Poll: Do you prefer American English spelling or British English spelling?

[Arsen]

It truly doesn't matter to me.

American English and British English are the same language. Just different ways of expressing it. American's tend to be more laid back with it while the British are more "uppity" in a sense.

I like them both. One is down to earth the other is very intelligent sounding.

 

[Kanesuke]

To bring the chemistry issues of sulfur and aluminium up again, I'm studying chemistry at (British) uni at the moment and these are the only accepted spellings of the two elements. Supposedly, we swapped spellings ("You spell it aluminium and we'll spell it sulfur, deal?"). To be honest though, as long as I'm not chastised for my (mostly British) spellings or pronunciations, I don't really care.

 

[clem]

I didn't vote and don't have a preference, but it's an intersting thread.
Most English spelling started to standardize shortly after printing presses gained wider use, so that there is really very little variance between British and Americanized spellings by the besides those mentioned above.
Had European population of North America and US and Canadian separation from Britain occurred before the advent of the printing press it may have been a much different story.

The silent letters are mostly an artifact of actual pronuciation in the 16th and early 17th centuries, when spelling started to standardize.
English pronunications probably sounded more North country or Scots at that time. So Draught (Draft) beer would have been pronounced more like "dro'cht".
I seem to remember all of this from Linguistics classes long ago, but without citation don't believe me.

I'm American, but lived in London for two years in the early 80's, and was surprised at how much regional difference there was in accents around Britain. I was most surprised to hear that what we typically think of as "pirate" accent as made popular by Wallace Beery in the old movie version of "Treasure Island" was actually a common accent in Cornwall.

 

[clem]

English and German both evolved from ancestral Germanic languages. In England because the Germanic tribes, Angles, Saxons, and Jutes migrated to "England" (Angle-land) pushing the Gaels and Celts toward the borders, i.e. Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, Isle of Man.

 

[beddo]

I find it too hard to decide, but in the end I'll have to go with the former as I consider it a bit more phonetic, therefore less confusing for me personally and people who might learn English as a foreign language. However, I do have to admit that there is a certain appeal to utilizsing the former because it has a certain air of ornateness that I feel is lacking in English compared to other languages; French being the prime example.

UK English is the language, US English is a derivative.

It is frustrating to see all of the minor changes that make little difference, 'z's instead of 's's, removing the letter 'u' from words, saying things like 'aluminum' rather than 'aluminium'. ARGH As I work in games I find it frustrating having to localise for US English because to me, it's wrong.

 

[hannahdonno]

I don't care which you use, since I can understand it.

I do hate, though, bastardized English on the Internet. Like "ur" and "teh" being intentionally used in place of "your" and "the."

STOP FUCKING WITH THE LANGAUGE - IT'S ALREADY BASTARDIZED ENOUGH.

THANK YOU. English spelling is the TRUE spelling, its our language, stop fucking with it, k?

 

[Baneat]

I like the British English spelling. Aluminium sounds ridiculous as Aluminum. Color should be colour, it highlights that it's "uhr" instead of "orr"

 

[Aardvark Soup]

I prefer Brittish spelling, but I tend to use a lot of American expressions as well. My English teacher also said I switch between English and American pronouncation constantly. So yeah...

 

[teh_gunslinger]

Fun fact: English is the only language whose native speakers are commonly educated by spelling tests (in other words the only language that makes "proper" spelling more important than phonetic).

Nope, it isn't. You've never learned French, eh?

Or Danish for that matter.

 

[Kevvers]

To be honest, it's a bit nit-picky because there's so many horribly unintuitively words in the English language that we both agree on. Of course I will vote British English though, because I am British, and because I suspect the British form will become supplanted in time - probably when people get tired of Microsoft correcting them all the time.

 

[Sebenko]

A country that allows people to consider "shin kicking" a sport has no right to criticize American Football, for one thing...

Never heard of it. Cheese rolling, on the other hand...

 

[Zac_Dai]

Being English I prefer British English but I use Z instead of S in words because to me it looks better.

Anyway all this crap about whose version is better is stupid. They both part of the family that is the English Language.

The Oxford dictionary recognizes it as well hence their series of world english dictionaries [http://www.askoxford.com/globalenglish/dictionaries/?view=uk]

 

[Jamash]

I like both, but I have to say the British swearwords are so much better, mainly because the U.S doesn't have any swear words the british don't.

Bollocks!

Apparently 'bollocks' isn't a swear word in America...

Spoiler: ...at least not in Prehistoric America.

 

[corporate_gamer]

As an English man i say English English. As a dylexic man American do tend to take the more straight forward spelling.

 

[rekabdarb]

prefer american spelling
but like british talkin

 

[Lusperus]

I like the way british people spell their words like
sabre.

 

[Xbowhyena]

British, because of Aluminum (Aloominium)

 

[TwistedEllipses]

I do things on a case by case basis but having a 'u' in words like 'honour' looks cooler and I reluctantly accept 'center' makes more sense than 'centre'...but I still think 'centre' looks cooler...

 

[Hyperactiveman]

I'm was born in Britain, I have gone on holiday (vacation) to America on a number of times and I now live in Australia. So you can see why it is really hard getting used to change in spelling. Though I still prefer UK spelling language because it just looks right to me when I think to myself is that how you spell it?

Tyre, Colour, honour, armour, all of these words have that red line under them saying they're spelt incorrectly!... Even "spelt" and "mispelt" for some reason ???

 

[MisterLillie]

Canadian Spelling. (British Spelling)