LL-L "Orthography" (was "Language varieties") 2002.04.07 (07) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Language varieties"

> From: erek gass <egass at caribline.com>
> Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2002.04.04 (09) [E]
>
> As many (perhaps, most of you) know, "American" spelling is essentially
> Noah Webster's personal determination that America should have its own
> system of spelling the same language used in the UK.  And, perhaps, I'm
> not alone in hoping that the day will come when Americans will revert to
> spelling the ways our other English-speaking neighbours spell.  Real
> differences should be cherished (as the Swiss do in each of their own
> dialect areas), but purely arbitrary and silly artifices only create
> nuisance or confusion.

It's true that Noah Webster's motives were political, but
American spelling as we know it has very little to do with
his work. Webster went all the way back to Sanskrit to try
to figure out the etymologically correct spellings of English
words, resulting in a dictionary with quite radical spellings
that nevertheless didn't gain anything much in simplicity or
consistency.

Webster's dictionary was very unpopular in America until after
his death, when Merriam took over it and replaced most of the
spellings with British ones, barring a few obvious simplifications.
It was one of America's few failures in its attempts to distance
itself from the tea-taxers!

American spelling seems to me a little easier and more logical
than British so perhaps we should look forward to the day when
the rest of us follow Merriam's example! But the differences
are so slight it's hard to see what nuisance or confusion could
be caused by it. The only actual problem I've had with American
spellings is when I write "colour" for "color" in HTML and my
web page refuses to work properly! I don't seem to make this
mistake any more, however.

Sandy
http://scotstext.org
A dinna dout him, for he says that he
On nae accoont wad ever tell a lee.
                          - C.W.Wade,
                    'The Adventures o McNab'

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