Bill Potts wrote in USMA >John Schweisthal wrote: >> Isn't it funny that the British who complain about the French, use French >> spellings in English rather than American. Yet, they complain >> about "French" measures. Go figure!! > >On the subject of spelling, the practice that annoys me is the Canadian >one. > >About the time I moved from Toronto to California (in 1977), most of the >Canadian newspapers were using spelling that was even more progressive than >American, and had been doing so for quite a number of years. For example, >they even spelled glamour without the "u." > >Since then, the more reactionary members of the academic, literary and >public sector communities seem to have won the day, with a very major shift >back to British spelling. > >I remember hearing complaints, regarding American spelling -- that it wasn't >Canadian. My response was always that the British spelling isn't Canadian >either. Perhaps Joe can tell us if Canada's identity crisis is still >ongoing. <g> > >Although I'm British born and a naturalized Canadian, I speak American >English (good American English, I hasten to add). Of course, in spite of the >reactionaries, words like "sidewalk" persist in Canada. (For those who don't >know, the Brits call it the pavement.) I'm not sure whether they're spelling >the edge of the sidewalk "curb" or "kerb," these days. Joe? Yes, Bill, I am afraid that Canada's identity crisis is still ongoing. When I was in elementary school in Alberta we learnt "color", "honor", "center", etc. When I moved to Nova Scotia in 1926 it was back to British sperlling. I believe Canadian Press changed from American to British spelling a few years ago. Certainly the Globe and Mail did. However, the change is not complete. Program is sill "program" and not "programme". But the University of Waterloo has insisted that computer instructions are a "programme". At the same time the British Computer Society had decided that instrtuctions to a computer are a "program". And curb in Canada is still "curb", not "kerb". At the same time, vocabulary remains American, with a few words of our own We have sidewalks; pavement is what automobiles roll on. I prefer eclectic spelling. I write color, honor, but connexioon, reflexion. Joe
