Is it because Americans are so self-centered?
2007-03-26 17:12:29 · 24 answers · asked by Barack O Bankrupt 4 in Politics & Government ➔ Other - Politics & Government
Dictionaries describe this happening as an 'Americanism'. It simply means that somewhere along the life of teaching english in America, a certain letter was dropped for the reason that so many students were spelling the word without the letter.
Once it happened to one word it got inadvertently dropped in other words of like spelling. The powers that be looked at the situation and decided that dropping the letter neither changed the pronunciation nor the meaning of the word.
So they accepted the new spelling to avoid a lot of unnecessary work trying to get millions to put the letter back into the word.
Truth is, the whole english language is raught with 'errors'.
Just look at 'hood' and 'good' then 'mood' and 'food'.
Same spellings but different pronounciations!
In what other language do you drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?
An alarm clock goes 'off' by going 'on'. Or is it going 'on' by going 'off'?
If you had several odds and end and got rid of all but one, what have you got left?
If the teacher 'taught', why didn't the preacher 'praught'?
When we lose something, we say "It was in the last place I looked!" No kidding! Did you keep looking for it AFTER you found it?
Get my point?
2007-03-26 17:23:47 · answer #1 · answered by krazykritik 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
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.
2007-03-26 17:24:03 · answer #2 · answered by Jo C 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think it is because Americans are so self-centered. This change was instituted long ago. Perhaps it was because early Americans felt like the U was not needed and just an extra letter to write in, I don't know for sure. The English language changes over time.
2007-03-26 17:16:38 · answer #3 · answered by sg 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's not that the American English words are 'missing' any letters - it's that the other languages have the extra letters put in there to change the pronunciation a little bit.
It sounds so much more foreign to say it with another vowel.
Besides - Americans are lazy. We don't say the extra letter, so why should we write it?
Then again, maybe it was that the old dude Webster was running out of type-writer ink and saved some ink by not writing them...
2007-03-26 17:22:15 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Language develops over time and so does spelling. If you have two geographically isolated groups of people speaking the same language, over time they will change separately. Quebec speaks a francais much different than the Republic Francais.
The US generally does not use a 'u' together wth an 'o'. In the UK, it almost always is. The UK also may have a 'y' instead of an 'i' and there are differences between when a 'z' is replaced with an 's'. In Canada there is a British hangover on 'ou' yet other words tend to follow the US in spelling.
Spelling is always changing over a period of time - read old books and you'll find lots of examples!
2007-03-26 18:10:08 · answer #5 · answered by USA_USA_USA 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Believe it or not, the different spelling of (most) American words can be traced to Noah Webster and his book "An American Dictionary of the English Language." Written in 1825, the book contained many spellings of words that differed from their British counterparts for the sake of simplicity (colour = color) and for the sake of creating a unique American style (defence = defense, centre = center, etc.)
So there you have it: Noah Webster, father of Americanized English spelling.
2007-03-26 17:50:03 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
These words have dropped the "U" because it isn't pronounced. This should happen with all words that do not make sense as they are spelled. Knife with a "K" is absurd.
Goodnight is also absurd. It should be goodnite. The language still follows in most cases the old English and should be modified.
2007-03-26 19:34:40 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because it's superfluous, unnecessary, unneeded and redundant. Most Americans don't have the time for extraneous lettering. To continue such empty machinations simply to win the nod of compliance from those in the UK seems trite and very un-American.
Guess the self-centeredness comes from our diet of foods other than boiled.
2007-03-26 17:21:56 · answer #8 · answered by omnisource 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Among the many causes for the American Revolution and the ejection of an ill-conceived British mercantile system was also a strong desire to dispel with arcane middle-English.
As such, the 'u' - and the tea tax - was rejected.
2007-03-26 17:18:12 · answer #9 · answered by buzzfeedbrenny 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is not necessarily that Americans are self-centered.
First, how do you know it is not the British who added the "U"?
Also, Americans changed it because they did not pronounce those words the same and wanted the spelling to reflect the different pronunciations.
2007-03-26 17:16:02 · answer #10 · answered by khg831@sbcglobal.net 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋