Why have Americans butchered the English language?

Question

Seriously why have Americans changed the spelling of English words and invented a whole host of ponitlessly over elaborate words e.g. Elevator instead of Lift?

Also what is the tendency to put -ism at the end of miscellaneous adjectives all about.?

Is it indicative of their desire to place everyone and everything into groups and categories?

Answer 1

It's a natural variation that occurs when groups of people that once spoke the exact same language branch off into groups. The same occurs with all other languages, of course. When the split between American English and British Standard took place, there were no computers, Internet, etc. That made the changes even more pronounced. Add that to the way the people from the particular parts of England spoke, words and terms of Native origin and the influx of non-English speaking immigrants, and you have American Standard English. These are neither superior nor inferior to each other, rather two different sets of standards.

Elevator is actually an old brand-name , the originals being made by Otis. I also sometimes wonder if the grouping and categorizing wasn't introduced by indigenous cultures. I know we Cherokee have a habit of trying to put everything into groups, even fictional things! Our language reflects that as well. We classify objects into liquid, flexible, rigid, and so on.

Answer 2

Sorry, I am American and I don't see a butchering of the English language. My question is, why is a truck called a "lorry" in the UK, or a freeway a "motorway"? It just is. British English and American English are two different dialects of the same language.

Personally, I like "color" over "colour", the "u" makes no sense since it isn't pronounced, and I think the term "elevator" makes much more sence than "lift", the latter being confusing. Think about it, "Where is the lift?" could be taken in more than one way.

I can't see what you are saying about putting "-ism" at the end of miscellaneous adjectives, unless you tare talking about things like "communism", "socialism", etc., which are just as much British as American.

Answer 3

One thing to consider is that America is the "melting pot". We have so many people from thousands of different countries all trying to learn the same language. Different groups of people (Asians, Mexicans, French etc...) have different difficulties in learning English so sometimes they pronounce or spell words a bit off. When it is done by a huge group of people sometimes these variations stick.

Another thing to think about. If we all talked the same this world would become very boring.

You say colour, we say color. Same meaning, diffierent spelling.

Answer 4

It happened over a couple hundred years, we did not "butcher" it yesterday.

We are probably lucky that it is still he same language at all.

The thing about "ism" is just another fad for those with big heads but small minds. Trendy talk for the self-important.

Answer 5

Sure! I also think its because we Americans want to be different. We value the fact that we are INDEPENDENT and do things our own way. Its a free country... Why not freely use speech in the ways we choose?

Answer 6

let me guess. you are English? we did it to make it easy to learn . would you rather speak Old English?

Answer 7

Now I would categorize your question as poinlessism

Answer 8

so by changing loo to toilet, nappy to diaper, and not using words like bloody and wanker, that means we've butchered english? please