Why are American English words like 'color', 'favorite', 'savor', etc, missing the letter 'u'?

Question

Is it because Americans are so self-centered?

Answer 1

No, it's because they don't know how to make a U, the fcking cnts.

Answer 2

Hello. American English is somewhat different from the older English from Great Britain. It's not because we are self-centered (although I think we are, don't get me wrong). Over time, any language changes. For example, our language right now is changing very rapidly due to the influx of immigrants into our society. Then over time we get hybrid linguistics such as "Spanglish," e.g. "Come here, ahora." Another example is taken from when the Bible was first written. The New Testament was written in the Koine Greek, an ancient language. If asked to read the original language, a Greek today wouldn't be able to read it fluently. Considering all of that, I'm quite surprised that not much more has changed from the original British English language.

Answer 3

First of all, it has nothing to do with laziness nor even "efficiency"! It was a conscious, reasoned decision.

This particular change in spelling is one of the reforms in American spelling suggested by the early American teacher Noah Webster. It is found in the dictionary he published in 1826.

Webster actually suggested many spelling reforms, and only some of them ended up being accepted. Changing -our endings to -or was one of these.

For a list see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_reform#Successes_in_spelling_simplification
compare:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences


The u, of course, does not affect the pronunciation at all. That was Webster's reason for omitting it. In fact, the u in most if not all of the -our words is derived from French (forms ending in -eur, e.g., honneur, valeur) or were influened by Norman forms. Thus these are MIDDLE English words (after the Norman Conquest) and not OLD English. But note that the Latin ORIGINAL of "colour" is, in fact, "color". Not such a crazy innovation!
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/color

In fact, I believe SOME of his changes were accepted by the British (perhaps at other's suggestion not his own), e.g., "music" instead of the older "musick". Incidentally, one important thing to keep in mind in all of this spelling discussion is that when Webster began his work in the late 18th century there was no real "standard English spelling" on EITHER side of the Atlantic! (Just read the unedited versions of writings from this period.) So some of Webster's work was simply trying to bring some standards to an almost "anything goes" situation... all the more understandable since his MAIN concern was as a TEACHER providing materials for students in American elementary schools. His first works, before the dictionary, were a grammar a reader and a spelling book -- all teaching tools. So changing the spelling of some words to better match how they were pronounced by his day was a reasonable part of his overall program.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Webster#Speller_and_Dictionary

Answer 4

No it's because Noah Webster wrote an American Dictionary. Most changes were made because it was seen as easier. You don't pronounce the 'u' so it ended up coming into writing by error and circulated as color and so became official with creation of dictionary. In the words of Salman Rushdie 'Language is a living breathing thing' constantly changing and adapting. the drop of 'u' in color is much like the differences between old english and present.

Answer 5

English spelling didn't become standardised until Caxton started printing using moveable type. By that time, America was already using different pronunciation. English and American spelling is based upon the way words used to be pronounced when printing became widespread. Since then we've changed our vowels again and (apart from Geordies) stopped pronouncing the gutteral ending on words like through

We spell it colour, Americans spell it color, but now we both say culler.

Answer 6

This sort of American/British difference is usually because the spelling wasn't standardised until mass printing became possible which was well AFTER US Independance and well after the two languages (dialects) had diverged.

Answer 7

i think that they don't have u,because the first people that where sent to America, where probably illiterate as many of them where beggars and convicts,not educated upper class civilians. by the time the educated trusted that it was a safe and desirable place to go, the language would have been established,the people foundering it would have made there own spellings,and the new comers would have had to tow the line with them.

Answer 8

History Channel (?) said that, after the Americans won their independence, Noah Webster said, "We started a new nation, let us start a new language." Or something like that.

Answer 9

because u is not in America, are you?
They speak English in certain places but do not necessarily understand it!
It's culture differences too, pavement versus sidewalk etc.
Banana is spelt the same but pronounced differently. colour is pronounced the same but spelt differently!
Are the yanks wierd or is it the Brits?
Bring back Latin that's what I say!
In England now most teenagers don't speak English either do they? It's fink & fanks - I don't know these words on either side of the pond!

Answer 10

Maybe the like making everything simpler for their urm urm less then clever then English People, people. Like names, the Irish Name Niamh is spelt Neeve, Melvyn is spelt Melvin, they like to be assured they can spell by using everythign phonetically lol. (I shud go to America i cnt spell neither lol.

Answer 11

I much prefer the American spellings. We done away with the crazy imperial measurements in preference for metrical & decimal & I think there should be a radical change with spelling. (I mean, how stupid is the "-ough" combination of letters?)
It would speed up the learning to read for children for a start.