# Spelling: American v. British
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 20, 2016, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889 "2016-06-20T14:22:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@OffByOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OffByOne)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2016, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/1 "2016-06-20T14:22:50Z")
I was thinking about differences in spelling certain words in American English, versus British English.
Many words that Americans spell ending in -er are spelled ending in -re in British English; for example: center/centre or liter/litre. Another class of these differences is in words ending in -or in American English that are spelled -our in British English, such as valor/valour or color/colour.
Are the British spellings of these words from the French equivalents? Do we know why Americans replaced one spelling with another? Why did this change not also affect Canada?
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2016, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/2 "2016-06-20T14:30:02Z")
Noah Webster, yes, the one behind Webster’s Dictionary, was a proponent of [spelling reform for American English](http://www.bartleby.com/185/32.html). He was immensely influential and his spellers and grammars as well as his dictionaries sold in huge numbers.
> [@](#):
>
> Webster had declared boldly for simpler spellings in his early spelling books; in his dictionary of 1806 he made an assault at all arms upon some of the dearest prejudices of English lexicographers. Grounding his wholesale reforms upon a saying by Franklin, that “those people spell best who do not know how to spell”—i. e., who spell phonetically and logically—he made an almost complete sweep of whole classes of silent letters—the u in the -our words, the final e in determine and requisite, the silent a in thread, feather and steady, the silent b in thumb, the s in island, the o in leopard, and the redundant consonants in traveler, wagon, jeweler, etc. (English: traveller, waggon, jeweller). More, he lopped the final k from frolick, physick and their analogues. Yet more, he transposed the e and the r in many words ending in re, such as theatre, lustre, centre and calibre. Yet more, he changed the c in all words of the defence class to s. Yet more, he changed ph to f in words of the phantom class, ou to oo in words of the group class, ow to ou in crowd, porpoise to porpess, acre to aker, sew to soe, woe to wo, soot to sut, gaol to jail, and plough to plow. Finally, he antedated the simplified spellers by inventing a long list of boldly phonetic spellings, ranging from tung for tongue to wimmen for women, and from hainous for heinous to cag for keg.
Canada did not rebel against Britain. It was a much smaller and less independent country with firm British ties.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2016, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/3 "2016-06-20T14:58:22Z")
> [@OffByOne](#):
>
> Many words that Americans spell ending in -er are spelled ending in -re in British English; for example: center/centre or liter/litre. Another class of these differences is in words ending in -or in American English that are spelled -our in British English, such as valor/valour or color/colour.
>
> Are the British spellings of these words from the French equivalents?
I’d like to see an authoritative answer to this question. “Colour” isn’t French, but it’s closer to French than “color” is. And it seems to me that, in many cases where British and American English differ, the British spelling is closer to French, perhaps reflecting England’s geographical and cultural closeness to France?
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2016, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/4 "2016-06-20T15:13:49Z")
Or the fact that English is the son of a Norman lord and a Saxon wench… it’s a matter of direct descent.
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### Author:  [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2016, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/5 "2016-06-20T17:01:44Z")
Spelling didn’t get fixed (as in “there’s a right way and a wrong way to spell any particular word”) until dictionaries started getting printed in the early 19th Century. And around the same time, there was a fad in America to simplify English spelling. So “Though” became “tho” and “night” became “nite”, but those extreme spelling simplifications didn’t stick. But other simplifications, like “colour” becoming “color”, did.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2016, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/6 "2016-06-20T17:11:16Z")
> [@DrCube](#):
>
> Spelling didn’t get fixed (as in “there’s a right way and a wrong way to spell any particular word”) until dictionaries started getting printed in the early 19th Century.
Samuel Johnson published the first English dictionary in 1755. Did it take fifty years for others to write them?
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2016, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/7 "2016-06-20T17:26:16Z")
But Samuel Johnson was British, and had nothing to do with American dictionaries.
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### Author:  [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2016, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/8 "2016-06-20T18:10:25Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> But Samuel Johnson was British, and had nothing to do with American dictionaries.
In 1755 Americans _were_ British.
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### Author:  [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2016, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/9 "2016-06-20T18:24:03Z")
The answer remains [Noah Webster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Webster), as **Exapno Mapcase** pointed out immediately.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/10 "2016-06-20T18:36:26Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#):
>
> In 1755 Americans _were_ British.
Good point. Out of the last 241 years, Samuel Johnson had influence over American spelling for 1 year. 🙂
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2016, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/11 "2016-06-20T19:04:28Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> Good point. Out of the last 241 years, Samuel Johnson had influence over American spelling for 1 year. 🙂
I don’t believe that spelling was changed along with the government.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2016, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/12 "2016-06-20T22:45:10Z")
I’ve read two seemingly plausible arguments, both originating in the days of Noah Webster and particularly with Webster himself.
One, mentioned already, was the drive to both _standardize_ and _simplify_ spelling. Before that, people tended to spell words however they cared to, with the same words spelled in many different ways. (See, for example, [how many ways the name Shakespeare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_of_Shakespeare%27s_name) has been spelled. Shakespeare himself spelled it umpteen ways, “Shakespeare” not among them. This wiki page also mentions the many spellings of Walter Raleigh and Thomas Dekker.) The drive was to standardize spellings; simplify them; and make similar classes of words have similar spellings. **Exapno Mapcase** gives many examples above, some of which grew legs and some not.
(Another change from British to American spelling was the change of the suffix -ise to -ize. Britons saw the Colonists becoming Americanised, but the Colonists saw themselves becoming Americanized.)
According to the other argument I’ve heard, there was a very conscious and deliberate effort among newly-independent American society to develop a new and distinct American culture, apart from British culture, and that changing a lot of spellings was part of this effort. By itself, that seems too petty, but in conjunction with the drive to simplify and standardize, it may have been a real consideration.
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### Author:  [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2016, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/13 "2016-06-20T23:15:57Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#):
>
> I don’t believe that spelling was changed along with the government.
Even if it did, that would be 21 years, not 1.
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### Author:  [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2016, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/14 "2016-06-21T01:42:02Z")
> [@DrCube](#):
>
> So “Though” became “tho” and “night” became “nite”, but those extreme spelling simplifications didn’t stick. But other simplifications, like “colour” becoming “color”, did.
“Doughnut” or “donut”?
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### Author:  [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2016, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/15 "2016-06-21T02:43:56Z")
The most likely explanation is that there was an effort to differentiate the United States from the United Kingdom, and language was part of that effort. Language change in print typically occurs as a result of large and influential publishers printing and disseminating altered spellings, buzz words, and even subtle grammar modifications. Over time, the changes stick.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2016, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/16 "2016-06-21T06:38:15Z")
And bear in mind that back then, it’s not like someone came out with a new dictionary and it immediately appeared on everyone’s Kindle, and English usage was immediately changed. Languages evolve over time, with or without a new dictionary. There’s a difference between Mr. Webster’s guidelines and a governmental decree. Even today, with our instantaneous communication, the language is all over the place.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2016, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/17 "2016-06-21T09:22:25Z")
> [@DrCube](#):
>
> So “Though” became “tho” and “night” became “nite”, but those extreme spelling simplifications didn’t stick.
“Nite”, “thru”, and some others kinda half-stuck. They’re used as abbreviations that (unlike most abbreviations) happen to sound exactly like the original word.
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### Author:  [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2016, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/18 "2016-06-21T10:05:51Z")
It’s Commonwealth English, not “British”. Yes there is a difference, and yes it’s important to tens of millions of English speakers who are neither Brits or Yanks.
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2016, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/19 "2016-06-21T11:21:14Z")
> [@Shakester](#):
>
> It’s Commonwealth English, not “British”. Yes there is a difference, and yes it’s important to tens of millions of English speakers who are neither Brits or Yanks.
Well, no, most of the Commonwealth countries have their own variants of English - sometimes more than one variant. And there are still other variants of English from countries which are not Commonwealth countries. These variants tend mostly to be closer to British English than to American English but they are nevertheless distinct from both.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2016, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spelling-american-v-british/757889/20 "2016-06-21T11:30:37Z")
It’s worth noting that the Latin of words like colour didn’t have a U either, so the American spelling is, in fact, closer to the original. That’s not the reason, but let’s not pretend the U-colour is some sort of purer form of the word.
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