Originally Posted By: Olas
Why is American English spelt differently to English? Things like colour and aluminium and so on.. More efficient use of VPS (vowels per sentence
)?
"In the early 18th century, English spelling was not standardised. Differences became noticeable after the publishing of influential dictionaries. Today's British English spellings follow, for the most part, those of Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), whereas many American English spellings follow Noah Webster's An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828).[1]
Webster was a strong proponent of English spelling reform for reasons both philological and nationalistic. Many spelling changes proposed in the United States by Webster himself, and in the early 20th century by the Simplified Spelling Board, never caught on. Among the spelling reform supporters in England, the influence of those who preferred the Norman (or Anglo-French) spellings of words proved to be decisive. Later spelling adjustments in the United Kingdom had little effect on today's American spellings and vice-versa.
The spelling systems of most Commonwealth countries and Ireland, for the most part, closely resemble the British system. In Canada, the spelling system can be said to follow both British and American forms,[2] and Canadians are somewhat more tolerant of foreign spellings when compared with other English-speaking nationalities.[3] Australian spelling has also strayed somewhat from British spelling, with some American spellings incorporated as standard.[4]"
From Wiki.
Aluminium is an interesting one:
"I've received multiple questions about the naming of element 13, which I call aluminum and most of the world calls aluminium. Why are there two names? Sir Humphry Davy proposed the name aluminum, back before the element was officially discovered. However, the name 'aluminium' was adopted to conform with the -ium names of most other elements. In 1925, the American Chemical Society decided to go back to the original aluminum, so the United States uses a different name from most other countries. The IUPAC periodic table lists both spellings.
Still confused? Here's a little more about the history of aluminum's naming and discovery. Guyton de Morveau (1761) called alum, a base which had been known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, by the name alumine. In 1808, Humphry Davy identified the existence of the metal in alum, which he at first named alumium and later aluminum. Davy knew aluminum existed, but he didn't isolate the element. Friedrich Wöhler isolated aluminum in 1827 by mixing anhydrous aluminium chloride with potassium. Actually, though, the metal was produced two years earlier, though in impure form, by the Danish physicist and chemist Hans Christian Ørsted. Depending on your source, the discovery of aluminum is credited to either Ørsted or Wöhler."
