Re: Spelling of center (centre)

On Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:51:54 +0000 (UTC), "CyberCypher"
<dontbother@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Richard Chambers wrote:
CyberCypher wrote

1. center

2. centre

They're both correct. The first is American and the second is
British English. The question you should be asking is more like
"Which brand of English should I use, American, Australian,
British, Canadian, Indian, Jamaican, New Zealand, South African, or
some ?" The answer is that it doesn't matter. Choose the one you
like best and the one that will be best for your needs (depends on
where you live and work and who you typically speak with and write
to) and learn it as well as you can. The fundamentals of all the
brands are essentially the same, but they sometimes differ
significantly.

There is just one little problem with this, which I sometimes come
across.

Like many British people, I read a lot of material written in the
USA, and a similar amount written in the UK. English spelling is
often non-phonetic. The only way to learn English spelling is to read
and/or write the words often. For me, this gives rise to a problem
with a word such as "fulfil" (BrE) or "fulfill" (AmE). It is a
relatively uncommon word, but when I do come across it, it is
sometimes in the Britsh and sometimes in the American spelling. The
result is that I am never confident of how to spell this troublesome
word. Should it be fulfil, fullfil, fulfill or fullfill? Even after
a lifetime of doing it, I still have to look the bloody thing up in
the dictionary every time I need to use the word. There is always a
sufficient lapse of time between one use and the next use of this
word, so that I have once again forgotten how to spell it.

I have the same problem. It comes from having read so many British and
American novels in which I saw the different spellings and then
translated them without paying attention to the spelling. It's
interesting to me that I never get confused about whether a Chinese
character is traditional (and, therefore, Taiwanese) or simplified
(and, therefore, PRC): the PRC's simplified characters always have
fewer strokes and are less aesthetically pleasing. The AmE spellings
almost always have fewer letters, except for "fulfil/fulfill", and they
never have digraphs or /ae/ or /oe/ in place of the digraphs, but they
are confusing because there still are some /ll/ spellings -- at least I
think there are even though I can't think of any right now.

I have a similar difficulty with dialed/dialled and
propeled/propelled.

This is usually an easy choice: /ll/ = BrE, /l/ = AmE.

I often think that I would like to standardise (standardize) English
spelling. Most of the standardisation would be to the American
version, for two reasons. (1) in most cases where the Americans have
altered BrE spelling, they have rationalised it[1]; and (2) the USA,
with 300M English-speaking citizens, is now the major force in the
continuing evolution of the English language. The UK, although the
historical source of the language, is now a junior partner in the
evolution of the language. How could it be otherwise, since there are
only 60M of us? We need to admit an uncomfortable fact.

I would not want American spelling to win in every case, because
there are occasional instances where American attempted
"rationalisation" has been counter-productive.

[1] For example, in British English:-
colour
coloration, colouration (both forms in BrE, but coloration is the
main entry in the dictionary) colorific (only)
colorimeter (only)

With spelling as irrational as this, it is not surprising that
Britain has one of the worst illiteracy rates in Europe. The British,
on average, are no less intelligent than the Spanish or Germans. Our
high rate of illiteracy is caused by our non-phonetic spelling and by
the irrationality that exists even within this non-phonetic spelling
system.

That's an interesting theory. I have no idea whether it's true. I'd say
that the USA's illiteracy comes from cultural values that devalue
education and worship wealth, and from the irrational PC attitude that
illiterates and the uneducated are equal to the literate and educated:
"He's not an ignoramus! He's just differently knowledgeable!"

That's pretty much the case in Britain, too, Franke. BrE
spelling is low on the list of causes of illiteracy. What people
don't appear to understand is that 60 years ago something like
40% of youngsters had literacy problems at 11 years of age, just
like today. In those days nobody talked about it much, and in
any case there were plenty of unskilled jobs in industry
available for them. We've lost maybe five million of those
unskilled jobs over the years, and many young Brits, particularly
the white ones, don't want to do that sort of work even when it's
available.
--
Robin Bignall (BrE)
Herts, England
.

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