I Think Color Should be Spelled with a U
So, since it seems that I'm on a the-English-language-is-weird kick this week, I'm going to talk about something that really bothers me: the discrepancies between English and American spelling. As you probably already know from my Spelling Shenanigans blog, I sort of suck at spelling.
My feeling is that, because it's been scientifically proven that as long as a word begins and ends with the correct letter and has the right letters in between, a native speaker can read it without a problem. So why do we care so much about spelling. I mean, when I'm typing, I obviously use spell check, but if I'm writing something by hand, I just sort of make some circles and loops in the middle of the word and hope that they can pass for an L or an I or whatever is supposed to be there and hope for the best. And, it's not just me; English spellings were standardized until fairly recently, in the history of the language that is. Like, even Shakespeare's spelling was pretty erratic. He didn't even know how to spell his own name correctly; after the sp, it was anyone's guess. There are like 20ish different spellings of Shakespeare's name recorded in his life time alone.
So, If the bard couldn't spell, what hope is there for the rest of us?
That's why I think that if I spell a word correctly by either British or American standards, everyone should be frickin' impressed. Like, I have all these horrible memories of failing second grade spelling tests because I insisted on spelling color with a U. I'm not sure where I picked that up, but somewhere between ages 6 and 7, it became firmly implanted in my mind that color was spelled colour, a notion I refused to be disabused of until like 5th grade. It was the same thing with the word honor; until high school, I was like firmly convinced that the correct spelling of honor was honour.
Add a U to a word and everyone loses their mind.
But, as far as I'm concerned, I'm going to keep spelling it with a U, because, it's not as if it's going to be mistaken for another word. It's well established that the brain doesn't read letters, it reads words. So, as long as the word is recognizable, you're okay. And personally, I like the British the British spellings better. The more letters you can cram into a word the better as far as I'm concerned. A W in the middle of the word telephone? Why not? We already spell pterodactyl with a P, how much weirder could this language get?
I mean, in English, spelling defense or offense with a C makes as much sense as spelling it with an S. I mean, in a lot of spelling situations, S and C are pretty much interchangeable, same thing with S and Z. Recognisable? Defence? Offence? All the same to me. Like, everyone needs to relax, if someone spells check as cheque, it's not as if you're not going to know what it means. Which is why I don't get why everyone makes such a big deal about things like 'gray' and 'grey' and 'ax' and 'axe'. There is literally no difference.
In fifty years, everyone's going to be spelling two as 2 anyway, so you might as well take your vowels while you can get them?
Just sayin'
My feeling is that, because it's been scientifically proven that as long as a word begins and ends with the correct letter and has the right letters in between, a native speaker can read it without a problem. So why do we care so much about spelling. I mean, when I'm typing, I obviously use spell check, but if I'm writing something by hand, I just sort of make some circles and loops in the middle of the word and hope that they can pass for an L or an I or whatever is supposed to be there and hope for the best. And, it's not just me; English spellings were standardized until fairly recently, in the history of the language that is. Like, even Shakespeare's spelling was pretty erratic. He didn't even know how to spell his own name correctly; after the sp, it was anyone's guess. There are like 20ish different spellings of Shakespeare's name recorded in his life time alone.
So, If the bard couldn't spell, what hope is there for the rest of us?
That's why I think that if I spell a word correctly by either British or American standards, everyone should be frickin' impressed. Like, I have all these horrible memories of failing second grade spelling tests because I insisted on spelling color with a U. I'm not sure where I picked that up, but somewhere between ages 6 and 7, it became firmly implanted in my mind that color was spelled colour, a notion I refused to be disabused of until like 5th grade. It was the same thing with the word honor; until high school, I was like firmly convinced that the correct spelling of honor was honour.
Add a U to a word and everyone loses their mind.
But, as far as I'm concerned, I'm going to keep spelling it with a U, because, it's not as if it's going to be mistaken for another word. It's well established that the brain doesn't read letters, it reads words. So, as long as the word is recognizable, you're okay. And personally, I like the British the British spellings better. The more letters you can cram into a word the better as far as I'm concerned. A W in the middle of the word telephone? Why not? We already spell pterodactyl with a P, how much weirder could this language get?
I mean, in English, spelling defense or offense with a C makes as much sense as spelling it with an S. I mean, in a lot of spelling situations, S and C are pretty much interchangeable, same thing with S and Z. Recognisable? Defence? Offence? All the same to me. Like, everyone needs to relax, if someone spells check as cheque, it's not as if you're not going to know what it means. Which is why I don't get why everyone makes such a big deal about things like 'gray' and 'grey' and 'ax' and 'axe'. There is literally no difference.
In fifty years, everyone's going to be spelling two as 2 anyway, so you might as well take your vowels while you can get them?
Just sayin'
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