How come Singaporeans do not often use letter Z in their English words?

Question

Example: Maximise instead of Maximize; Visualise instead of Visualize....

Answer 1

There are two spellings for these words. The ones with the 'z's are from the US and were changed to more closely match the sound sometime during the 1950s.
Singaporean book writers have been influenced by both British and American spelling over the years and tend to use a mixture of the two.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Actually, American English more accurately reflects the spelling which was used in England several hundred years ago. Look at any document from the 1600s or the 1700s and you'll likely find that they use more 'z's than British English does nowadays.

Of course, as America and the UK drifted further apart, American English started to diverge slightly from British English and thus, the older spellings were kept there while in Britain, spellings were standardised.

Answer 4

America is actually the only country who uses a 'z' in words like 'realize' and 'actualize'. All other countries use the letter 's'. Eg: realise, actualise. It's been this way since English started. Noah Webster made this change to differentiate American colonies from British colonies after the revolution. Webster is also noted for the word 'magic' instead of 'magick' and removing the 'u' from British words like 'colour'. Attempted word changes like 'women' into 'wimmen' just didn't work out, with little approval from Ben Franklin.

Answer 5

That is because Singapore, being a British colony before, uses the word forms of British English, just like Malaysia.

Answer 6

its usually english people who use "z" too much. dunno bout singaporeans