Why did Americans change the spelling of some British words?

Question

British --- American
labour --- labor
neighbour --- neighbor
colour --- color
favourite --- favorite
harbour --- harbor
catalogue --- catalogue
cypher --- cipher
grey --- gray
racquet --- racket
checquered --- checkered
mitred --- mitered
moustache --- mustache
ochre --- ocher
sabre --- saber
sombre --- somber
sulphur --- sulfur
theatre --- theater
centre --- center

Sorry, catalog isn't supposed to have the ue at the end of the American spelling.

Answer 1

American English in its written form is standardized across the U.S. (and in schools abroad specializing in American English). Though not devoid of regional variations, particularly in pronunciation and vernacular vocabulary, American speech is somewhat uniform throughout the country, largely due to the influence of mass communication and geographical and social mobility in the United States. After the American Civil War, the settlement of the western territories by migrants from the Eastern U.S. led to dialect mixing and levelling, so that regional dialects are most strongly differentiated along the Eastern seaboard. The General American accent and dialect (sometimes called 'Standard Midwestern'), often used by newscasters, is traditionally regarded as the unofficial standard for American English.

British English has a reasonable degree of uniformity in its formal written form, which, as taught in schools, is largely the same as in the rest of the English-speaking world (except North America). On the other hand, the forms of spoken English – dialects, accents and vocabulary – used across the British Isles vary considerably more than in most other English-speaking areas of the world, even more so than in the United States, due to a much longer history of dialect development in the English speaking areas of Great Britain and Ireland. Dialects and accents vary, not only between England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales (which constitute the United Kingdom), plus the Republic of Ireland, but also within these individual countries. Received Pronunciation (RP) (also referred to as BBC English or Queen's English) has traditionally been regarded as 'proper English' – 'the educated spoken English of south-east England'. The BBC and other broadcasters now intentionally use a mix of presenters with a variety of British accents and dialects, and the concept of 'proper English' is now far less prevalent.

Answer 2

Don't blame the differences on society, it was two dictionary publishers that caused the divergence.

"In the early 18th century, spelling in English was not regular; current British spellings follow, for the most part, those of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755), while some of the characteristic present-day American spellings were introduced by Noah Webster (An American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828)" Quoted from Wikipedia.

Answer 3

All countries have done this, separating urself from another country brings with it change in language and culture. For example Spain is the "mother country" to all Spanish speaking nations yet each country spells things differently and pronounce words differently it's still Spanish, each country just had to give it that little twist to make it their own. So the same thing happened with American English. I don't know any two countries in the world that spell things exactly the same even when one originated from the other. Also remember that America is a mixture of cultures so as people from different countries Incorporated words we modified it to suit our people and lifestyle.

Answer 4

Because the Americans wanted to make spelling easier for the population. As someone said above, English is a terribly unphonetic language. No rules and hardly any grammar. I personnally don't think the spelling should have changed. It shows the roots of the English language and therefore pulls both the English and Americans down to earth. They really think too much of themselves. And they say the French are proud.

Answer 5

All the -re words derive from French and are hard to pronounce; -er words are easier to pronounce.

For the -ou- words, the U was felt to be unnecessary.

The US, generally tried to be different from the British and also to simplify things. Many Americans want to change spelling to phonetic sytems rather than the old-fashioned way. I mean: cough, through, bough, hiccough, etc are all different in pronunciation, so why not use phonetic spellings: caff, thru, baw, hiccup?

Answer 6

I don't know but it is pretty annoying. When I first moved to America I kept getting marked off and corrected for incorrect spelling because I used proper English as opposed to American english. That still happens all the time.

Answer 7

In the period after the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, many Americans wanted to be as separate from Britain as possible, including the changing of words.

Answer 8

Like British is original.

Answer 9

Because Americans changed the spellings so they reflect the pronounciation of the words instead of their French origins.

Answer 10

Because Americans think they're the best and that they can do anything. Can't really blame others for finding us irritating. I think I'll use this moment to say I hate flag waving idiots that have patriotic bumper stickers. In case you didn't know... you look like @ssholes!