Talk:instal
I suppose that the spellings with single l are too common to be mistakes, but they are not very common, especially for the participles, even in the UK. The OED mentions only the standard participles installing and installed. There are some US and computing usages with the single l, even for participles! Does the confusion arise from the rule in UK English that one l is dropped before the suffix -ment (i.e. instalment is correct UK English). Has this rule been applied backwards and over-generalised? Dbfirs 18:11, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
Then how would you expound Carlyle using installment, if it were inamissible in the UK?Bogorm 17:06, 28 December 2008 (UTC) changed. He used instalment, I must have come across the wrong (non-UK) edition. Bogorm 09:15, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
- I have attempted to reflect the lower-than-expected occurrences of "instaling" and "instaled" and the relatively higher frequency of "instals" relative to the frequency of "instal". Perhaps "instaling" and "instaled" look too much as if they are forms of *"instale", so the two-"l" form prevails there. No such confusion is possible with "instals". DCDuring Holiday Greetings! 23:29, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
- Bnc shows no occurences of one-l forms, except "instal". Perhaps those forms should just be "dated". DCDuring Holiday Greetings! 23:29, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
- The explanation for the Carlyle citation is that is was from an American translation. There is always a danger in citing from works published outside their country of origin. The correct British spellings have always been install, installs, installing, installation; but before -ment the double letter is considered unnecessary. (Yes, I know it's a strange rule, and I have only a vague memory of it from school.)
- I still think that "instaling" and "instaled" should be marked as incorrect, but "instals" seems too common, even in the US. Dbfirs 21:08, 29 December 2008 (UTC)
- One question is whether wiktionary is aimed principally at current usage or whether it is aimed at readers. Satisfying both needs equally seems impossible; one or the other should get pushed to usage notes. In this case it seems that one-"l" spellings are of more interest to readers of older UK works, because they seem to have been at least valid alternative spellings for some period. For users (writers and readers) of current English, "instaling" and "instaled" seem non-standard or misspellings. DCDuring Holiday Greetings! 00:30, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
- Just about every possible misspelling can be found somewhere, either in very old documents or in blogs. This does not mean that they are alternative spellings, just that not everyone is good at speling(valid alternative?), and that at one time (up to Shakespeare?), spelling was not standardised. If spellings are a valid historical alternative, they are usually recorded in the big OED. When I read very old documents, I read them as a "partly foreign" language, and adjust my spelling expectations accordingly. I don't think the single "l" spelling is historical in any special sense, just the vague way in which spelling varied in the distant past. In fact, current worldwide usage of instal and instals seems much more common than historical usage. Dbfirs 08:50, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
- I misremembered the statistics on bgc usage. I was wrong. The one-"l" forms "instaling" and "instaled" seem to be "common" misspellings, not alternative spellings, based moderately high absolute levels, low frequency, no large regional differences, and authority. DCDuring Holiday Greetings! 11:49, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
- Just about every possible misspelling can be found somewhere, either in very old documents or in blogs. This does not mean that they are alternative spellings, just that not everyone is good at speling(valid alternative?), and that at one time (up to Shakespeare?), spelling was not standardised. If spellings are a valid historical alternative, they are usually recorded in the big OED. When I read very old documents, I read them as a "partly foreign" language, and adjust my spelling expectations accordingly. I don't think the single "l" spelling is historical in any special sense, just the vague way in which spelling varied in the distant past. In fact, current worldwide usage of instal and instals seems much more common than historical usage. Dbfirs 08:50, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
- One question is whether wiktionary is aimed principally at current usage or whether it is aimed at readers. Satisfying both needs equally seems impossible; one or the other should get pushed to usage notes. In this case it seems that one-"l" spellings are of more interest to readers of older UK works, because they seem to have been at least valid alternative spellings for some period. For users (writers and readers) of current English, "instaling" and "instaled" seem non-standard or misspellings. DCDuring Holiday Greetings! 00:30, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
- The explanation for the Carlyle citation is that is was from an American translation. There is always a danger in citing from works published outside their country of origin. The correct British spellings have always been install, installs, installing, installation; but before -ment the double letter is considered unnecessary. (Yes, I know it's a strange rule, and I have only a vague memory of it from school.)
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Informal noun for "installation". I've never seen it with a single L. Equinox ◑ 23:01, 24 January 2019 (UTC)
- Google search for phrases such as "the instal worked" or "the instal didn't" show that some people write it this way, but most of the hits are from forums or similar, i.e. not professionally published text, so they could just be spelling errors or typos. Mihia (talk) 13:59, 10 February 2019 (UTC)
RFV-failed Kiwima (talk) 23:34, 25 February 2019 (UTC)