Note on the spelling of words having to do
with getting along with others:
The words cooperation and cooperative do not require hyphens. The words co-op
and co-oper do require hyphens otherwise they become coop and cooper respectively,
which is bad because neither have anything to do with either chickens or barrels.
Older sources and British sources (like the Oxford English
Dictionary) tend to have hyphens for
co-operation and co-operative as the primary spelling but may list the
unhyphenated spellings as
secondary options. Another more archaic option dispenses with the hyphen question
altogether
and employs the umlaut convention common in Germanic languages where a vowel
following
another vowel influences the pronunciation of the second vowel. Thus the words
above become
coöperation, coöperative, coöp, and coöper.
However, this is convention is generally
not used today.
Sources:
- NASCO newsletters
- Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary
- American Heritage Dictionary
- Oxford English Dictionary
Written by Ronald Kumon.
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Laurel House Co-op & Laurel Net Cooperative / Austin, Texas, USA / Updated 30 Nov 1995
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