American and British English spelling differences
Despite the various English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most notable variations being British and American spelling. Many of the differences between American and British or Commonwealth English date back to a time before spelling standards were developed. For instance, some spellings seen as "American" were once commonly used in Britain, and some spellings seen as "British" were once commonly used in the United States.
A "British standard" began to emerge following the 1755 publication of Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language, and an "American standard" started following the work of Noah Webster and, in particular, his An American Dictionary of the English Language, first published in 1828. Webster's efforts at spelling reform were effective in his native country, resulting in certain well-known patterns of spelling differences between the American and British varieties of English.
Historical origins
In the early 18th century, English spelling was inconsistent. These differences became noticeable after the publication of influential dictionaries. British English spellings mostly follow Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language, while many American English spellings follow Webster's An American Dictionary of the English Language.Webster was a proponent of English spelling reform for reasons both philological and nationalistic. In A Companion to the American Revolution, John Algeo notes: "it is often assumed that characteristically American spellings were invented by Noah Webster. He was very influential in popularizing certain spellings in the United States, but he did not originate them. Rather he chose already existing options such as center, color and check for the simplicity, analogy or etymology". William Shakespeare's first folios, for example, used spellings such as center and color as much as centre and colour. Webster did attempt to introduce some reformed spellings, as did the Simplified Spelling Board in the early 20th century, but most were not adopted. In Britain, the influence of those who preferred the Norman spellings of words proved to be decisive. Later spelling adjustments in the United Kingdom had little effect on American spellings and vice versa.
For the most part, the spelling systems of most Commonwealth countries and Ireland closely resemble the British system. In Canada, the spelling system can be said to follow both British and American forms, and Canadians are somewhat more tolerant of foreign spellings when compared with other English-speaking nationalities. Australian English mostly follows British spelling norms but has strayed slightly, with some American spellings incorporated as standard. New Zealand English is almost identical to British spelling, except in the word fiord.
Latin-derived spellings (often through Romance)
''-our'', ''-or''
Most words ending in an unstressed ‑our in British English end in ‑or in American English. Wherever the vowel is unreduced in pronunciation, the spelling is uniform everywhere.Most words of this kind came from Latin, where the ending was spelled ‑or. They were first adopted into English from early Old French, and the ending was spelled ‑our, ‑or or ‑ur. After the Norman Conquest, the ending became ‑our to match the later Old French spelling. The ‑our ending was used not only in new English borrowings, but was also applied to the earlier borrowings that had used ‑or. However, ‑or was still sometimes found. The first three folios of Shakespeare's plays used both spellings before they were standardised to ‑our in the Fourth Folio of 1685.
After the Renaissance, new borrowings from Latin were taken up with their original ‑or ending, and many words once ending in ‑our reverted to ‑or. A few words of the ‑our/or group do not have a Latin counterpart that ends in ‑or; for example, armor, behavior, harbor, neighbor; also arbor, meaning "shelter", though senses "tree" and "tool" are always arbor, a false cognate of the other word. The word arbor would be more accurately spelled arber or arbre in the US and the UK, respectively, the latter of which is the French word for "tree". Some 16th- and early 17th-century British scholars indeed insisted that ‑or be used for words from Latin and ‑our for French loans; however, in many cases, the etymology was not clear, and therefore some scholars advocated ‑or only and others ‑our only.
Webster's 1828 dictionary had only -or and is given much of the credit for the adoption of this form in the United States. By contrast, Johnson's 1755 dictionary used -our for all words still so spelled in Britain, but also for words where the u has since been dropped: ambassadour, emperour, errour, governour, horrour, inferiour, mirrour, perturbatour, superiour, tenour, terrour, tremour. Johnson, unlike Webster, was not an advocate of spelling reform, but chose the spelling best derived, as he saw it, from among the variations in his sources. He preferred French over Latin spellings because, as he put it, "the French generally supplied us". English speakers who moved to the United States took these preferences with them. In the early 20th century, H. L. Mencken notes that "honor appears in the 1776 Declaration of Independence, but it seems to have been put there rather by accident than by design". In Jefferson's original draft it is spelled "honour". In Britain, examples of wikt:behavior rarely appear in Old Bailey court records from the 17th and 18th centuries, whereas there are thousands of examples of their -our counterparts. One notable exception is honor. Honor and honour were equally frequent in Britain until the 17th century; honor only exists in the UK now as the spelling of Honor Oak'', a district of London, and of the occasional given name Honor.
Derivatives and inflected forms
In derivatives and inflected forms of the -our/or words, British usage depends on the nature of the suffix used. The u is kept before English suffixes that are freely attachable to English words and suffixes of Greek or Latin origin that have been adopted into English. However, before Latin suffixes that are not freely attachable to English words, the u:- may be dropped, for example in honorary, honorific, humorist, humorous, invigorate, laborious, and vigorous;
- may be either dropped or kept, for example in coloration and colorize or colorise; or
- may be kept, for example in wikt:colourist.
Exceptions
American usage, in most cases, keeps the u in the word glamour, which comes from Scots, not Latin or French. wikt:glamor is sometimes used in imitation of the spelling reform of other -our words to -or. Nevertheless, the adjective glamorous often drops the first "u". wikt:saviour is a somewhat common variant of wikt:savior in the US. The British spelling is very common for honour in the formal language of wedding invitations in the US. The name of the Space Shuttle Endeavour has a u in it because the spacecraft was named after British Captain James Cook's ship, HMS Endeavour. The special car on Amtrak's Coast Starlight train is known as the Pacific Parlour car, not Pacific Parlor. Proper names such as Pearl Harbor or Sydney Harbour are usually spelled according to their native-variety spelling vocabulary.The name of the herb savory is spelled thus everywhere, although the related adjective savory, like savor, has a u in the UK. Honor and arbor have -or in Britain, as mentioned above, as does the word pallor. As a general noun, rigour has a u in the UK; the medical term rigor does not, such as in rigor mortis, which is Latin. Derivations of rigour/''rigor such as rigorous, however, are typically spelled without a u'', even in the UK. Words with the ending -irior, -erior or similar are spelled thus everywhere. Junior and senior were borrowed directly from Latin in the 13th century, and have never had -our forms anywhere.
The word armour was once somewhat common in American usage but has disappeared except in some brand names such as Under Armour.
The agent suffix -or is spelled thus both in American and British English.
Commonwealth usage
Commonwealth countries normally follow British usage. Canadian English most commonly uses the -our ending and -our- in derivatives and inflected forms. However, owing to the close historic, economic, and cultural relationship with the United States, -or endings are also sometimes used. Throughout the late 19th and early to mid-20th century, most Canadian newspapers chose to use the American usage of -or endings, originally to save time and money in the era of manual movable type. However, in the 1990s, the majority of Canadian newspapers officially updated their spelling policies to the British usage of -our. This coincided with a renewed interest in Canadian English, and the release of the updated Gage Canadian Dictionary in 1997 and the first Canadian Oxford Dictionary in 1998. Historically, most libraries and educational institutions in Canada have supported the use of the Oxford English Dictionary rather than the American Webster's Dictionary. The use of a distinctive set of Canadian English spellings is viewed by many Canadians as one of the unique aspects of Canadian culture.In Australia, -or endings enjoyed some use throughout the 19th century and in the early 20th century. Like Canada, though, most major Australian newspapers have switched from "-or" endings to "-our" endings. The "-our" spelling is taught in schools nationwide as part of the Australian curriculum. The most notable countrywide use of the -or ending is for one of the country's major political parties, the Australian Labor Party, which was originally called "the Australian Labour Party", but was frequently referred to as both "Labour" and "Labor". The "Labor" spelling was adopted from 1912 onward due to the influence of the American labor movement and King O'Malley. On top of that, some place names in South Australia such as Victor Harbor, Franklin Harbor or Outer Harbor are usually spelled with the -or spellings. Aside from that, -our is now almost universal in Australia but the -or endings remain a minority variant. New Zealand English, while sharing some words and syntax with Australian English, follows British usage.