[ELTWeekly Volume 6, Issue 21 | September 7, 2014 | ISSN 0975-3036]
This article is submitted by Reena Mittal.
This question always give a space to the students of English why words like colour, favourite, meter, centre are spelled differently. Actually there are four major differences in English spellings –
- Or or our
- er or re
- s or z (ise, ize)
- Word ending with L or ed.
English was started from Britain but after it started spreading in other countries, there comes need of a book which can collect all the words and suggest its meaning whenever needed. As with the passing of the time it is noticed that even Britishers started misspelling words. So, the Dictionary was invented. The first dictionary came into existence 800 years ago with the words of other languages translated into English. The Dictionary we are using came into existence in 1806 by Webster. He was an American who not only invented Dictionary but decided to change its shape. He slashed all the extra words from each spelling because he wants to simplify the language. He erased the words that were not giving any sound but silently used in a particular spelling. And in this way, we have two different kinds of spellings: British and American with four major differences. There is no grudge, no theory of supremacy behind this difference of spelling but only the simplification of language seems to be the main goal.
The students must keep in mind that this difference of spelling is not to make a niche in both ways of English but it can be a way of reading and writing. Both the countries are torch bearer of English language especially Britain saw Golden period of English literature in Elizabethan Age, and our Modern literature owe everything from American Literature. So, English language is a rich, progressed and easy to understand language which is not bound to follow rules all the time but its flexibility of rules make it easier to understand and use.