The pointless differences.

I was browsing a post, and someone stated that Canadians have weird ways to spell things. That's when I decided to thread it and find out if other people take note of this and wonder why: The word is the same, sounds the same, Why spell it with an extra letter if you don't have to?
Examples of this have been included bleow:

Color (American) -Colour (Canadian)
Honor (American) -Honour (British)

Originally Posted by Raistlin

Why spell it with an extra letter if you don't have to?

Color (American) -Colour (Canadian)
Honor (American) -Honour (British)

With that kind of logic, we'd write:

colr (clr would be confused with clear)

and

hnr

:XD

Often, I think the longer spellings are prettier.

Well, instinctively, lately, I've been spelling honour with the u. But, I think I can blame that on Honour. I'm too used to spelling his name. X3

As for everything else, I'm not sure. I just find them to be the same word. Go on like nothing happened. After all, it's just a word.

Originally Posted by Jehanne

With that kind of logic, we'd write:

colr (clr would be confused with clear)

and

hnr

:XD

Often, I think the longer spellings are prettier.

I wasn't referring to using less letters and being illiterate.

Just that the 'u' in colour is rather pointless. I use color more often in writing, and I"m Canadian. Most only use 'colour' so as to not lose marks on spelling papers.

Originally Posted by Cio

Well, instinctively, lately, I've been spelling honour with the u. But, I think I can blame that on Honour. I'm too used to spelling his name. X3

As for everything else, I'm not sure. I just find them to be the same word. Go on like nothing happened. After all, it's just a word.

I've experienced this myself. I use 'honour' and have to catch myself to use the American and Canadian spelling. But I use the American 'Color' over the Canadian 'colour'.

Why take an existing english word and take a letter out?

Originally Posted by HylianShroom

Why take an existing english word and take a letter out?

Both words have the same meaning and spelling, with the exception of one letter. Why add?

The Sears Centre! It's in Illinois, but that's the way it is spelled. I guess I never really thought about why color and center and honor are spelled with u's.

Originally Posted by Raistlin

Both words have the same meaning and spelling, with the exception of one letter. Why add?

well, one came first, and one is a distortion. The original would be the right one, wouldnt it?

Originally Posted by Raistlin

Both words have the same meaning and spelling, with the exception of one letter. Why add?

Umm England was there before the US, they took out a letter not the other way around.

Why though?

Well probably because at the time of the US Independence struggle they hated everything English, so it would make sense to also change the spelling rules opposed by the English.

An other reason could be is that because the two nations are so far away from each other the US started to develop it's own dialect along with it's own words and spelling. Which makes sense if you look at for example: pavement - sidewalk or garbage - trash

In the early 18th century, English spelling was not standardised. Different standards became noticeable after the publishing of influential dictionaries. Current British English spellings follow, for the most part, those of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755). Many of the now characteristic American English spellings were introduced, although often not created, by Noah Webster in his An American Dictionary of the English Language of 1828.

Since it was not standardized, the corruption of the natural verbs became common. The 'u' is added in Canada and Austrailia, because they are part of the Commonwealth. The group of heavily influenced former British colonies would have adopted the spellings.

Speaking of which, the 'u' is a corruption in itself. Introduced during the Norman occupation.

Well, if you want to go that far back, this is pointless. You could say that the word itself was a distortion of a different word even before the normans.

Anyway, the word was taken from the english, and the vowel taken out. So the original is correct in as much as it still exists now and hasnt been changed in england.
If you want to start saying lets take pointless letters out, your going to have to re-structure a whole lotta words my friend.

Hence, colr and hnr.




I'm just joking, of course. Are there other words you were thinking of that have "extra" letters?

knight, fight, right

Do we really need the 'h' there?

It's a vain effort to be formal, I guess. Personally, I've always used "center" and "color" and "honor" and have never used the other alliterations.

Originally Posted by Jehanne

Hence, colr and hnr.




I'm just joking, of course. Are there other words you were thinking of that have "extra" letters?

Defense and Offense. (American)
Defence and Offence. (British)

Do you want any more?

The thing is, you don't pronounce it "Cull-Oar" you say "Cull-ur" (or roughly like that). Which does, in fact, mean that the 'u' is necessary.

Even if it wasn't, should you also change "Knee", "Knife", "Knock", "Pterodactyl", etc? I doubt it, yet those all have completely superfluous letters.


However, is there a reason for it? Not really, it's just the way it's spelt. It's the same reason that what you call a "period" is called a "full stop" in England. It's no more an attempt to be formal then eating with a knife and a fork is.

As for Offence, Defence, Practise, and all them, you should know that 's' and 'c' can make the same sound, so no extra letters there.

Originally Posted by GDwarf

The thing is, you don't pronounce it "Cull-Oar" you say "Cull-ur" (or roughly like that). Which does, in fact, mean that the 'u' is necessary.

Even if it wasn't, should you also change "Knee", "Knife", "Knock", "Pterodactyl", etc? I doubt it, yet those all have completely superfluous letters.


However, is there a reason for it? Not really, it's just the way it's spelt. It's the same reason that what you call a "period" is called a "full stop" in England.

As for Offence, Defence, Practise, and all them, you should know that 's' and 'c' can make the same sound, so no extra letters there.

You will, (apparently), find the 'cull-oar' pronounciations out west, the Maritimes tend to use the c