Ellipsis and rules of spelling

[David <dfrankiswork@netscape.net>]

> Heidi revealed: 
> 
> >Heidi, who didn't realise that there should be four dots in an 
> elipse at the end of a sentence until she started beta reading

ER responded:
> 
> I didn't know that! I always use three. And I put a space before 
> them. So too does JKR. 

I suspect that, along with ER and JKR, nearly all of us didn't know 
that rule.

I think it is questionable that a rule which hardly anybody knows or 
keeps can be so called.  It may be a Fictionalley rule, but there is 
no final authority for spelling and grammar in English other than 
what people do.

So if the three dot ellipsis, or the grocer's apostrophe, or 
whatever, marches on, then in a century or so, people who insist on 
the current 'proper' usage may be regarded as antiquated.  Just as 
we don't write "chuse" for "choose" or say "an hotel" for "a hotel".

Hopefully we will learn to live with it; as the saying has it, it is 
better to travel hopefully than to arrive.

David