LL-L "Orthography" 2009.07.12 (07) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 10 July 2009 - Volume 07
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From: R. F. Hahn
<sassisch at yahoo.com<http://uk.mc264.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=sassisch@yahoo.com>
>
Subject: Orthography

Folks

I'm assuming the phenomenon I'm going to discuss is not limited to the
Seattle area but is found elsewhere, if not everywhere, in the United
States. I have seen signs of it, at least, in the Greater San Francisco Bay
and South Bay areas of California.

The phenomenon is that of choosing the (originally non-US) spelling
"theatre" (which my US spellchecker still marks as an error) over the US
spelling "theater".

When I came here in the early 1980s, the spelling "theater" was still by far
predominant. I did then spot the spelling "theatre" in a few instances,
especially with reference to live theater, usually of the "classic" type.
Once in a while I spotted it in reference to movie theaters. At the time I
assumed that this minority spelling was a case of pretentiousness, something
to signal messages like "We're a high-class establishment". Much may have to
do with wanting to distinguish themselves from movie theaters (usually
called "cinemas" in non-American English), commonly also referred to as just
"theaters". However, the number of movie theaters using the spelling
"theatre" in their names has been increasing since then, and the spelling is
now used in the names of movie theater chains (e.g. Landmark Theatres).
Furthermore, I noticed that this spelling now predominates in reference to
live theater.

I was reminded of this when recently I went through writings by, including
casual correspondence from, ordinary Americans. Many of them used the
spelling "theatre".

Do you think it is correct to state that "theatre" is in the process of
replacing "theater" because "theatre" was at one point in time perceived as
more prestigeous (on account of being "British")? In other words, did it
start with pretension? Or do you have alternative theories?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

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