American vs British English (written)

[snorkel]

Just spelling differences, not terms for things

What are your thoughts? I really like the use of S instead of Z in a lot of words (legalise, criticise, etc), but also prefer 'defense' over 'defence' (Eng). I don't understand why there is a difference in some words ending with -re/-er, like English "calibre" (-er in American caliber implies a different sound, like a hick saying calee-burr). Grey (English) is a real word, "gray" is not.

There's a difference in convention in Ls (fulfilment (Eng), fulfillment) which causes great confusion, sometimes two seems appropriate and sometimes one.

Catalog vs Catalogue (Eng) is a good improvement. I've never written 'colour', 'favour', etc



I like that there are official distinct branches of the language, since you could actually use 'favorite' and 'favourite' differently. It's distinct from something like French (only one I could comment on since I've studied it) where structure is more rigid and vocabulary limited and defined exactly (there is no official english).

[Mando Pandango]

I feel like a lot of the changes came about in order to simplify the written language to more closely reflect the way it's spoken. Using -er instead of -re is a great example of this. Defence being changed to defense is logical, but they didn't do it to all words with that pronunciation which I don't understand. The most common one is "-ou-" being shortened to just "-o-," which, again, I think makes sense. The use of "ou" makes the word look like it would be pronounced as a longer vowel, which it often isn't

American English is better. Canada and the UK need to get with the program.

[ME##]

Most of the -re/-ers, that I can think of, all stem from French words that migrated into English.



And overall I favour British spellings to that of American ones but I can live with them.  The only words that I cannot stand with the Americanised spellings are 'judgment' and 'gray'.

[Clodius]

I like American English better overall.  I think it has some good improvements, though the English language still has way too many exceptions to rules.

I think words like 'Calibre' were modified because '-bre' implies the sound "br" like in the word 'bred'.

[snorkel]

tl;dr I'm not sober

Most of the -re/-ers, that I can think of, all stem from French words that migrated into English.

Yes, and therein lies evidence that the correct way to spell it would be leaving the r sound as a diminished trailing sound as in calibre, because French -re endings are sort of sighing fading end-noises (this post is filled with awful terminology), which seem to be added for reasons similar to our -e ending, to accentuate a final consonant and ensure it's not dropped.

I feel like a lot of the changes came about in order to simplify the written language to more closely reflect the way it's spoken. Using -er instead of -re is a great example of this.

No, it's not. 'Caliber' has ambiguous syllables and emphasis and could have multiple pronunciations (ca-liber, cal-iber, even calibray or calibree with English), but the -re ending sets up a pretty clear course. (Of course I'm not a linguist and obviously people speak differently and this is a pretty stupid thing to flesh out because everyone knows how to pronounce caliber.)

Defence being changed to defense is logical, but they didn't do it to all words with that pronunciation which I don't understand. The most common one is "-ou-" being shortened to just "-o-," which, again, I think makes sense. The use of "ou" makes the word look like it would be pronounced as a longer vowel, which it often isn't

American English is better. Canada and the UK need to get with the program.

Yes, I like -se over -ce, since -ce in many words seems like it would be a precise, acute sound like -ts or -tz (or at least that's what the letters indicate) only on the tip of the tongue (make sounds from the S in sour to hissss and notice your tongue), but -se transitions smoothly  with other sounds by requiring a slightly more open mouth arrangement



I wrote the next bit as a reply to a quote but then deleted the quote (evidently) and can't figure out why I wrote it?

Although French is certainly not lacking as a literary language, and some of the greatest modern (and classical for that matter)  literature used it so that even translations are incredible, it usually has a distinct way of forcing you to have to kind of 'describe' complex ideas from the outside-in with lots of "___ of the ___" and complex verbs to get the subject/object/time/person/whatever context exact, and extraneous little words and modifiers all over the place, and the key words in the sentence in mind beforehand because they often have peculiar built-in meanings and specific rules for placement.  (English involves a high degree of interchangeability between roots and modifying prefixes/suffixes--a trait of Germanic languages apparently--leading to a varied and more exact (and huge) vocabulary, often 10s of words with the same root word and different suffixes; you can rearrange a complex English sentence countless ways and pare it down to the most concise, individually-connotated words, while romance languages are like this:

the fireball of remorselessness makes me need flight
la boule de feu de manque de remords qui me rend nécessaire de vol (undoubtedly slightly mistranslated, but you get the point)


Sorry for this ludicrous post (it will entertain me one day, I'm sure), I've had it open for more than an hour after initially forgetting about it and keep getting distracted thinking I didn't finish it

[Daddy]

The extra 'u's are retarded.

aluminium is retarded since the guy who discovered aluminum called it aluminum and some wankers decided to be all british and add extra letters.



"Grey" is better than "gray" though.

[??????]

i don't like 'grey'
i naturally spell 'color' as 'coloured' and 'favorite' as 'favourite', for some reason the additional u makes things much more easier

lol our schools used english textbooks ;_;

[Kalahari Inkantation]

aluminium hurts my soul
so do judgment and gray

I like a mix of the two leaning slightly more to the American side.

[hobbit]

did you know that when britain was colonizing america their accents were more like present day american english than present day british english???

[Nyerp]

i prefer mostly AMURICAN spellings except for "catalog/dialog" and "judgment"

[don't let's]

somebody explain judgment to me. I don't know what's going on there

[Travis]

somebody explain judgment to me. I don't know what's going on there

Judgement/Judgment

[Patrick Stickles]

theatre > theater

[ME##]

somebody explain judgment to me. I don't know what's going on there

Judgement/'Judgment'. 




The former looks so much better.  I mean Jesus, do you drop the E off in management?  No.  Why would American English do that for judgement then? 

[Dullahan]

British scheme.