AMERICAN ENGLISH AND BRITISH ENGLISH
American and British English spelling differences
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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 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, first published in 1828.[1]
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.
Historical origins[edit]
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In the early 18th century, English spelling was inconsistent. These differences became noticeable after the publishing of influential dictionaries. Today's British English spellings mostly follow Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), while many American English spellings follow Webster's An American Dictionary of the English Language ("ADEL", "Webster's Dictionary", 1828).[2]
Webster was a proponent of English spelling reform for reasons both philological and nationalistic. In A Companion to the American Revolution (2008), John Algeo notes: "it is often assumed that characteristically American spellings were invented by Noah Webster. He was very influential in popularizing certain spellings in America, but he did not originate them. Rather […] he chose already existing options such as center, color and check for the simplicity, analogy or etymology".[3] William Shakespeare's first folios, for example, used spellings like center and color as much as centre and colour.[4][5] Webster did attempt to introduce some reformed spellings, as did the Simplified Spelling Board in the early 20th century, but most were not adopted. In Britain, the influence of those who preferred the Norman (or Anglo-French) spellings of words proved to be decisive. Later spelling adjustments in the United Kingdom had little effect on today's American spellings and vice versa.
For the most part, the spelling systems of most Commonwealth countries and Ireland closely resemble the British system. In Canada, the spelling system can be said to follow both British and American forms,[6] and Canadians are somewhat more tolerant of foreign spellings when compared with other English-speaking nationalities.[7] Australian spelling has also strayed slightly from British spelling, with some American spellings incorporated as standard.[8] New Zealand spelling is almost identical to British spelling, except in the word fiord (instead of fjord). There is also an increasing use of macrons in words that originated in Māori and an unambiguous preference for -ise endings (see below).
Latin-derived spellings[edit]
-our, -or[edit]
Most words ending in an unstressed -our in British English (e.g., colour, flavour, behaviour, harbour, honour, humour, labour, neighbour, rumour, splendour) end in -or in American English (color, flavor, behavior, harbor, honor, humor, labor, neighbor, rumor, splendor). Wherever the vowel is unreduced in pronunciation, e.g., contour, velour, paramour and troubadour the spelling is the same everywhere.
Most words of this kind came from Latin, where the ending was spelled -or. They were first adopted into English from early Old French, and the ending was spelled -or or -ur.[9]After the Norman conquest of England, the ending became -our to match the Old French spelling.[10] The -our ending was not only used in new English borrowings, but was also applied to the earlier borrowings that had used -or.[9] However, -or was still sometimes found,[11] and the first three folios of Shakespeare's plays used both spellings before they were standardised to -our in the Fourth Folio of 1685.[12] After the Renaissance, new borrowings from Latin were taken up with their original -or ending and many words once ending in -our (for example, chancellour and governour) went back to -or. Many words of the -our/or group do not have a Latin counterpart; for example, armo(u)r, behavio(u)r, harbo(u)r, neighbo(u)r; also arbo(u)r, meaning "shelter", though senses "tree" and "tool" are always arbor, a false cognate of the other word. Some 16th- and early 17th-century British scholars indeed insisted that -or be used for words from Latin (e.g., color)[11] and -our for French loans; but in many cases the etymology was not clear, and therefore some scholars advocated -or only and others -our only.[13]
Webster's 1828 dictionary had only -or and is given much of the credit for the adoption of this form in the United States. By contrast, Johnson's 1755 dictionary used -our for all words still so spelled in Britain (like colour), but also for words where the u has since been dropped: ambassadour, emperour, governour, perturbatour, inferiour, superiour; errour, horrour, mirrour, tenour, terrour, tremour. Johnson, unlike Webster, was not an advocate of spelling reform, but chose the spelling best derived, as he saw it, from among the variations in his sources. He preferred French over Latin spellings because, as he put it, "the French generally supplied us".[14] English speakers who moved to America took these preferences with them, and H. L. Mencken notes that "honor appears in the 1776 Declaration of Independence, but it seems to have got there rather by accident than by design. In Jefferson's original draft it is spelled honour."[15] In Britain, examples of color, flavor, behavior, harbor, and neighbor rarely appear in Old Bailey court records from the 17th and 18th centuries, whereas there are thousands of examples of their -our counterparts.[16] One notable exception is honor. Honor and honour were equally frequent in Britain until the 17th century;[17] honor still is, in the UK, the usual spelling as a person's name and appears in Honor Oak, a district of London.
Derivatives and inflected forms[edit]
In derivatives and inflected forms of the -our/or words, British usage depends on the nature of the suffix used. The u is kept before English suffixes that are freely attachable to English words (for example in neighbourhood, humourless and savoury) and suffixes of Greek or Latin origin that have been adopted into English (for example in favourite, honourable and behaviourism). However, before Latin suffixes that are not freely attachable to English words, the u:
- may be dropped, for example in honorary, honorific, honorist, vigorous, humorous, laborious and invigorate;
- may be either dropped or kept, for example in colo(u)ration and colo(u)rize or colo(u)rise; or
- may be kept, for example in colourist.[9]
In American usage, derivatives and inflected forms are built by simply adding the suffix in all cases (for example, favorite, savory etc.) since the u is absent to begin with.
Exceptions[edit]
American usage, in most cases, keeps the u in the word glamour, which comes from Scots, not Latin or French. Glamor is sometimes used in imitation of the spelling reform of other -our words to -or. Nevertheless, the adjective glamorous often drops the first "u". Saviour is a somewhat common variant of savior in the US. The British spelling is very common for honour (and favour) in the formal language of wedding invitations in the US.[18] The name of the Space Shuttle Endeavour has a u in it as the spacecraft was named after Captain James Cook's ship, HMS Endeavour. The special car on Amtrak's Coast Starlight train is known as the Pacific Parlour car, not Pacific Parlor. Proper names such as Pearl Harbor or Sydney Harbour are usually spelled according to their native-variety spelling vocabulary.
The name of the herb savory is thus spelled everywhere, although the related adjective savo(u)ry, like savo(u)r, has a u in the UK. Honor (the name) and arbor (the tool) have -or in Britain, as mentioned above. As a general noun, rigour /ˈrɪɡə/ or /-ər/ has a u in the UK; the medical term rigor (often /ˈraɪɡə/ or /-ər/)[19] does not, such as in rigor mortis, which is Latin. Derivations of rigour/rigor such as rigorous, however, are typically spelled without a u even in the UK. Words with the ending -irior, -erior or similar are spelled thus everywhere.
The word armour was once somewhat common in American usage but has disappeared from the current language.
Commonwealth usage[edit]
Commonwealth countries normally follow British usage. Canadian English most commonly uses the -our ending and -our- in derivatives and inflected forms. However, owing to the close historic, economic, and cultural relationship with the United States, -or endings are also sometimes used. Throughout the late 19th and early to mid-20th century, most Canadian newspapers chose to use the American usage of -or endings, originally to save time and money in the era of manual movable type.[20] However, in the 1990s, the majority of Canadian newspapers officially updated their spelling policies to the British usage of -our. This coincided with a renewed interest in Canadian English, and the release of the updated Gage Canadian Dictionary in 1997 and the first Oxford Canadian Dictionary in 1998. Historically, most libraries and educational institutions in Canada have supported the use of the Oxford English Dictionary rather the American Webster's Dictionary. Today, the use of a distinctive set of Canadian English spellings is viewed by many Canadians as one of the cultural uniquenesses of Canada (especially when compared to the United States).
In Australia, -or endings enjoyed some use throughout the 19th century and in the early 20th century. Like in Canada though, most major Australian newspapers have switched from "-or" endings to "-our" endings. The "-our" spelling is taught in schools nationwide as part of the Australian curriculum. The most notable countrywide use of the -or ending is for the Australian Labor Party, which was originally called "the Australian Labour Party" (name adopted in 1908), but was frequently referred to as both "Labour" and "Labor". The "Labor" was adopted from 1912 onward due to the influence of the American labor movement[21] and King O'Malley. Aside from that, -our is now almost universal in Australia. New Zealand English, while sharing some words and syntax with Australian English, follows British usage.
-re, -er[edit]
In British English, some words from French, Latin or Greek end with a consonant followed by an unstressed -re (pronounced (non-rhotic accent) /ə(ɹ)/ or (rhotic accent) /ɚ/). In American English, most of these words have the ending -er.[22][23] The difference is most common for words ending -bre or -tre: British spellings calibre, centre, fibre, goitre, litre, lustre, manoeuvre, meagre, metre, mitre, nitre, ochre, reconnoitre, sabre, saltpetre, sepulchre, sombre, spectre, theatre (see exceptions) and titre all have -er in American spelling.
In Britain, both -re and -er spellings were common before Johnson's dictionary was published. In Shakespeare's first folios, -er spellings are used the most.[5] Most English words that today use -er were spelled -re at one time. In American English, almost all of these have become -er, but in British English only some of them have. Words that were once spelled -re include chapter, December, disaster, enter, filter, letter, member, minister, monster, November, number, October, oyster, powder, proper, September, sober and tender. Words using the "-meter" suffix (from ancient Greek -μέτρον via post-Classical Latin meter) have normally had the -er spelling from earliest use in English. Examples include thermometer and barometer.
The e preceding the r is kept in American-derived forms of nouns and verbs, for example, fibers, reconnoitered, centering, which are fibres, reconnoitred, and centring respectively in British English. Centring is an interesting example, since, according to the OED, it is a "word ... of 3 syllables (in careful pronunciation)"[24] (i.e., /ˈsɛntəɹɪŋ/), yet there is no vowel in the spelling corresponding to the second syllable (/ə/). The three-syllable version is listed as only the American pronunciation of centering on the Oxford Dictionaries Online website. The e is dropped for other derivations, for example, central, fibrous, spectral. However, such dropping cannot be deemed proof of an -re British spelling: for example, entry and entrance come from enter, which has not been spelled entre for centuries.[25]
The difference relates only to root words; -er rather than -re is universal as a suffix for agentive (reader, winner, user) and comparative (louder, nicer) forms. One outcome is the British distinction of meter for a measuring instrument from metre for the unit of length. However, while "poetic metre" is often -re, pentameter, hexameter etc. are always -er.[26]
Exceptions[edit]
Many other words have -er in British English. These include Germanic words; such as anger, mother, timber and water and Romance words danger, quarter and river.
The ending -cre, as in acre,[27] lucre, massacre, and mediocre, is used in both British and American English to show that the c is pronounced /k/ rather than /s/. The spellings ogre and euchre are also the same in both British and American English.
Theater is the prevailing American spelling used to refer to both the dramatic arts and buildings where stage performances and screenings of films take place (i.e., "movie theaters"); for example, a national newspaper such as The New York Times would use theater in its entertainment section. However, the spelling theatre appears in the names of many New York City theaters on Broadway[28] (cf. Broadway theatre) and elsewhere in the United States. In 2003, the American National Theatre was referred to by The New York Times as the "American National Theater", but the organization uses "re" in the spelling of its name.[29][30] The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. has the more common American spelling theater in its references to The Eisenhower Theater, part of the Kennedy Center.[31] Some cinemas outside New York also use the theatre spelling.[32] (Note also that the word "theater" in American English is a place where stage performances and screenings of films take place, but in British English a "theatre" is where stage performances take place but not film screenings – these take place in a cinema.)
Some placenames in the United States use Centre in their names. Examples include the Stonebriar Centre mall, the cities of Rockville Centre and Centreville, Centre County and Centre College. Sometimes, these places were named before spelling changes but more often the spelling merely serves as an affectation.
For British accoutre, the American practice varies: the Merriam-Webster Dictionary prefers the -re spelling,[33] but The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language prefers the -er spelling.[34]
More recent French loanwords keep the -re spelling in American English. These are not exceptions when a French-style pronunciation is used (/ɹə/ rather than /ə(ɹ)/ or /ɚ/), as with double entendre, genre and oeuvre. However, the unstressed /ə(ɹ)/ and /ɚ/ pronunciation of an -er ending is used more (or less) often with some words, including cadre, macabre, maître d', Notre Dame, piastre, and timbre.
Commonwealth usage[edit]
The -re endings are mostly standard throughout the Commonwealth. The -er spellings are recognized as minor variants in Canada, partly due to American influence, and are sometimes used in proper names (such as Toronto's controversially named Centerpoint Mall).[35]
-ce, -se[edit]
For advice/advise and device/devise, American English and British English both keep the noun–verb distinction both graphically and phonetically (where the pronunciation is -[s] for the noun and -[z] for the verb). For licence/license or practice/practise, British English also keeps the noun–verb distinction graphically (although phonetically the two words in each pair are homophones with -[s] pronunciation). On the other hand, American English uses license and practice for both nouns and verbs (with -[s] pronunciation in both cases too).
American English has kept the Anglo-French spelling for defense and offense, which are defence and offence in British English. Likewise, there are the American pretense and British pretence; but derivatives such as defensive, offensive, and pretension are always thus spelled in both systems.
Australian[36] and Canadian usage generally follows British.
-xion, -ction[edit]
The spelling connexion is now rare in everyday British usage, its use lessening as knowledge of Latin lessens,[37] and it is not used at all in the US: the more common connection has become the standard worldwide. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the older spelling is more etymologically conservative, since the original Latin word had -xio-. The American usage comes from Webster, who abandoned -xion in favour of -ction by analogy with verbs like connect.[38] Connexion was still the house style of The Times of London until the 1980s and was still used by the British Post Office for its telephone services in the 1970s, but had by then been overtaken by connection in regular usage (for example, in more popular newspapers).
Complexion (which comes from complex) is standard worldwide and complection is rare.[39] However, the adjective complected (as in "dark-complected"), although sometimes objected to, is standard in the US as an alternative to complexioned,[40] but is not used in this way in the UK, although there is a rare usage to mean complicated.[41]
In some cases, words with "old-fashioned" spellings are retained widely in the US for historical reasons (cf. connexionalism).
Greek-derived spellings[edit]
-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization)[edit]
See also: Oxford spelling
Origin and recommendations[edit]
The -ize spelling is often incorrectly seen as an Americanism in Britain.[42] However, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) recommends -ize and notes that the -ise spelling is from French: "The suffix…whatever the element to which it is added, is in its origin the Greek -ιζειν, Latin -izāre; and, as the pronunciation is also with z, there is no reason why in English the special French spelling should be followed, in opposition to that which is at once etymological and phonetic." The OED lists the -ise form separately, as an alternative.[43]
Publications by Oxford University Press (OUP)—such as Henry Watson Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, Hart's Rules,[44] and The Oxford Guide to English Usage[45]—also recommend -ize. However, Robert Allan's Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage considers either spelling to be acceptable anywhere but the US.[46] Also, Oxford University itself does not agree with the OUP, but advocates -ise instead of -ize in its staff style guide.[47]
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