Why doesn't American spellings match that of British words?

[terrya]

Specifically, why don't we use the "our" such as "Labour" or "Colour" as the British or Canadians?

Why do we pronounce the letter Z as "Zee" instead of "Zed" as the British and Canadians?

It's the same language...English. Why is there such disparity between us?

Just curious. Thanks.

T

[Karenca]

1. Zed? ...nt

[JimmyJazz]

29. Yes, they say "Zed" -

See:

The police walked in for jimmy jazz
I said, he ain’t here, but he sure went past

J-a-zee zee j-a-zed zed
J-a-zed zed jimmy jazz
And then it sucks, he said, suck that!
So go look all around, you can try your luck, brother
And see what you found
But I guarantee that it ain’t your day

[JohnKleeb]

2. They're f-ed up

:D thast why.

[Deja Q]

3. We separated from the UK and copycatted them out of spite.

The UK versions are just better. But I'm just a yank who needs a wank... :wow:

[gollygee]

4. Spelling wasn't standardized

until after the US became the US. So we standardized one way and they standardized another.

[BurtWorm]

7. Well put.

Doesn't explain why the Americans changed "zed" to "zee," though. I don't know the answer to that one, myself.

[Wat_Tyler]

5. Actually, US grammar and spelling is very similar to Elizabethan types.

If anything, US grammar is closer to sixteenth century English than English English is, if you can get your head around that.

[Taverner]

8. Yes...much like Latin American Spanish is more like 15th century Spanish

Vosotros is a new conjurgation in Spain.

[Wat_Tyler]

11. That's the way it goes - you can see the same with Canada and NZ

a lot of archaic terms from both English and (in Canada's case) French that have long since lost favour in Europe.

[RagingInMiami]

17. Yes, and the current dialect from Spain, which pronounces the "s" as "th"

is a result from them trying to imitate a king who had a lisp.

[GRLMGC]

39. Some Latin Americans use 'vos'

Some in Central America and South America

[sundog]

6. Different programme or something like that.

:7

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. It's Noah Webster's fault.

Oh, and nineteenth-century American nationalism.

Webster's dictionary introduced "simplified", "reformed" and "distinctly American" spellings for a number of words.

And the British spell "colour", "labour", etc. that way because of French influence.

AND, in the Germanic languages (of which English is one) something close to "zed" is the proper way to say "Z" (it's "tsett" in German). Americans just had to be different, I suppose.

[trof]

10. "Two nations separated by a common language."

Did Churchill say that?

[Spider Jerusalem]

12. I believe that was General George S Patton...

[Wat_Tyler]

13. 'Christ! I'm utterly fucking shitfaced drunk'.

He certainly said that.

[JohnKleeb]

16. I said that last night

:) Wow I am Churchillian

[JohnKleeb]

14. yes thats churchill

[bloodyjack]

"Winston, you're drunk"

"Bessie, you're ugly. And tomorrow morning I'll be sober, but you'll still be ugly."

[nickgutierrez]

35. That's my favorite Churchill quote. n/t

[fishwax]

36. It was actually George Bernard Shaw

although Oscar Wilde said something very similar in "The Canterville Ghost": "We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language"

[RagingInMiami]

15. The English became influenced by the French language

a few centuries ago. It may have something to do with a royal marriage between a French and English family, I'm not exactly sure, but that is they use words like "quay", which means river bank and is pronounced "kee", and "queue", which means a line of people and is pronounced just like the letter "q".

[McKenzie]

20. English is almost wholly based upon French

after the Norman conquest the French feudal system, customs and language permeated everything in England. Similar effects can be observed in Scotland after David I (1124-53) ascended to the throne and proceeded to implement the French feudal system by setting up Scotland's network of Royal Burghs. Burgh is derived from the Latin "Burgus" though, which literally means "fortified enclosure".

The influence of the French is why Brits find learning French as a language relatively easy.

[LudwigVan]

18. To put things in perspective,

This is not unusual. The Spanish spoken in Spain is pronounced different than the Spanish in Mexico, Argentina, Cuba or Colombia. In Spain, cinco is pronounced "thin-ko", not "sin-ko". And some grammatical forms not used in Latin America are still used in the Old World, like the second person plural. The rhythm and intonation of the languages is also quite different: a Spaniard I heard once spoke as rapid-fire as a typical Tamil speaker; Mexicans speak at a much more moderate pace.

The difference between European and Brazilian Portuguese is even greater, enough to warrant web pages and software offering both language versions. And don't get me started on Arabic, where the spoken form in Morocco is almost completely incomprehensible to an Iraqi (so they use a modernized version of the classical language of the Qur'an as a formal medium).

So really, we Americans and the British got it easy, since colo(u)r and hono(u)r are pronounced the same on both sides of the Puddle. But some rural dialects of English, not to mention Cockney, really are hard to understand for most Americans, but then again, so is Appalachian English oftentimes.

Though if I ever do move to Canada, I'll immediately switch to British spelling and calling Z "Zed". I'll be a recovering American.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

41. Sorry, but things are not pronounced the same way

on both sides of the Atlantic. Here are some typical British Isles pronunciations:

"Colour" is pronounced "culla."

"Honour" is pronounced "awna."

"Water" is prounced "wota."

"Pass" is pronounced "pahss."

I've become very conscious of these differences since starting to sing in a choir with an English director, who obviously hates the way Minnesotans tend to overemphasize their "r's" and "l's."

[LudwigVan]

42. Well, similar.

I meant "similar", not "same", but most everybody knows the difference.

Chocolate biscuits.

[TyeDye75]

43. Those are all subject to the

variety of cooky accents we have over here.

[Menshevik]

19. I learned this the hard way

A few weeks ago a prof handed back our term papers...she had circled all my non-British spellings of words (labor, defense, etc) and wrote MISSPELLED next to them. She then announced to the class that if you're in the UK you better start spelling like it.

Needless to say, I went home and change my MS Word dictionary to "UK English"

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

22. What an asshole. Couldn't s/he have said that in private?

Some people get off on humiliation rituals. Perverts.

Edit: misspelling (heh!)

[JohnLocke]

23. Your prof is an ass (nt).

[WritersBlock]

25. I get the same thing at work and in coursework.

I had to get used to spelling things the British way. It's taken quite a while to get used to it, but it comes pretty much unconsciously now.

But on DU, I try my best to use "z" instead of "s," and to leave out the extra "o." It gets confusing, remembering which side of the Atlantic I'm typing to! :D

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

21. Happens with Portuguese too

Electrical:
In Brazil: Elétrico
In Portugal: Eléctrico

Comical:
In Brazil: Cômico
In Portugal: Cómico (they don't use ^ as an accent at all)

Sometimes an entirely different word is used:

File (as in computer file):
In Brazil: Arquivo
In Portugal: Ficheiro

[B Calm]

24. This is the reason I could never buy clothes for my wife...

[Speck Tater]

26. It took British genius to invent English but...

it took American genius to perfect it.

Give them time. They'll catch up.

[mr blur]

27. Reminds me of a joke..

American tourist in London goes into a hotel and says to the porter, "Could you tell me where the elevator is?" Porter replies, "You mean the lift". Tourist says, "No, I mean the elavator". Porter says, "The lift".
So the tourist, losing his cool, says, "Look buddy, I just want to know where the elevator is!" Porter shrugs and says "The lift is over there."
Tourist shouts, "Look asshole, we invented the fuckin' ELEVATOR!" Porter replies, "Yes, well we invented the fucking language."

This ecapsulates both the American attitude that everyone will naturally do things their way and our British attitude that we are absolutely right about everything and that no country which is just 200 years old can tell us anything about, well, anything really.

[DS1]

34. Americans like to use bigger words when possible

Examples

Relocated instead of moved
the above mentioned Elevator instead of lift
McDonalds instead of shit

etc

[Orsino]

28. The extra letters are a consequence...

...of the necessary conversions from their primitive "metric" system to God's ordained units. Like remainders in long division, their u's and zeds junk up all text tranlated from British or Canadian to English.

[tjwmason]

31. Metric is French rubbish

In Britain it's only been brought in completely in the last couple of years as part of European standardisation (still excludes road-signs in miles, pints of beer and milk) - most of us still think in the real measures.

[mr blur]

33. Absolutely!

I remember when there were 240 pennies in a GBP. Couple of £'s worth of change in your pocket and you felt really rich!

[mr blur]

32. Nah, sorry,

We only changed to metric currency and measurements in 1971, and we'd already invented all the words before then!

[tjdee]

30. Because we left England.

And by we, I mean you white people of British descent. Their language evolved with influence from European countries, our language evolved with influence from Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans.

It's like, why is my kid different than me sort of thing.

[jmowreader]

37. British people can't spell, dude. All there is to it.

Let's say you are the devil at a newspaper. One of your jobs is to set all of the type. Are you REALLY going to waste time putting all of those silent U's in the chase? Ah hell no, leave the shit out and save hours setting it and even more hours washing it, pulling it out of the chase and sticking it back in the lower case.

[GRLMGC]

38. I think its because

Americans wanted to separate themselves from the British. So the new American dictionary had new spellings to differentiate.

[ChemEng]

40. don't, not doesn't, dear