To catalogue or to catalog, that is the question: US vs British spelling

Q. Why do US and British English use different spelling conventions

A. British spelling became codified in the late 18th century, largely through the influence of publications such as Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language, first published in 1755.

Often the spelling conventions laid down were somewhat archaic, and to many people at the time, let alone to modern eyes, many words seemed unnecessarily pedantic in their expression of their etymological roots - after all, there's no real reason why knife should retain its initial 'k', nor enough and though be spelt similarly but pronounced completely differently. As a result movements for spelling reform grew up on both sides of the Atlantic.

Q. Such as

A. The most famous, and the one which has influenced all later attempts to simplify English spelling, was that of the American lexicographer Noah Webster (1758-1843).

Q. Anything to do with Webster's Dictionary

A. Indeed. Webster compiled the 2-volume American Dictionary of the English, first published in 1828. Purists attacked its 'Americanisms', its tendency to advocate US rather than British usage and spelling and its inclusion of non-literary words. Webster made many recommendations on how to simplify spellings, many of which have gone into standard usage in the USA, and one or two which are now used in British spelling.

Q. So, what are the primary differences between the two spelling systems

A.

• -our becomes -or, so British colour is US color
• -re becomes -er, so British litre is US liter
• -ence becomes -ense, so the British nouns defence and licence, for example, become defense and license (note that such words as verbs in British spelling take an 's', so to license)
• single rather than double 'l' in inflected forms, so British travelled is US traveled
• -l becomes -ll, so British fulfil is US fulfill
• -ise, -isa-, -isi- becomes -ize, -iza-, -izi- in US spelling wherever the 'z' can be traced back to Latin and Greek, or a more recent word which uses the suffix -ize; so British standardise becomes standardize (note that the 'z' version is used as a literary standard in British spelling, though is rarely taught in schools today; also in British English you would never use -yze, so US analyze should always be analyse in the UK)

The U.S. Government Printing Office adopted these conventions pretty much wholesale in 1864, and these forms - color, center, offense, traveled, organize, etc. - have been the ones used in all US government documents since. Many Americans were already using these spellings by that time and now they are the standard versions.

Q. Which of the proposed changes have been adopted in British English, too

A. British spelling went along with the idea of dropping the final 'k' in words like publick and magick as well as using -or instead of -er when the Latin original did so, thus instructor and visitor rather than instructer and vister.

Q. Were any other changes proposed but not taken up

A. Other proposals have been made, such as dropping the final 'e' in words like determin, definit, infinit, envelop, medicin, opposit, famin - the only case where this has been adopted is the US spelling of ax as opposed to axe - and using a single 'f' at the end of words like pontif and plaintif.

Thru, tho, altho and similar words, while not being adopted as the accepted standard are considered legitimate alternatives.

Q. What about Canada

A. Canada officially retains British spelling conventions, as do other English-speaking former British territories such as Australia and New Zealand. However, given the geographical proximity and cultural sway of the USA, it is no surprise that Americanisms are creeping in, despite Canada's best efforts to maintain its distinct national identity.

Q. Which system is winning the battle for dominance

A. It's in the balance. As stated, British Commonwealth countries tend to teach British spellings, but the emergence of US English as the international version has meant that American spellings are being adopted elsewhere. It is also the case that US spellings - even in the UK - are the norm in all things computer related, hence disk rather than disc and program not programme.

You'll find an online British-US spelling list at http://www.peak.org/~jeremy/dictionary/dict.html

See also the articles on Canadian English and dictionaries

For more on Phrases & Sayings click here

By Simon Smith