Some of the forms that now serve to distinguish American from British
spelling (color for colour, center for centre,
traveler for traveller, etc.) were introduced by Noah
Webster himself; others are due to spelling tendencies in Britain from the
17th century until the present day (for example, -ise for
-ize, although the Oxford English Dictionary still prefers the
-ize ending) and cases favored by the francophile tastes of 19th century
Victorian England, which had little effect on AmE (for example,
programme for program, manoeuvre for maneuver,
skilful for skillful, cheque for check, etc.).
One of the most common spelling differences is that words ending in
"-re" in BrE are rendered as "-er" in AmE (such as
"centre" and "center",
"theatre" and "theater", and
"metre" and "meter").
> Silly,
silly. It's a language difference. Who cares?Is it Cologne or
> Koln? Is it Spain or Espana? Is it Italy or Italia? Is it
aluminium
> or aluminum?
> The spelling is neither here nor there. A waste of discussion
space.
> Move along. -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [USMA:52318] RE: Spelling of "Meter"
>
From: Anthony Fletcher
> Date: Mon, February 04, 2013 2:06 pm
> To: "U.S. Metric Association"
>
> Sorry to disagree. The rest of the world uses metre and litre so
the
> US should just follow. There are enough issues without changing
the
> words as well..... It's going to be a hard battle anyway, you might
as
> well go for the whole hog.
>
> Anthony.
>
>
> On 04 Feb 2013 at 19:31:27, mechtly, eugene a wrote:
> > I advocate the phonetic American English spelling
"meter" for
> continental USA.
> >
> > When traveling in French speaking regions, I attempt to
pronounce meter
> as "me-tre."
> >
> > The attempt to distinguish the unit name "meter" from
the name of an
> instrument "meter" by spelling reforms is without
necessary
> justification in my opinion. The spellings meter and meter are not
a
> "reversion" but are continuity of well established and
correct practice
> in the USA. Combining attempted spelling reforms with efforts to
> metricate the USA create only hostility to all metric units of
> measurement, not just to the SI unit of length, the meter.
> >
> > Eugene Mechtly
> >
> > ________________________________________
> >
From: owner-u...@colostate.edu [owner-u...@colostate.edu] on behalf of
> c...@traditio.com [c...@traditio.com]
> > Sent: Monday, February 04, 2013 12:48 PM
> > To: U.S. Metric Association
> > Subject: [USMA:52312] Spelling of "Metre"
> >
> > Carleton is correct in stating that there are those regional
spelling
> > preferences -- in general. At one time the U.S. Metric
Association
> made
> > what I thought was a useful distinction: "metre" is
the measurement,
> > "meter" is the measuring instrument.
> >
> > Since making that distinction more than a decade ago, the USMA
seems to
> > have reverted to the "meter" spelling for both,
following the standard
> of
> > U.S. Government publications. Perhaps the USMA thought that
the
> "metre"
> > spelling was too "exotic" for the U.S.
> >
> > As someone who thinks that distinctions are good to keep in
language, I
> > prefer the USMA's original position distinguishing between
the
> measurement
> > and the measuring instrument by a difference in the spelling.
> >
> > ============
> > On Sun, 3 Feb 2013, Carleton MacDonald wrote:
> >
> > > With regard to spelling, sorry, both are right. In the USA
it's
> meter,
> > > theater, center. In Canada and the UK it's metre, theatre,
centre.
> > > It's a regionalism, NOT an error.
> >
>
>
