by Ray Cook

Created on: February 24, 2009

Far too much is made of the differences between British and American English.

The two varieties of English are in fact one and the same language with some interesting, sometimes amusing, sometimes challenging differences. The two versions of English provide fertile ground of all sorts of linguo-fascists, ignoramuses and arrogant so-called experts.

Let's begin with spelling.

When I was about 12 years old I obtained a copy of Jules Verne's From
The Earth To The Moon'. After a while I noticed something strange. Had the typesetter run out of U's? Why was valour' spelled valor. And why was centre'
spelled center'. What was going on?

You may have guessed by now that I am British English, in fact. I had never before seen written US English although I had long been accustomed to American accents having grown up on a diet of American TV series such as Wagon Train, Rawhide and Bonanza (and many, many more). I was suddenly awakened to the fact that there were more differences between me and Rowdy Yates than met the eye.

Many years later I became a student of the English Language learning about its origins in Anglo-Saxon, through the Middle English period and then on to Shakespeare. And so we arrive at Dr Samuel Johnson and his famous dictionary. And we also find that until printed books became widely available and the language was at last analysed and codified, spelling was, shall I say, a matter of personal choice.

By the time the United States came into being there was a pretty much agreed way of spelling most words with some acceptable variations.

Enter Noah Webster who thought it was high time the post-colonials showed their former masters a thing or two. So let's sweep away the past and stride out into the American future with a more consistent, more easily learned orthography (that's spelling using a technical term that gives me some cred'
here).

Trouble was, and is, Mr Webster didn't really go far enough; in fact, Mr Webster realised that if you go too far then future generations will not be able to read their own literary heritage. Well, that's an exaggeration, but if you change too much, too quickly, it causes confusion, revolt and a strong likelihood of not being accepted.

So what changes did Noah bring forth to the people of the United States.

WEBSTER'S CHANGES

Although he actually did keep at first the -our' mentioned above, he later decided that the letter u' just had to go. Hence color',
favor' and flavor' in contrast to British colour', favour' and flavour'.

He changed

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page >>