I read in !emc-pstc that Pettit, Ghery <[email protected]> wrote
(in <[email protected]>)
about 'English vs. American - very off topic, but in line with curre nt
thread Re: Definition ?' on Fri, 25 Oct 2002:
>Not to mention the lack of agreement on how to spell certain words that are
>used on both sides. Color vs. colour, for example. What's with these extra
>letters, anyway? Got an uncle in the ink business? ;-)
No, that was a phenomenon of the 12th to 15th centuries, when scribes
were paid by the letter. That's how we got some of those English place
names with unlikely pronunciations:
Happisburgh ('Hazebury')
Trottiscliffe ('Trosley')
There are some personal names, too, which may have been affected in the
same way.
The 'color/colour' business is partly chance, AIUI, and partly various
proposals for US spelling reform, e.g. those by Noah Webster, whose more
outré proposals didn't catch on, but simpler ones did.
When I was a small boy, the Dewey classification index, the biggest book
on display in the public library, used Dewey's proposed spellings, and a
footnote on every page said 'Topics in bold type **ar** subdivided.'
--
Regards, John Woodgate, OOO - Own Opinions Only. http://www.jmwa.demon.co.uk
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