Under a spell
Question: We all know there are many words that are spelled differently in
American English than in British English. How did this arise and when?
Answer: English spelling was not generally standardised until well into the
18th century, and in some respects not until the 19th century. By this time
American and British English had begun to diverge. Dr Johnson’s 1755 dictionary
in Britain and Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary in the US were among the most
influential works of the period.
Four groups of words are systematically spelled differently on the two sides
of the Atlantic. These groups are exemplified by the American spellings
“theater”, “civilize”, “color” and “traveler”. The -er and -ize spellings had
already been established as the norm by 1700. But British writers, apparently
under the influence of French spelling, began using the -re and -ise endings,
and these were endorsed by Dr Johnson. They never gained a foothold in the US.
Today, -ise is widely preferred in Britain, though conservative quarters still
use the older -ize. Oxford University Press uses -ize in all its publications,
including the Oxford English Dictionary, and so did The Times
newspaper before Rupert Murdoch bought it.
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On the other hand, “colour” and “traveller” were the norm by 1700, but
Webster rejected these in favour of “color” and “traveler”, and Americans have
followed his lead.
There is a fifth group of words with alternative spellings, largely confined
to technical terms such as oesophagus/esophagus. In these cases, the historical
details are too complicated to allow a simple account, and both spellings are
found on both sides of the Atlantic—though not always in the same
words.
There are also a number of individual words which differ unpredictably in
spelling: connexion/connection, furore/furor, racoon/raccoon, programme/program
and so on. These differences result from various historical accidents and
idiosyncratic decisions. Particularly amusing is the British “tyre” versus the
American “tire”. Here the innovative British tyre seems be the result of a
touching belief that the newfangled pneumatic tires required a distinctive new
name.
Perhaps the most famous spelling variation is the name of the lightweight
metal discovered by the English chemist Humphry Davy. He named it “aluminum”,
which is still used in America. But the British, believing names of metals ought
to end in -ium, altered it to “aluminium” and changed the pronunciation as well.
Yet for some reason the British have never got round to correcting
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Larry Trask
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences,
University of Sussex, Brighton
Answer: Most people credit Noah Webster, the American lexicographer, for the
differences in spelling between American and British English. He published
The American Spelling Book in 1788—later to be called The
Elementary Spelling Book—and over the following 40 years the book
went through about 300 editions. It sold more than 60 million copies by the end
of the 19th century. In 1828, he published the American Dictionary of the
English Language, which cemented his reputation as the foremost
lexicographer of his day.
Webster’s success has led many to believe he had a major influence on
spelling norms in America. However, many characteristics of American English
spelling were already well established. “Center” and “theater”, for example,
were not new when Webster put them in his dictionary. Webster also recommended
some pretty radical spellings, such as “soop”, “fantom”, “tuf”, “hed”, “medecin”
and “tung”. Most Americans ignored Webster’s more screwy ideas. As in the best
linguistic traditions, common sense and everyday usage had more impact on the
American spelling system than Webster’s preaching about “correct” spellings.
The final irony is that after Webster’s death in 1843, Charles and George
Merriam bought the rights to his dictionaries and published the first
Merriam-Webster dictionary in 1847. It was this dictionary, not Webster’s
original, that became a runaway success all over America, and it left out all of
Webster’s wackier spellings—thank goodness.
Barry Norris
Swansea
Answer: For most of its history the English language did not have any
standardised spelling. Numerous dictionaries were published, but they had very
little effect in standardising spelling, until Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary
of the English Language, published in 1755.
During the American Revolution, school books which had previously been
imported from Britain became scarce. A Connecticut teacher called Noah Webster
filled the gap by writing a speller, a grammar and a reader. His speller became
a bestseller and was thus very influential.
Webster simplified the spelling of words. He believed that children should
learn to speak by pronouncing each syllable separately and clearly. Therefore
silent letters such as the “u” in colour had to be discarded. Spellings such as
“tough women” became “tuf wimmen”.
Furthermore, Webster believed Americans should shrug off the spelling of
their English enemies. “Our honor requires us to have a system of our own, in
language as well as government,” he said.
Webster published A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language
in 1806 and then the in 1828 American dictionary. They sold very poorly and
Webster spent the rest of his life in poverty, but the book was a vital
contribution to the development of American English.
Hugh Selsick
London
This week’s questions
Half asleep: Is it true that some animals sleep with only half their brain at
a time? If so, which animals do this and why?
Brian O’Hannon
Philadelphia
Door to the cosmos: Surfing the Web one evening, I came across the
astonishing story of the world’s first (accidental) space shot. The US was
conducting an underground atomic test in the early 1950s and high-speed
photography showed an object streaking skywards from the detonation point at
escape velocity. It was thought to be a large metal door that had sealed the
tunnel leading down to the blast chamber. So America put a semi-molten lump of
radioactive metal into space several years before Sputnik! Like a fool, I didn’t
bookmark the page and I’ve been looking for it ever since. Is the story
true?
Kim Wilson
Oxford
