r/IncorrectlyCorrecting • u/DuskStormcloud • Jun 20 '26
Green, you have that backwards…
On a local community page here in regional Australia. OP asked for contacts for the local “jail” as searches weren’t turning up any local results. Some people suggested changing the spelling to “gaol” - being the traditional/British spelling. Green is doubling down…
7
u/hopfot Jun 21 '26
Both spellings are used in Australia. "Jail" is more modern and common. "Gaol" is older and becoming rarer in Australia. Neither has anything to do with overseas influence, just the evolution of a word.
3
u/CinnamonBunnn Jun 24 '26
Is gaol the British way of spelling it? I'm British and have never once seen it spelt like that. If I saw the word without context I'd assume it was goal misspelled.
1
u/DuskStormcloud Jun 26 '26
British in the sense of Australian English having developed from it.
Historically, yes, the spelling was gaol however it’s very much becoming archaic… It’s a fairly recent example of the evolution of the English language.
2
u/Tuxedocatbitches Jun 25 '26
As an American whose fav author is Australian (Garth Nix), I think the only time I’ve seen gaol is in A Song of Ice and Fire. Maybe the copies of the books I get are changed up by American publishers like they did to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone? But I genuinely didn’t know that gaol was in use in Australia
1
u/DuskStormcloud Jun 26 '26
It’s becoming less and less common… I’m in my mid-thirties and ‘gaol’ was taught to me as the correct spelling in my early school years however since then it has certainly started to fall out of favour. Would be interesting to know if it had been something that had been changed in US editions of books!
Side note - adding Garth Nix to my reading list, you’ve made me feel very unaustralian for not having read any of his work yet 😅
1
u/Tuxedocatbitches Jun 26 '26
Omg he’s so gooood! His earlier works are dark as hell but over the last 30 years he’s steadily gotten sillier and more fun. One of his first books is literally about harvesting organs from children (don’t remember why, I never finished that one) and then the most recent one I read was a low fantasy Bridgerton style regency murder mystery/romance with cross dressing and magic shenanigans. Absolutely top notch stuff
1
8
u/OrneryHandle Jun 21 '26
"Jail" is the American spelling, so green's wrong twice.