um, that is quite possibly one of the stupider things I've ever seen written in my entire life. If the word didn't officially exist in the English language GL couldn't have written it in the script and the various actor's wouldn't have been able to call it a lightsabRE. We wouldn't be able to have a thread on said word because no one would know what to officially talk about. Officially.

Than again, officially, since English is present in Star Wars, see tractor beam scene in ANH, English grammatical rules apply officially.

 

Lightsaber