Have we recently changed the spelling of the word "programme" in Austrlalia to "program?"?

Question

Are we so in love with Amercia that we have to spell like them too? You hear teenagers practically talking in an amercian accent, but that's another story just answer the first question...about the spelling. No insults please.

have we changed others? and when did this happen?

Answer 1

The word was always "program" in line with other words from the Greek "gramma" such as diagram, anagram, cryptogram, telegram. During the 19th century, French endings became fashionable in England and the word gained an extra "me" on the end. It stuck in the UK. The original form stayed in the USA.

In Australia, the revival of "program" was well under way twenty years ago and probably longer than that. The form "program" is now both correct and recommended.

Stick with "programme" if you like but there is no real justification for it.

Answer 2

The reason many English-speaking people in the world , Autralians included, more and more adapt the American spelling over the original British one is because it's simpler and the word in question would still be recognizable: program over programme, color over colour.

A deeper reason: Nowadays, people are more exposed to American terminologies because of popular American culture, literature and products being more prevalent than English ones: everyone has seen the words color and program on film and TV such as "Color by Deluxe" "Living Colors". Also "The following program is a CNN special report..."

Furthermore, there are over 300 million people in the USA and only 50 million in Britain and 20 million in Australia. The numbers are important. Also, the English used in Canada is much closer to American English than British English for obvious reasons.

Incidentally, the American pronunciation of the word Jaguar is much closer to the original Latin American pronunciation for the word than the British way of pronoucing it. The animal for which the car is named comes from Central and South America, hence the American way in this case is more authentic.

Answer 3

i don't think it's just an americanization thing. In general, people are dumbing down words- using less and less letters to get their points across. it probably has to do a lot with the text messaging, emailing and instant messaging revolution. I remember when it was taboo to spell the word "through" as "thru," but now it's almost the rule. same with "though" and almost anything else ending in -ough. Just my 2 cents...

Answer 4

I don't know what has happened in Australia, but in the UK there are now two words:-

'programme' - Something you watch on the television or listen to on the radio for example (and please, Firefox, stop telling me all the time I'm spelling it incorrectly!)

'program' - something that you use on a computer.

Answer 5

I'M HEARING YOU!!!
Its like in AUST we spell colour
but they spell it color....and it go's on and on and soon...we won't have our own ?
Yep!! I hear you loud and clear.

Just ask an american to say the car name?..Jaguar
Thats a jagwire to them??? duh!
Not as it should be JAG-U-ARE....

Answer 6

Yes, we have. What more can I say?