English and Canadian spelling......vs. American??

Question

Very interesting, I think. Why do the English and Canadians spell words like this, "labour", "favourite", "realise", etc? While Americans spell "labor, favorite, realize?" both are totally accepted I think, but I'd like to find out where/why this came about.

Answer 1

Actually, Canadians spell more in the American way than in the British way. I am Canadian and also spell "labor", "favorite", and "realize". When we were in school, we were taught that either spellings were correct. For example "color/colour" or "labor/labour". I just checked my Canadian calender to see what they had for "Labor Day". It is spelled the American way (Labor Day).

Answer 2

Canadians speak Canadian English. There are several Canadian accents, as well as several American ones. The Newfoundland accent is TOTALLY different from the one in Texas! Some along the border, particularly Wisconsin and Manitoba, have a similar accent, but, even then, you can often tell the difference. BTW, Aussies/Kiwis do not sound British to most, although they are more similar than Canadian and British English. The Canadian/American similarity has historical roots. When the Americans had their Revolution, about 40 percent of people stayed loyal to the Crown. They ended up coming to Canada as United Empire Loyalists. There were large numbers of them, and they would have certainly influenced the accent(s) in Canada.

Answer 3

Americans had Noah Webster, who sought out to reform the English language in the United States with his dictionaries. So the result was two different ways of spelling words.

Canadian spelling is a mix of American and British conventions. So while Canadian words like labour, favoruite, and realise like the British do, they also spell aluminum (not aluminium), tire (tyre), curb (kerb), diarrhea (not diarrhoea), fetus (not fetus), oestrogen (not estrogen), encyclopedia (not encyclopaedia), etc. which are all also American and not British spelling conventions.

Also, someone above said that American spellings are acceptable only in America. I should point out that in the Philippines, American English is used.

Answer 4

The American version of English is only acceptable in America, and I think it's part of the American rebellion against the British, like the driving on the opposite side of the road, just some thing for yanks to say "We can do what ever we want so nerrrrr"

Answer 5

In some cases we Americans continue to use English words that have fallen out of use in England. So whoever argues that we just run around changing things is wrong. The metric system is also a more recent development. The system of feet, inches, etc was used in Europe for hundreds of years.

As for your question, I think it's already been answered.

Answer 6

It's just the American way ;-P Take something the entire world uses, and screw it up. "Oh the rest of the world uses Queen's English and the metric system? Let's change a few s to z remove a few u's in words! And foot is soooo much cooler than meters!!"

I learned Queen's English and immigrated to the U.S. when I was 9. Now I say "color", but often times I write "realise"

Answer 7

As far as I've heard, in the early 1900s, Theodore Roosevelt started a campaign to simplify spelling in the US. It didn't get very far but those extraneous "u"s did get dropped at that time. I've not researched it, so I'm truly just passing along hearsay. It sounded good when I heard it......

Answer 8

canadian is the olde english/proper english spelling

Answer 9

The use of the "u" is the "queens language" nonuse is just normal language.

Answer 10

Americans ruined the language...!