more on British v. American spelling

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- AXIONET -dot- COM>]

Ron D Rhodes <Ron_D_Rhodes -at- MAIL -dot- BANKONE -dot- COM> wrote:

>In fact, I would very interested to learn what, if any, pet >peeves the British and Canadians have with the American >writing style.

One thing I've been meaning to mention throughout this discussion is
"traveling" (which people have called American) vs. "travelling" (which
people have called British or Canadian).

American spelling has often had a strong reforming tradition, ever since
the days of Noah Webster. Often, this tradition has helped to
rationalize English language spelling so that it actually bears some
relation to the way the word is pronounced.

In such cases, however, American spelling is simply inaccurate.

I believe that it's elementary linguistics that, when a consonant is
between two short vowels, it's doubled. The word is not "travel-ing" or
"trave-ling," but "travel-ling." Using only one "l" misrepresents the
pronounciation.

But, then, I come from a country in which people use "colour" and
"centre," so I shouldn't really say anything, I guess.

--
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
(bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com)  (604) 421-7189 or 688-6211 L. 290
http://www.axionet.com/outlawcommunications (Updated 18 October, 1997)
Job Bank Team, STC Canada West Coast Chapter
http://www.stc.org/region7/cwc/www/job_bank.html

"I don't distrust the internal vision. I don't what the mind sees is
less than what the eye sees. I say there's a threshold, where one
becomes the other."
--Clive Barker, "Paradise Street"

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