It's too ridiculous for being modern. Simplify it!

Roberto   Tue Mar 21, 2006 11:05 pm GMT
British don't want to simplify their English spelling as Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and others have done it to theirs.

No foreigner can simplify English spelling without permission of England.
Ed   Tue Mar 21, 2006 11:30 pm GMT
I was under the impression that generally American English was more conservative than British English in its spelling.

While center and theater make more sense than centre and theatre I think colour and humour make more sense than color and humor though obviously they are far from perfect. Color looks to me as though it should be pronounced rather like collar. Senter, kuller and humer would probably be how we'd spell them if they were new words that we had to write in English for the first time. In any case, to most English eyes the American spellings appear crude.
Jim   Tue Mar 21, 2006 11:57 pm GMT
I am a little disturbed myself that there is a growing trend in the Australia to spell words like "centre", "theatre", "colour" and "humour" the American way: "center", "theater", "color" and "humor".

Long live that loveably tangled mess we know as English orthography. I've been contemplating spelling reform for years ... decades & have reached the conclusion that the best policy would be to let it be as the Fab Four sang.
Tiffany   Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:02 am GMT
My husband (Italian) thinks America is more progressive in its spelling than Britain. He cites examples like "centre" and "center", "plough" and "plow", "color" and "colour".

He also doesn't understand why we don't make it phonetic.

Ed - I can't see how "color" looks like it should be pronounced like "collar". I also don't see how adding the "u" makes it more understandable. Can you explain?

Roberto - Americans simplifyed English spelling without the permisson of the Queen. Unless of course you mean British spelling.
Ed   Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:07 am GMT
Colour makes it more understandable as the word, at least in English English, is pronounced as if it ends in -er, not -or. To my mind at least -our resembles -er more than -or.

As I said, kuller would be a better rendition but that would probably be too radical, as would senter.
Benjamin   Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:09 am GMT
I pronounce 'color' as 'cuh-luh', so with usual British phonetics, 'culler' would seem like the most reasonable spelling for my accent. So ultimately for me, neither 'colour' nor 'color' seem particularly rational, as the French 'couleur' probably represents better my pronunciation of the word.
american nic   Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:37 am GMT
So Ben, you pronounce 'color' similar to 'koo-loo-ah'?
Fredrik from Norway   Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:50 am GMT
From a Scandinavian point of view the differences in spelling between American and British English are so minor that they are not worth discussing at all!
Travis   Wed Mar 22, 2006 1:22 am GMT
>>From a Scandinavian point of view the differences in spelling between American and British English are so minor that they are not worth discussing at all!<<

I agree with that sentiment as well, even though I will still be irked when individuals from, well, certain places insist that their spellings thereof are somehow "correct", "right", or "better".
Tiffany   Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:01 am GMT
I'm in total agreement with you two! I don't find either better or worse. Just different. And as Fredrik so kindly pointed out - those differences are minor.
Jim   Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:43 am GMT
Tru the difrences ar miner.
Uriel   Wed Mar 22, 2006 4:07 am GMT
Colour, humour, favour -- I've never understood why it takes two letters to spell a schwa! ;)
Jim   Wed Mar 22, 2006 4:19 am GMT
Colour, humour, favour ... I count three. ;)
Jim   Wed Mar 22, 2006 4:38 am GMT
"Senter, kuller and humer would probably be how we'd spell them if they were new words that we had to write in English for the first time."

Maybe but I think "culler" would be more probable. Also if there were to be a reform, "center" should do.

Some proposals are radical enough to suggest there be a one-to-one relationship between phoneme and grapheme. Dialect problems aside, this gives us a number of homographs to deal with.

Some reformers suggest adding silent letters or letter doubling to deal with this. "Sent" would remain the same but "cent" might be respelt as "sentt" or "sentx" and "scent" would become "ssent" or "sentq". Bluddy absurd! Best just to leave things as they are.
Benjamin   Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:21 am GMT
« So Ben, you pronounce 'color' similar to 'koo-loo-ah'? »

No... I said that I pronounce it like 'cuh-luh'. Unless that's somehow best rendered as 'koo-loo-ah' within your accent.