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Noah Webster had some modest success, but only in the US, which is where many of the unique American English spellings come from - color, center, plow, etc. So
by astura 7y ago
Noah Webster had some modest success, but only in the US, which is where many of the unique American English spellings come from - color, center, plow, etc.
Some of his proposals never caught on though. I think I remember tung (instead of tongue) being one of the rejected ones.
- Jagat 7y agoWow, I've always assumed that the difference between American and British spelling is because of a natural divergence as a result of being far away for such a long time.
- thaumasiotes 7y agoNo, it was a deliberate effort to create a schism.
- oneplane 7y agoIt was also cheaper on the printing press. Less typesetting required.
- Amezarak 7y agoColor is not uniquely American. It was used in England since before America’s discovery and is, in fact, more etymologically correct - it comes from the Latin word “color”. :) The more French-influenced colour was more common in England, and obviously eventually did totally win out. There are generally very similar stories for most “American” spellings.
- wirrbel 7y agoIirc it's "Couleur" in french.
- Amezarak 7y agoIt is now, maybe, but not when the borrowing took place.
- toyg 7y agoColore in Italian. Adding random "u"s to Latin words is a very French thing.
- Anarch157a 7y agoPortuguese abbreviated it to "cor", but we keep the longer version on the verb "colorir" (to color).
- AstralStorm 7y agoAnd in Polish we have both the Latin import "kolor" (Phonetic k in place of c) and Slavic variant "barwa". (Sounded with v English sound as w per phonetic Latin and forward trill r) Polish is weird like that.
- astura 7y agoNoah Webster was (among other things) a spelling reformer, he didn't "invent" all of his spellings but he researched and deliberately chose them based on his ideas about language and politics and advocated for their use. It was a deliberate effort, not something that just happened.
- k_sze 7y agoWhich makes me curious, what did the Anglo-Saxons use as the word for “color”, before the onset of French influence?
- unclenoriega 7y agoLooks like it was hue (as hiw). https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=hue https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=hue
- DonaldFisk 7y agoAlso blēo(h) and dēah.
- billfruit 7y agoI wonder as an non-American, if books printed in the US, like Shakespeare or the King James Bible or Dickens novels use British spelling or American spelling.
- freeone3000 7y agoMy copy of the king james bible uses the American spelling with the original words and phrasings, quite amazingly.
- wyclif 7y agoThat's irregular, though, and obviously a "corrected" text for the American market, right? What does the copyright/publisher info say? The KJB is notably copyright-free, so US publishers were free to modify it.
- booleandilemma 7y agoThe Harry Potter books I read as a kid used American spelling.
- jfk13 7y agoYes, there was a separate American edition. (Even the title of the first volume was changed: the original "philosopher's stone" became "sorcerer's stone" for the US market.)
- toyg 7y agoSometimes I wonder if the editing world is arbitrarily building barriers in order to justify its continuous existence.
- dragonwriter 7y agoIn the case of HP1, the title difference was based on the perception that the alchemical reference in the original title would be less evocative in the American youth market and “sorceror’s stone” would convey the intended idea better to that audience due to cultural difference. I don't know if test marketing or focus groups were involved in that judgement, but I wouldn't be surprised.