Spelling??

Question

Why is that there is a different spelling for English words. eg in South Africa colour, flavour, favour are spelled with a u & in USA they are spelled without a u??

Answer 1

Americans have changed the spelling of a number of words from the original English. Most of the English-speaking world has preserved the original. The answer above me is wrong.

Answer 2

I think the Americans wanted to show that they are different from the English people in various fields.
They decided that some of the things the English did, ought to be done differently so as to show that they are superior.
One of these is dropping the u in favour, flavour, colour, rumour, etc. Another is in the spelling of fibre, centre (English), etc. where the Americans write the e before the r. A third example is when they write the month first, followed by the date and then the year, while the English write the date followed by the month and the year.
Driving on the left side of the road; having the car steering on the right side of the car; the 'down' position of an electric toggle switch showing on - these are other examples of practices in England which are followed the opposite way by the Americans!
There are some more differences too, beside the above.

Answer 3

Noah Webster attempted to standardized English spelling in the United States. However the other English-speaking countries (Great Britain, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, etc.) did not accept these changes.

Answer 4

It's an ethnic variance. Sort of a way of tracing the origin of the word. It's the manner different dialects assert their uniqueness on a word---like the English MUM instead of MOM etc.

Answer 5

Ask Noah Webster. He wrote the first American dictionary, and thereby established the spellings of most American words.

Answer 6

Heres the english spelling

South

Africa

color

flavor