On Tue Jul 6, at TuesdayJul 6 11:36 PM, John Howell wrote:
(For whatever it's worth, I also consider pseudo-French spellings
of words like centre and theatre to be stuck up, adopted in England
to show that people had studied French!)
The "theatre" spelling, which apart from being standard British
spelling, even among the mono-lingual, is also used in Canada and
dates back to the 1700's, according to my sources. The word IS a
French word (not pseudo at all), borrowed (as many English words are)
either with or without the anglicised spelling. Many Canadians, such
as myself, cling to the "re" spelling (along with spellings such as
"anglicised" instead of the American "anglicized") as much from
stubbornness as from patriotism. It's just the way we learned to
spell it!
The "er" standardised spelling used by Americans can be traced back
to Webster, according to this link, while the "re" spelling became
standard in Britain with the earlier Johnson's dictionary. Both were
in use before then.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=-re&searchmode=none
And most anglophone Canadians who speak French too are not stuck up,
they are just trying to get along with their fellow citizens. Some
might take exception to your position.
Christopher
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