Should We Drop UK/Commonwealth English Spellings?

[CFC]

Not sure if this thread should be in Words or LAVA.

Anyway, I'm a Brit. But many of the British English spellings we use (centre, colour, flavour, centralise, ostracise etc) are illogically spelt [I'll keep our 'spelt'-type past tense words over 'spelled' mind].

* I don't say central-ICE, I say central-IZE.
* I don't say col-OUR, I say color (well, actually, I say culla or cullar).
* And so on...

In other words, many of the US English spellings seem more rational and consistent with the phonetics of the language.

Would it, thus, make sense for Brits and Commonwealth English speakers to switch over to US English spellings?

This could be particularly helpful for all those non-natives trying to learn our already difficult to pronounce words. If you don't already know how difficult our language is for non-natives, check out the video:

 

[Jekyl Anhydride]

This relates more to your slang then spelling but oh well:

Don't get your knickers in a twist Guvna. I'll check under the bonnet (hood). I hate stairs, better take the Lift. Driving the Lorrie. Or Defence spending. What a Prat to be using the blow when I'm expecting a call.

Blimey, Bloke, Dodgy, Gobsmacked, Fortnight, Grokel, Jammy, Tosh, Throwin' a Wobbly, Nicked, Takin' a Piss, Scrummy, and of course Minging. :D

I've become rather fond of some of these sayings and think you should be able to keep a little bit of UK history alive through these terms. ESL'ers will catch on after a few weeks in one of your pubs or at a football match.

 

[thujone]

Canadians usually go with a mix of "colour, valour, flavour, etc." and "centralize, hypnotize, etc." I mostly just use American spelling now since it's the linga franca for software, but still consider "colour" the proper spelling.

 

[Asclepius]

^ No. Don't ever use American spelling - it starts with dropping the 'u', or replacing the 's' with 'z', and next thing you're cheering on Trump in your underwear and having pancake stacks for breakfast; its a slippery slope (into diabetes and stupidity - not respectively)

Esperanto - Everyone talks the same - Strength through Joy -Zich Heil

 

[herbavore]

^ No. Don't ever use American spelling - it starts with dropping the 'u', or replacing the 's' with 'z', and next thing you're cheering on Trump in your underwear and having pancake stacks for breakfast; its a slippery slope (into diabetes and stupidity - not respectively)

Esperanto - Everyone talks the same - Strength through Joy -Zich Heil

I agree! Viva la difference!

 

[oxyloveUK]

I think the American ones are just easier to write/spell and sound more like they're written, we live in 2018 now so it should just get dropped. Doesn't mean we lose our identity, everything evolves

e.g. Morphine SULFATE just easier than Sulphate lol

Estrogen compared to oestrogen (ridiculous IMO)

 

[CFC]

^ very true. Haemoglobin? Are we living in ancient Rome?

However, I will keep my aluminium. And disorientated. 'Disoriented' sounds wrong. Also careened. That's not a word - we'll stick with careered. But otherwise, I'm all for a merger

Or esperanto. That's also a good option

 

[alasdairm]

I think the American ones are just easier to write/spell and sound more like they're written, we live in 2018 now so it should just get dropped. Doesn't mean we lose our identity, everything evolves

e.g. Morphine SULFATE just easier than Sulphate lol

Estrogen compared to oestrogen (ridiculous now IMO)

plusgood! maybe we should just adopt newspeak!



alasdair

 

[oxyloveUK]

Agreed, some words like those you mentioned sound wrong and even annoying sometimes but we should definitely use the simpler more logical spellings

Is esperanto difficult? Why not GoT languages? :D

Not just the situation with US and UK, Spanish pronunciations compared to Mexico are ridiculous like ce= fe, z = th.. never bother with that when in Spain (usually asking for opioid/benzo scripts lol) like alot of Brits try to. We gots to evolve

 

[spacejunk]

This relates more to your slang then spelling but oh well:

Don't get your knickers in a twist Guvna. I'll check under the bonnet (hood). I hate stairs, better take the Lift. Driving the Lorrie. Or Defence spending. What a Prat to be using the blow when I'm expecting a call.

Blimey, Bloke, Dodgy, Gobsmacked, Fortnight, Grokel, Jammy, Tosh, Throwin' a Wobbly, Nicked, Takin' a Piss, Scrummy, and of course Minging. :D

I've become rather fond of some of these sayings and think you should be able to keep a little bit of UK history alive through these terms. ESL'ers will catch on after a few weeks in one of your pubs or at a football match.

*do you mean "taking the piss"?

haha - that's cool.

I'm quite fond of british spelling, and deliberately avoid what i consider to be americanised (americanized? ) - but for me it's an aesthetic kind of thing.
And for me there is a bit of cultural baggage too - i'm a lot more comfortable with british cultural influence on australia than i am with america's.
Australia is a really new country, without a deeply established culture of our own, so there's still a tendency to look at the US and the UK for guidance in a lot of cultural stuff. It's complicated i guess, but i'm pretty strongly on the side of people wanting to minimise the americanisation of australia.

The point you make about standardising (standardizing?) spelling for non-native english speakers is interesting, but i don't think it's enough of a problem to make such a big change.
I've actually had some of the articles i've published changed to american spelling by an editor of wherever it was published, and i thought it was weird because it was for an australian audience.
I guess it reminded me that US and UK spelling are both fine.

But my personal preference is for british spelling, and don't like the idea of australian english becoming even more american-influenced than it already is.

When i hear the way kids from the 50s, or even the 80s, used to talk - they had australian accents that were really broad.
Nowadays, i think we have a much more..."globalised" accent or way of talking.
I don't have a broad aussie accent at all, but it's kinda interesting how fast accents and speaking styles change.
I think communications technologies - speaking as we are now; to people from all around the globe.

I'm not interested in trying to preserve colonial cultures or trying to cling to irrelevant traditions, and i'm not averse to changing things (like, how cool is the metric system?!) but i don't see too many solid benefits to deliberately homogenising linguistic culture.
I think language evolves and shifts constantly, and it's probably best to let changes happen organically, and make changes as they're needed.
But i don't really see a need that would warrent changing it. But i do think brit spellings look more elegant, maybe a bit more poetic. As I acknowledged though - i've got a deep cultural bias.

To me "foetus" is way better than "fetus". English is like a patchwork quilt of borrowed, appropriated and stolen words from all sorts of languages. It's a reflection of the multicultural nature of a language like english that is spoken by people all over the globe - so cross-pollenation is inevitable.
But in saying that, i'm wary of the homogenisation going too far in an US-centric direction.

 

[quiet roar]

No fucking way should we adopt the US spelling. It's not as if doing so it makes things phonetic.