MetaChat - Ask (Canadian) MeCha: What's wrong with cutesy misspellings?

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28 June 2006

Ask (Canadian) MeCha: What's wrong with cutesy misspellings? →[More:]I'm editing some copy for a product that will go into US and Canadian stores - it uses the term "nite" for "night." I was asked if I minded changed it to night, because if it remained nite, we would have to keep the product out of Canadian stores. Why?

post by: ferociouskitty at: 09:53 | 13 comments

Why U ask?

posted by stilicho 28 June | 09:58

Hardy har har. Anyway, Canadians use "nite" so I would assume it means that some Canadian product in the same general domain already uses the word "nite" and that would make yours confusingly similar.

posted by stilicho 28 June | 10:02

"nite" is used a lot in the US as well. I hate it. I also don't like the use of "thru" for "through"

And "drive-thru open late nite" makes me want to punch someone in the face. And I'm a peaceful, nonviolent person.

posted by birdherder 28 June | 10:27

I blame Krispy Kreme.

posted by clevershark 28 June | 10:34

*Cries softly into OED*

posted by loquacious 28 June | 10:38

I don't know (or should I say dunno) - it doesn't bother me. Language is always evolving, isn't it? We don't speak or write in the same way we did 200 or 300 or 400 years ago. It's alive.

Language is made...of people!

Question: How would Beowulf have said "drive-thru open late nite"?

posted by iconomy 28 June | 10:51

If it makes you feel any better (about me as an editor, that is), I was totally using it in a schmaltzy and self-aware way.

Maybe "Pizza Nite" is copyrighted in Canada?

posted by ferociouskitty 28 June | 10:52

It's all fun and games until that donut company carries through the alliteration and becomes Krispy Kreme Kompany. Now there's an attractive call sign for Wall Street!

posted by clevershark 28 June | 11:25

Sign and headline jargon doesn't bother me -- for signs and headlines. (And trademark law practically forces companies to adopt unusual spellings for common words, so they'll have a unique mark.)

And "donut" is practically established now vs. "doughnut".

fk, I couldn't find a "pizza nite" trademark (not copyright) in the appropriate database. So I dunno. ;-)

posted by stilicho 28 June | 12:12

They don't call it Hockey Nite in Canada, do they? That might change my plans for asylum.

posted by birdherder 28 June | 12:41

Message to self:

Never invite birdherder to Hockey Nite followed by a trip thru the all nite drive thru.

posted by iconomy 28 June | 12:51

Was translation an issue? That's the usual Canadian troll-under-the-bridge. Quebec labelling laws can be nasty.

posted by bonehead 28 June | 15:29

Iconomy is right. It's "æll-niht rídan-þærh" dammit!

posted by GeckoDundee 28 June | 21:26

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