Briterican writes:
quote:
Which is phonetically closer to the actual pronunciation?
Well, linguistically, the reason why we Americans spell things differently than Brits is because we were deliberately and specifically rebelling against the Brits in our language as well as our government and politics. Let's not forget that it wasn't that far in the past from the Revolution that "standardized" English came into being. Shakespeare was part of that revolution that developed a common spelling in the 1600s. Dictionaries and the like were still somewhat new in the 1700s. So when Webster was developing his, he deliberately changed the spelling to distinguish the American language from the British.
But having spent enough time in the UK, I don't really think there's that much difference between the intellectual variances of the two populations. There's just more Americans so the ones who do speak in a less "cultured" manner are more likely to appear in the public eye.
Having worked in the theatre (note the spelling...I have spent enough time in the UK and reading UK-published books that they've infected my spelling...though the distinction I make is that "theatre" is the craft, "theater" is the building), I find American writers have just as strong a grasp of the language as British writers.
Of course, none of this goes to the original post regarding gender neutral language. I can't say I recall what the trend was.
Rrhain
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