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I am writing an academic paper and would like to use the Oxford spelling throughout. (I am native British.) I read that Oxford spelling generally follows British English other than a few exceptions, such as -ize (-ization) instead of -ise (-isation). I have not managed to come across rules for the words "whilst/while" and "amongst/among", with the prior of the two commonly used in British English.

Which would be correct to use according to the Oxford spelling?

lly
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Cloud Chem
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    Does this answer your question? How do I choose between "while" and "whilst"? – Laurel Jun 18 '20 at 15:45
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    The University of Oxford Style Guide contains 'She couldn’t decide among all the colleges.' (this as an incidental example showing in part the different usages of 'between' and 'among') It also advises elsewhere to minimise the use of ink where clarity is not compromised. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 18 '20 at 15:45
  • Also: https://english.stackexchange.com/q/2157/191178 – Laurel Jun 18 '20 at 15:46
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    @Laurel I stated that I know they are essentially interchangeable (bar using while in some cases) and that one is preferred in British English, but the question is which (if so) does the Oxford spelling request? – Cloud Chem Jun 18 '20 at 16:05
  • @EdwinAshworth This is interesting, though the article contains the heading "Capitalisation", whereas, the Oxford spelling would require "Capitalization" instead. I assume this is a general university style guide rather than Oxford spelling. – Cloud Chem Jun 18 '20 at 16:08
  • @EdwinAshworth My comment relates to the use that British universities commonly prefer to use "public English" rather than "Oxford English", even if this was published from Oxford University. – Cloud Chem Jun 18 '20 at 16:13
  • Right. You need to look at usage notes under the specific entries in OED (which does use 'Oxford spelling') then for advice (eg caveats such as 'rare' / 'archaic'). I'm not sure they'll go as far as 'don't use these old-fashioned variants'. If they have different headwords, OED surely doesn't consider them as mere spelling variants. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 18 '20 at 16:29
  • Isn't this like asking "which is the correct spelling: burned or burnt." The words whilst and while are both pronounced and spelt differently. – Peter Shor Jul 15 '21 at 12:59

3 Answers3

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It's more important to be consistent (even if you're consistently using while for one context and whilst for another), but in short the answer is

While

Oxbridge English is of course definitionally British English and, if anything, the prestige dialect. The house style of Oxford University Press (as well as Nature) is likewise definitionally a form of British English.

Your specific examples are understandable but badly taken. The spelling civilization is more common than civilisation in British publications (in addition to being more etymologically & phonetically accurate, not that any form of English ever really cares about that); the spelling while is vastly more common than whilst in British English (and always has been); the spelling among is just as vastly more common than amongst in British English (and likewise always has been). There's a general sense that civilisation, whilst, amongst, stone, tonne, & all are non-American but, whilst that may be helpful to marketers trying to make their products sound especially Britishy, it doesn't necessarily reflect the actual speech of actual Britons.

In any case, even though that should already be enough to reconcile you with Oxford's "Americanized" British English (which was always just its own), the 2014 style guide already linked above and the present (2016) version available from the University's Public Affairs site noticeably use while and among repeatedly while eschewing either whilst or amongst. As Mr Ashworth already noted, that's in keeping with their own guidance to write as tersely and clearly as possible. Similarly, using Google to search crawled sites available at the domain www.oup.com, there are occasional instances of whilst but many, many more of while.

lly
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    Please remove the apparent compound Oxbridge English which is not a recognised term and will confuse as Oxford English is a recognised term. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 15 '21 at 15:27
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    That makes no sense whatsoever. There is already a link directly to the fact that it is a recognized term. Avail yourself of it or hie yourself to the OED. – lly Jul 15 '21 at 15:43
  • That said, sure, you're right that the more careful linguistic classification would be East Midlands dialect. That's more descriptive of geography than social class or education, though. RP is more common still but again aside the point of what we're talking about here. – lly Jul 15 '21 at 15:50
  • I find no mention of the apparent compound 'Oxbridge English' at the linked article. As an alumnus of the older establishment, I'm well aware of the portmanteau 'Oxbridge'. And of the established compound 'Oxford English'. Would you like to reconsider, and remove the unwarranted smart comment? – Edwin Ashworth Jul 15 '21 at 18:20
  • Oxford spelling is associated specifically with Oxford University and not at all with Cambridge. So while Oxbridge is a thing, Oxbridge spelling is not. – rchivers Jul 16 '21 at 00:03
  • @rchivers You're quite right, but I didn't say it was. Mr Ashworth's point is much better taken, but that was already addressed. – lly Jul 16 '21 at 11:05
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Which would be correct to use according to the Oxford spelling?

The OED gives

whilst, adverb and conjunction (and preposition) = while conjunction (and preposition)

The adverbial use is marked as "obsolete or dialect." Hence the words are the same.

The "rule" is thus "Use whichever you want, but be consistent."

Greybeard
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Both are correct in their context. Normally, in academic writing there is no strict requirement unless stated by the journal, it mostly up to your personal preference. The main idea is to be consistent throughout your manuscript.

Keep in mind that there are many words that are spelled different in addition to whilst/while and amongst/among. Other words that I've come across include colour/color, behaviour/behavior, labour/labor.

A great tool, if you are using Microsoft Word, is the grammar checker where you can actually set your spelling preference and it will catch the majority of differences. See here to set the language, and here for its use.

newantman
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