Should the US adopt British spelling? (user search)
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  Should the US adopt British spelling? (search mode)
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Poll
Question: Yes or no?
#1
Yes (R)
 
#2
No (R)
 
#3
Yes (D)
 
#4
No (D)
 
#5
Yes (O)
 
#6
No (O)
 
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Total Voters: 57

Author Topic: Should the US adopt British spelling?  (Read 1411 times)
GeorgiaModerate
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« on: May 25, 2023, 10:49:54 AM »

No, and in fact both countries (and other English-speaking ones) should switch to using purely phonetic spelling.  Although I suppose that would make the National Spelling Bee a lot less interesting. Wink
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GeorgiaModerate
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« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2023, 08:40:58 AM »

I'm biased but American spelling is generally more phonetic so I feel that it's better. Also, American spelling just removes a lot of unnecessary letters from words.

The amusing part is that this is not the case elsewhere: e.g. the sounded vowel in 'colour' is not an 'o'. Anyway, having a spelling system that operates according to a particular set of formalized rules is one of the things that makes 'American English' a genuine distinct form of English (i.e. 'American English' is a real phenomenon, whereas there is no 'Canadian English', simply English as spoken by Canadians) and that fact in itself is now an important part of American culture.

A former colleague of mine in England was an avid student of the language and its dialects.  He once told me there was more English language variation in a single English county than in the entire U.S., and more variation in a single U.S. state than in all of Australia.  I don't know if that's really true or a bit of exaggeration.
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GeorgiaModerate
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« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2023, 01:59:17 PM »

Centre is less common than theatre, but I've seen it in many places. It's usually around plazas or shopping centres. If we pull in the Constitution, we should using -our and -ce spellings. The Constitution uses "behaviour" and "offence" and "defence".
How is any of that relevant? The Constitution was written BEFORE American English had standardized spelling.

Also, the spelling "centre" is extremely rare in the United States. The fact that you have "seen it in many places" is shocking.

Or standardised, even. Smiley

In the U.S., I usually see "centre" in places like subdivisions or strip malls that are trying to be cute with their names, similar to "olde" and "towne".  (There's one in my area with the trifecta; it's actually called "Olde Towne Centre".)
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