Ledger vs leger

• Feb 6, 2017 - 22:55

It seems either are used generally (Wikipedia ); both are found upon a search on GitHub, but we should probably have one in order to be consistent.

There is ‘Show leger lines’ in 'Advanced Style Properties...' (in ‘Edit Stave/Part Properties’), for example.

Using MuseScore 2.1 Nightly Build 75b66fd - Mac 10.11.6.


Comments

Ledger is the more common American spelling. Ledger also seems to be more common in England, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

These are not in the source code, only in the en_GB translation, and there all occurences of "ledger" are translated as "leger". And except for the untranslated symbol names (which are taken straight from SMuFL, unaltered) and in one comment (so not user visible) there's no occurence of "leger" in the source code, so we are consistent.

If we don't want them being translated that way into en_GB, just let me now and I'll change it.

In reply to by DanielR

Hi Dan

It was me doing that Translation 2 years ago (after first having had 'translated' as "ledger" 3 years ago), and I even created a glossary entry on Transifex for this.
I'm pretty sure I didn't decide on that translation all on my own, it got to have been triggered by some native British English speaker 2 years ago, but I don't remember any details

I would vote for "Ledger"

Due to english pronunciation rules around the letter g, leger would be incorrect (leg er). The d is needed to make it a dj sound.

Also leger is used in music, to mean light (as in play lightly) mostly in french scores for strings.

In reply to by mike320

I might be dead wrong on the pronunciation rule though of course.

while we're on the topic of English, I'd also vote for the proper english words for note values.

E.g.

Breve
Semibreve
Minim
Crotchet
Quaver
Semiquaver
Demisemiquaver
Hemidemisemiquaver
etc

Instead of the American names.

Cheers

In reply to by Adrien de Croy

I think you'll find that the case. if you only look at music for a single instrument that uses only a single staff, system = staff, so no one would use that word. It's only when looking at music for multiple instruments - or a single instrument that uses multiple staves, like piano - that the distinction becomes relevant. But I'm quite sure the term is the same for US and UK.

In reply to by mike320

Of course, as I said: for music involving systems of a single staff, there is normally no reason to make the distinction, so no one uses the term system - not in America, not in Europe, not in Africa or Asia or anywhere else. Still, when the distinction needs to be made, it's still the right term to use regardless of the number of staves or nationality of the person talking.

In reply to by mike320

it is interesting if you follow through to the Oxford online dictionary on it.

there's an entry for leger line, where it states leger is a variant of ledger

there's no entry for leger by itself

there is an entry for ledger

ledger actually makes sense in terms of bookkeeping and other uses.

So it seems clear that leger derives from ledger, but otherwise seems to be a bit of an aberration. At some stage the d was dropped.

Ledger, from ledge (a horizontal shelf, projection etc.), also used in scaffolding. The word and its use is at least 500 years old. The d was probably dropped by someone who mistakenly thought it should be a French word.

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