Dell'orthography

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yesterday Jonathan Stein, a member of the 750/100 e-group on Yahoo and the
editor of Pat Braden's final Alfa Romeo book, contacted me with a
date-of-last-use question about Webers and "Dell'Ortos" outside the U.S. I
answered him as well as I could, suggested he ask Chris Sweetapple (who I
think would know) to verify or correct my necessarily limited opinion, and
also wrote that the spelling is Dellorto, rather than Dell'Orto, at least as
far as Alfa Romeo is concerned. He replied "I used the spelling Dell'Orto,
because that is what the company calls itself on the official website.  I
think I'll contact them directly to make sure that for the period in question
that it is correct."

Point taken. On the website (www.dellorto.it) the name of the company is
Dell'Orto S.p.a., and was originally Ditta G.Dell'Orto & Figli. The company
logo, used several times on the website, is as it appears on the carbs,
DELLORTO in stylized block letters without an apostrophe. I couldn't find any
text references to the carbs on the site, so I can't say whether Dell'Orto
S.p.a. calls its products Dell'Ortos or Dellortos.

The question is somewhat analogous to that of the spelling of our favorite
rear axle - is it dedion, DeDion, de dion, de Dion, or De Dion, following the
count's name, the company's name, Alfa's use, or casual conventional use,
which may well vary by country? Many will not care, but nitpickers can
discriminate. In all Alfa use I have seen so far, parts books, shop manuals,
advertising, whatever (and in manuals derived from Alfa sources) the axle is a
De Dion and the carburetor is a Dellorto.

And that is what I will call them, although I will still be interested in what
reply Mr. Stein gets from Dell'Orto. I'll cheerfully apologize to anyone who
has felt singed by my dogmatic position in the past. Call them what you want
to, of course, as I will continue to do.

Cheers

John H.
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