AMERICAN SPELLINGS
G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S, spells out the US pop artist Fergie in her hit number- a way to assert everybody that's how its spelt. More and more non-Americans are now using spellings like COLOR for COLOUR, ALUMINUM for ALUMINIUM, VIGOR for VIGOUR, CENTER for CENTRE, TRAVELER for TRAVELLER, etc. and pronounce "Z" as "ZEE", instead of "ZED". Americans reading this would not even understand what the fuss is about!
American English spellings are distinctly different than the rest of the world. It wasn't until late 18th century that this change came about in America. People from different parts of the world tend to have their own accents and meanings to words, which is understandable as migration and demographics make language to evolve constantly. The varied differences in Aussie English, British English, American English, South African English stand testimony to it. However, the spellings were the same across the globe. Surprisingly in America, it was just the effort of a certain Noah Webster which brought about drastic changes in the American English spellings.
Disillusioned with the schooling system in the 1780s where students studied from British books, Noah Webster thought that drastic reforms was necessary to impart education and to enhance the learning process. Perhaps the first patron of Americanization, he argued that Americans should learn from American books, which would be significantly different from the British. He believed that English language was too aristocratic in nature, and mired in pedantry. The common man should control the language, instead of royals.
He wrote a three volume compendium "A Grammatical Institute of the English Language", with the "Speller" being the first part. The Speller became very popular and it was the first ever published book in America. It taught students to read, write and to properly pronounce English words. It became the sole authority for English grammar and learning in America. It also popularized contests like SPELLING BEE, which is in vogue even today. In this book he also detailed the "Americanized" spellings for words. Words like Metre became Meter, Jeweller became Jeweler, Odour became Odor...
His dictionary also included 12,000 new English words unknown to the world. He hoped to standardize the English language in America. His idea was simple- English spellings are unnecessarily complex, and needs to be reformed. His dictionary contained all the Americanized spellings, and it has stayed on ever since in the US. What's more, its now catching up all over the world.
If Webster was the pioneer who brought about major reforms in English spellings to America, then today Bill Gates and Microsoft are bringing about this change to the whole world. How? A vast majority of word processing software used today is Microsoft Word, where the default language is US English.
So every time we type in a non-US spelling, it highlights it as an error. Lazy that we are, we accept the American spellings instead of changing the MS-Word dictionary to UK English or some other English. Almost all the documents typed today are either done on Microsoft word, or other software which ALSO has the default language as US English. So in effect, the whole world is slowly evolving into using American terms and spellings for our day to day dealings. While the change may not be that evident, it surely is taking place albeit slowly. As long as people continue to use word processors for their documents and reports, this trend is unlikely to change.
There will be a day when words like THOU, CANST, THY etc. will be obsolete- even for poetry. The whole world is being Americanized!
Copyright: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/ / CC BY 2.0
American English spellings are distinctly different than the rest of the world. It wasn't until late 18th century that this change came about in America. People from different parts of the world tend to have their own accents and meanings to words, which is understandable as migration and demographics make language to evolve constantly. The varied differences in Aussie English, British English, American English, South African English stand testimony to it. However, the spellings were the same across the globe. Surprisingly in America, it was just the effort of a certain Noah Webster which brought about drastic changes in the American English spellings.
Disillusioned with the schooling system in the 1780s where students studied from British books, Noah Webster thought that drastic reforms was necessary to impart education and to enhance the learning process. Perhaps the first patron of Americanization, he argued that Americans should learn from American books, which would be significantly different from the British. He believed that English language was too aristocratic in nature, and mired in pedantry. The common man should control the language, instead of royals.
He wrote a three volume compendium "A Grammatical Institute of the English Language", with the "Speller" being the first part. The Speller became very popular and it was the first ever published book in America. It taught students to read, write and to properly pronounce English words. It became the sole authority for English grammar and learning in America. It also popularized contests like SPELLING BEE, which is in vogue even today. In this book he also detailed the "Americanized" spellings for words. Words like Metre became Meter, Jeweller became Jeweler, Odour became Odor...His dictionary also included 12,000 new English words unknown to the world. He hoped to standardize the English language in America. His idea was simple- English spellings are unnecessarily complex, and needs to be reformed. His dictionary contained all the Americanized spellings, and it has stayed on ever since in the US. What's more, its now catching up all over the world.
If Webster was the pioneer who brought about major reforms in English spellings to America, then today Bill Gates and Microsoft are bringing about this change to the whole world. How? A vast majority of word processing software used today is Microsoft Word, where the default language is US English.
So every time we type in a non-US spelling, it highlights it as an error. Lazy that we are, we accept the American spellings instead of changing the MS-Word dictionary to UK English or some other English. Almost all the documents typed today are either done on Microsoft word, or other software which ALSO has the default language as US English. So in effect, the whole world is slowly evolving into using American terms and spellings for our day to day dealings. While the change may not be that evident, it surely is taking place albeit slowly. As long as people continue to use word processors for their documents and reports, this trend is unlikely to change.There will be a day when words like THOU, CANST, THY etc. will be obsolete- even for poetry. The whole world is being Americanized!
Copyright: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/ / CC BY 2.0
posted by SHAILENDRA at 4:59 PM
3 Comments:
Very interesting post. I've never thought about it.
@ Above:
Thank you!
very interesting blog, but its very hard to read white on black backgrounds.
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