# english **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 14, 2003, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english/181849 "2003-06-14T15:57:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lizztigger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b9bd4f/32.png) [@lizztigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizztigger)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english/181849/1 "2003-06-14T15:57:58Z")
Hey anyone know why sometimes there’s canadian, britan and american spellings of the same word? like color/coulor? ---
**Author:** ![kunoichi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4da419/32.png) [@kunoichi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kunoichi)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english/181849/2 "2003-06-14T16:07:32Z")
“The British don’t know how to spell.” 😃 Now before anyone gets on my back, [this guy](http://www.btinternet.com/~Tony.Papard/Spelling.htm) is the source. He cites the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and Fowler’s, to which I do not have access at the moment and can’t verify his opinions. As he states, “Fowler’s Modern English Usage, published by the Oxford University Press, makes it quite clear that the British ‘–our’ endings have no validity; it is simply national prejudice which prevents us approaching the subject with an open mind.” ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english/181849/3 "2003-06-14T16:12:51Z")
Becase in earlier times there was no generally accepted system of spelling, which meant that people wrote phonetically. When English and US spelling formalized later they both accepted slightly different spellings for some words. As it appeared in another thread, this paragraph illustrates the non-formalized spelling and is interesting because the author is calling for the formalisation of spelling: Richard Mulcaster, Elementarie, 1582 > [@](#): > > It were a thing verie praiseworthie in my opinion and no lesse profitable then praise worthie, if som one well learned and as laborious a man, wold gather all the words which we vse in our English tung, whether naturall or incorporate, out all professions, as well learned as not, into one dictionarie, and besides the right writing, which is incident to the alphabete, wold open vnto vs therin, both their naturall force, and their proper vse: that by his honest trauell we might be as able to iudge of our own tung, which we haue by rote, as we ar of others, which we learn by rule. The want wherof, is the onlie cause why, that verie manie men, being excellentlie well in foren speche, can hardlie discern what they haue at home, still shooting fair, but oft missing far, hard censors ouer other, ill executors themselues. For easie obtaining is enimie to iudgement, not onlie in words, and naturall speche, but in greater matters and verie important. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english/181849/4 "2003-06-14T16:14:11Z")
Americans fought a war of independence from Britain, and when the dictionaries were being put together there was a tendancy to try and distance ourselves from our British cousins. We’re great allies now, but not so much so in the early days of this republic. Canada, as well as Australia and NZ, never really went thru that phase. We like to keep it that way, too.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english/181849/5 "2003-06-14T16:16:35Z")
Just as a side note, Mencken, in his “American English”, notes seventeen major classes of spelling differences between American and British English (as well as a few other miscellaneous spellng differences. These are 1. The omission of the penultimate u in words ending in -our 2. The reduction of duplicate consonants to single consonants 3. The omission of a redundant e 4. The change of terminal -re into -er 5. The omission of unaccented foreign terminations 6. The omission of u when combined with a or o 7. The conversion of decayed diphthongs into simple vowels 8. The change of compound consonants into simple consonants 9. The change of o into a 10. The change of e into i 11. The change of y into a, ia or i 12. The change of c into s 13. The substitution of s for z 14. The substitution of k for c 15. The insertion of a supernumerary e 16. The substitution of ct for x 17. The substitution of y for i Mencken argues that, for whatever reason, simplification of spelling is happening faster in the US than in Britain, and that the American spellings better reflect the pronunciation of words, and eliminate silent and redundant letters. ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english/181849/6 "2003-06-14T16:19:28Z")
Also just reading the book I copied the lkast passage from, it appears that much of the difference is brought about by Dr. Franklin’s and Webster’s efforts at the turn of the end of the eighteenth century to reform US spelling including making it more phonetic. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english/181849/7 "2003-06-14T16:21:21Z")
BTW, he says that one of the main causes of the American differences in spelling is Noah Webster, who himself believed in simplifying spelling, and was the first to put together a comprehensive American English dictionary, leading to the standardization of spelling. But, read chapter 8 of Mencken’s book for more detail, where he looks at American spelling of words. ---
**Author:** ![kris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@kris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kris)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english/181849/8 "2003-06-14T16:22:02Z")
JOKE TIME! 😃 An American man checked into the Dorchester Hotel in London. The receptionist said that she would ask the porter to take the visitor’s bags up to his room in the lift. “Lift? Do you mean elevator?” “Yes, sir, but in England we call them Lifts” “We call them elevators and WE invented the goddamn things!” “Yes, sir, but WE invented the language.” Sorry couldn’t resist.