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April 18th, 2008 by jayha

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Posted in AllWords Usability Issues | Comments Off

An Epic Battle: British vs. American English

September 28th, 2007 by AllWordsEditor

One of the members of our AllWords community recently asked a question relating to the differences in spelling of various words by people from countries outside the US and it got me thinking (yes that is probably rubber you smell burning). After a little research prompted by another members answer to this post I was intrigued at just how many words have variations in spelling, particularly in the British English vs. American English battle, as well as how this all came about and I thought I’d share…

A brief history

The history of the English is an exceptionally interesting one and you can literally spend hours tracing its origin and roots. However, for the sake of clarity on the subject of the diversification of the language, we’ll skip ahead to the relevant parts of history.

In the early 18^th century there were no standards regulating the English language. At this time and even present day British spellings followed those of those of Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language (1755). Later, in 1828 Noah Webster published his version of “An American Dictionary of the English Language” and became a strong proponent of spelling reform due to philological and nationalistic reasons (i.e. He believed that Americans shouldn’t “sound” English and should be independent of Britain in every area including language). The spelling of words became simplified and took on a more phonetic approach. The unstressed -our (favour, flavour, colour, savour) became -or (favor, flavor, color, savor), words with -re endings in British spelling (centre, metre, litre, manoeuvre) became -er (center, meter, liter, maneuver), and still words ending with -ce (defence, offence, pretence) became -se (defense, offense, pretense).

As a result of Webster’s influence, spelling differences in certain words meant fewer syllables and that meant different pronunciations…think “Aeroplane” as opposed to “Airplane”.

Modern day impact

Even though many would not want to admit it, American English has had quite an impact on the world, and even modern British English is influenced by it due to the American dominance of global mainstream media. If you visit the UK you will find a great deal of American programming broadcast on television and at the cinema, whereas in the US there is very little (if any) British programming. That said though, British schools (as well as many others around the world following their English model) will still fail students who use the American spelling of the words which are deemed to be “incorrect”. In the mainstream though, both American and British English spellings of words are generally accepted but it’s probably best to consider your audience before using either spelling and then to stick to that form for all words. So whether you’re standardising or standardizing, make sure you do it appropriately!

Posted in Regional Diffirences | Comments Off

Win $100 with the AllWords Short Story Contest

September 11th, 2007 by AllWordsEditor

At the beginning of the month we at AllWords launched a short story contest whereby you are eligible to win $100 if your short story of between 500 and 1000 words, based on the monthly theme published on Allguides is chosen as the winning story.

September’s theme aptly focuses on “The start of school” and we’re sure that there will be some hilarious and horrifying stories that go along with that topic. The subsequent months will have themes like “Scary and Spooky” for Halloween in October; Sci-fi month in November with anything related to Space or the Futuristic World; December sees a theme based on anything to do with the Christmas and/or New Year’s Holiday Season (so if you are a Scrooge or a Christmas nut, or have terrible in-laws and can’t think of anything worse than this period, tell us about it!) and finally we start the New Year off with a laugh and anything comedic that you want to write about.

I have a hundred ideas…if only I was allowed to enter! I’m sure you do too, so put pen to paper and you could just be earning yourself $100!

Posted in AllWords Community | No Comments »

Something for everyone at AllGuides

September 11th, 2007 by AllWordsEditor

AllGuides.com is really starting to take off and we have more than a few regular visitors now. Our team has been hard at work making this forum an interesting and open place of discussion.

There is something for everyone from Questions on Words to a Book Club (with fiction, Non-Fiction and even school setwork discussions) and Creative Corner where you can post any of your ideas, poems, scripts or anything else you can think of and let the other members give you open, honest feedback (and don’t worry, they are NOT allowed to laugh or be rude, it’s all about being constructive).

There is also no such thing as a stupid question at AllGuides and whether you’re battling with something assigned to you at school or just in every day language, please post it! You’ll soon see that there are many people around that can help you (even if they do have to look it up themselves!)

We have some great plans for the weeks and months to come, and all suggestions are welcome, so if you aren’t a part of the AllGuides community, why not check it out today?

Posted in AllWords Community | No Comments »

ro8kfbsmag1.txt

An Epic Battle: British vs. American English

Win $100 with the AllWords Short Story Contest

Something for everyone at AllGuides

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