English / American Spellings

[jenstar]

Why do so many British people insist that their illogical spellings are superior to American ones? (And no, I'm not American, I just admire their no-nonsense - or less-nonsense - approach to the written language.)

[sft42]

This sounds like an invitation for spelmuster if I ever heard one. If you are meaning the omission of letters like u in colour/color and the like then I have to agree it does seem easier at first but i remember seeing a joke one time which took this a step further. What happens if we say well if we're going to make spelling easier how about kulor and telyfone or telyvizun. I don't think there is superior spellings just alternatives which are all equally acceptable and valid.

[Ewood27]

A very apt question, Wildwood. The Cambridge Dictionary, which must surely be British, says the noun is 'incongruity'. See http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=inc
ongruous*1+0. The well-respected American Merriam-Webster Dictionary, however, says 'incongruousness'. See http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary.

[tomr]

What you have to remember about the English and American languages is that they have developed separately for the last few hundred years. The Americans have plenty of words that are almost unheard of over here - US teenagers talking about sophomores on TV, how many of our kids bother to find out what they are? I don't think that our language is superior but if you are composing a piece of English writing surely it should be composed in English? Try reading an American newspaper, you will find that the vocabulary is broader and more colourful that in some of our tabloids.

[Spellmaster]

It's not a question of superiority, but of preserving one's own culture. People in the some countries are very keen to prevent American cultural domination, but in Britain we seem to prefer abandoning everything British and adoptign whatever the Americans do. As to US English being more logical; try pronouncing Kansas and Arkansas and then tell me it's logical!

[inachis]

hang on just a cotton pickin' minute here british english has evolved much more than American pilgrim father's we do not use gotten any more etc etc.....just evolved differently eg lack of adverbial clauses in american... you dig?....man