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Hey, this problem has been bugging me for DAYS, i wanted everyones opiniion, So what i wanted to ask is, why do americans always leave out letters when they spell words. Like 4example (and this is not just lazy email typing) when americans spell colour, They spell it "color" and encyclopeadia they spell "encyclopedia" or just earoplain, is spelt "airplane", this is just plain weird, english is english, why make so many spellings for the same thing????
P.S. its exams now, so i wont be able to go on the net for 2 weeks cos i have to study.
Peace, and CARPE DIEM!!!!!!
Dee
A truth told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent
-William Blake
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Shawn
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Toe is in the water |
Registered: July 2004
Messages: 69
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Rather than think "lazy", it's just that the language has just changed a little and evolved across the pond. More like a dialect. I am certainly guilty of misspelling words from time to time, but it's more a personal failing than a national one. 
Shawn
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Reminds me of one of my favorite poems...i'm not sure who wrote this though, i know it wasn't me so please copywrite people don't pounce on me...
Spelling Chequer
I have a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea,
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye cannot sea.
When eye strike a quay, right a word,
I weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar wright
It shows me strait aweigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid
I nose it bee fore two late
And eye can put the error rite
Its rarely, rarely grate.
I've run this poem threw it
I'm shore your pleased two no,
Its letter perfect in it's weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.
Sauce unknown
Pyro.
Do what you love, changing the world is incidental.
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blue
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Likes it here |
Registered: August 2004
Messages: 131
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Language history. There are several reasons why we Americans spell differently than other English-speaking countries. The short answer is, "Noah Webster," an early American linguist. The long answer is...long. Also, I'm a "language geek."
See Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Webster
There's a reference there about English spelling differences.
When the American Colonies became the USA, no one cared much about standardized spelling. Early dictionaries were quite new, and were more to define words than to define spelling. But around that time, people were starting to think that words needed to be spelled consistently all the time. There were slightl differences in the American dialect already. Well, Americans, including Noah Webster, wanted to distinguish their own cultural identity too, separate from England. Noah Webster also wanted English spelling to be more phonetic, that is, more like words sounded. British linguists and early
Standard American spelling differs from other, international English spelling because other countries remained in the British Empire, and because American spelling reflects our dialect. Americans stress different syllables than international speakers, we say some vowels differently, and that "spelled versus spelt" difference is because Americans actually say a D sound instead of a T sound, and Webster wanted -ed as the standard ending. Over the years, the American, Canadian, Australian, and Indian dialects diverged more and more from the British standard. (And Americans would not think of the Queen's English, "Received Pronunciation," as even relevant to them.)
If world travel and communications hadn't become so rapid, American and Canadian English would have diverged even more. But due to progress there, now our dialects are reconnecting and may be merging. An educated English speaker knows most of the spelling differences. But, unless we are very familiar or have travelled a lot, we miss vocabulary, dialect differences. I have edited things written with British/International spelling, and I rarely miss. But if I were to write that way, I'd probably miss word choices. Some words mean very different or slightly different things to Americans, or we simply wouldn't say something that way. It's nearly always possible to tell when an author is writing about the other country, because he misses those choices. When even an educated speaker tries to mimic the way other dialects sound, he often misses there on the vowels or the stress patterns or on vocabulary.
NOTE: Those differences Denny mentioned, like to, too, two; bear, bare; and so on are from homophones and homonyms, not American versus British spelling differences.
Then there are modern changes to reflect pronunciation and dialect, that aren't "standard" or "formal," that is, they aren't allowed in what you write for school or business or other publications.
There are lots of things in standard English spelling on both sides that we kept from earlier stages of English, and that are all because of how English used to sound and what the Norman French made of Anglo Saxon sounds. The "gh" bit and the "kn" and "wr" bit are from Germanic sounds in Old English (Anglo Saxon) and Middle English (Anglo Norman) that died out in early Modern English, right around the time of Shakespeare and King James. The importance of those two in English literature is one big reason why we kept many spellings. Look up "English language" if you're really interested in all that.
Common differences include:
American / British
-ize / -ise (realize, etc.)
-or / -our (color, favorite, etc.)
-ed, -d / -ed, -d, -t (e.g. spelled / spelt, learned / learnt, etc.)
There are others, and several particular British words, like "pyjamas, tyre, or gaol." Gaol (American jail) looks very strange to me, like a Gaul who can't spell.
Note: As an American, I don't call my friends "mates" or young people a "lad" or "lass" or some guy a "bloke," except jokingly. There are all sorts of differences like that. A "mate" in America is usually a spouse or partner, except for mates on ship, classmates, mates to pairs of socks, or things like that. We all know the British meaning, but it sounds odd to us to say it that way.
In college, I had to ask a (Brit) professor what she had said. "kun-TRAW-vuh-see," she replied. It took me a second to realize she meant a "KAHN-truh-ver-see," a controversy. Even as a well-read university student, I'd never heard a Brit say, "controversy," and the difference in pronunciation had baffled me just long enough not to have a clue what she'd meant.
One last item: English plural you. We all know we need a different set of pronouns for singular versus plural "you" but we can't agree what it should be. Formally, it's "you, you, your, yours." Informally, for plurals, you'll see "you / you all / you guys / y'all / or even (ugh) youse." I am from Texas, part of the American South and Southwest. I say "y'all," a contraction of "you all." It isn't "ya'll" because it's not "you shall/will." Here, in conversation, we say plural "y'all, y'all, and occasionally even y'all's (possessive)," even in somewhat formal settings. But it's bad form, non-standard; it's not really regarded as uneducated, because even the most educated speakers say "y'all" at least sometimes, but it's something we try to avoid in formal settings, because it isn't standard, formal English.
I have no idea why I've seen some non-American speakers say "y'all" lately. I've seen an Aussie write it, and somehow you borrowed it too, Dewald (Bluemoogle). I think that's nice, but you should know that in anywhere but the American South / Southwest, you'll get amused grins at the Southern word.
Hahaha! I really got carried away with this topic, didn't I?
That Blue, he never shuts up about some things! 
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My favo(u)rite "British-ism" is their pronunciation of "Schedule"--prounounced "Shej-ull". I had a professor in college who was from S. Africa, and he took quite a bit of friendly ribbing for his speech patterns...unlike the adjunct professor in the english department who was from scotland, and who became frankly incomprehensible when she dropped out of formal english and spoke her native dialect.
The most fun dialect in the US is the pidgin spoken in Hawaii by the Locals...da kine, haoli.
cheers!
aj
"I promise not to try not to fuck with your mind/ I promise not to mind if you go your way and i go mine/promise not to lie if i'm looking you right in your eye/promise not to try not to let you down."
--Eve6
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Why do americans spell so lazily? 
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Re: Why do americans spell so lazily? 
