After all these years on Second Life and having
friends from the UK and USA I still run against the spelling differences and the
spelling corrections I get from Word and Blogger that are set to British and in world that
is set to USA.
Many of the differences between American and British
English date back to a time when spelling standards had not yet developed. For
instance, some spellings seen as "American" today were once commonly
used in Britain. A "British standard" began to emerge following the
1755 publication of influential dictionaries such as Samuel Johnson's A
Dictionary of the English Language, and an "American standard"
started following the work of Noah Webster, and in particular his An American
Dictionary of the English Language. Webster's efforts at spelling reform were
somewhat effective in his native country, resulting in certain well-known
patterns of spelling differences between the American and British varieties of
English. But English-language spelling reform has rarely been adopted
otherwise, and thus modern English orthography varies somewhat between
countries and is far from phonemic in any country.
Examples
American / British
Flavor / Flavour
Neighbor / Neighbour
Honor / Honour
Labor / Labour
Humor / Humour
Armor / Armour
Behavior / Behaviour
Harbor / Harbour
Willful / Wilful
Skillful / Skilful
Enrollment / Enrolment
Fulfillment / Fulfilment
Installment / Instalment
Jewelry / Jewellery
Labeled / Labelled
Traveling / Travelling
Canceled / Cancelled
Esthetics / Aesthetics
Anesthesia / Anaesthesia
Likable / Likeable
Livable / Liveable
Center / Centre
Liter / Litre
Meter / Metre
Somber / Sombre
Theater / Theatre
Organize / Organise
Realize / Realise
Recognize / Recognise
Analog / Analogue
Catalog / Catalogue
Dialog / Dialogue
So sometimes I will use Theatre and sometimes I will
use Theater and one time the spelling will be colour and another time color. Now
you know why.
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