Why Do Americans Spell Color Differently? |
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- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
- Here's a one-minute primer on why Americans spell colour (British English) without a 'u'.
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As an American, I absolutely love the passive aggressive tone in all of these videos.
He's not being passive aggressive... You're misinterpreting.
@@johnroscoe2406 Well, whatever it is called, I think his delivery is funny. I don't think it's funny because I choose to describe it as passive aggressive. Those were just the words that came to mind. I would love for someone to reply and broaden my vocabulary with another phrase that fits better.
British humor is very sublime, I too as an American appreciate the false passive-aggressive tone
As an American, I agree.
@@bakerboat4572 He's not being passive-aggressive... Where are you people getting this from? You're all calling it that because you can't think of what the tone actually is. But it's *NOT* passive-aggressive in the first place.
It's a result of the little known but devastating vowel shortage of 1895. American children went door to door collecting unused vowels from American words and generously donating them abroad.
Give to the March of Vowels! In contrast Dutch has so many that speaking it is like having a vowel movement.
LOL
How thoughtful of them!
@@timmmahhhh my married name is French. Many, too many vowels...& of course, they're are not pronounced as witten. Doesn't seem fair. I mean to say, all those Eastern European names with 50 consonants and no vowels. We should share.
@@marcialandakanebeaulieu9229 ah yes how renowned French is for superfluous unpronounced letters; this is my perspective having taken 2.5 years of Spanish.
he has mastered the tone of sounding like he doesn’t care while being genuinely interested in a topic
It’s a British thing
It's like a Monty pithon skit without the punchline
Noah Webster: "spelling should resemble how they're pronounced."
French:" and I took that personally."
I had assumed it was because the Brits were just a bit too French for their own good.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Well, they are, since they were an island constantly invaded by seafaring raiders, including the ones who settled a long time in northern France and then invaded England again from there! (Though by then there had been so many intermarriages and so on, it's hard to say the Norman Conquest was Viking much at all.
Still, unless "old French" was different--and maybe it was, all these "our"s would be "eur"s and the Americans would have changed it to "er," though that it how we all pronounce it.
And now I'm realizing we ALL added a "u" in "pronounce" to the French word "prononce." In fact, we KEEP the "u" and drop the "o" in the noun, even though it's just "o" in the French: "pronunciation" v "pronunciation." We're all just weird.
Well, they are, since they were an island constantly invaded by seafaring raiders, including the ones who settled a long time in northern France and then invaded England again from there! (Though by then there had been so many intermarriages and so on, it's hard to say the Norman Conquest was Viking much at all.
Still, unless "old French" was different--and maybe it was, all these "our"s would be "eur"s and the Americans would have changed it to "er," though that it how we all pronounce it.
And now I'm realizing we ALL added a "u" in "pronounce" to the French word "prononce." In fact, we KEEP the "u" and drop the "o" in the noun, even though it's just "o" in the French: "pronunciation" v "pronunciation." We're all just weird.
May be because the longest-reigning English dynasty, Plantagenet, was originated from France
Actually, that is hilarious because my moms last name is French, snd historically that name comes from the Brit’s 😂
These videos having been making me feel better about being an American.
Why would you feel bad about that in the first place?
A Nations pride….our spelling!! Lord, how far have we fallen.
His videos are heavily biased. Your spellings were not standardised, random words were arbitrarily changed. Webster butchered the language.
@@sstills951 because Americans and other countries hate America
@@thevis5465 Biggest cope of the century
Noah Webster’s pet name for his wife was “my little aardvark.” When she asked him why, he replied, “Because you come first in my book!”
Aardwolf comes before aardvark, but good joke
Also definition of bad pun!
It’s funny because I feel like most people try to make jokes about American English just has to be different, but through a lot of your videos we just stuck with the original English spelling, and now the original Latin spelling 😄
Honestly most of the differences between the UK and US can be summed like that. Britan decided to be different...US decided to not.
and now they say "oh well we just adapted" they just need a reason to bash Americans
And aluminum is aluminum there’s no 2nd i they guy who named the fucking element named it aluminum like platinum
@@LaughingOwlKiller it failed by still using old units of measurement instead of going to the simpler metric though, right around the same time of 1824
Well tbf, the same is for the imperial vs metric system. The us did like everyone else and used whatever was prevalent, until the french made the metric system and the US just refused to use it.
Noah Webster’s famous saying: “Sex before marriage, not in my book!”
For a book with a lackluster plot you've created one....well done!
Famos*
@@rickeyoftherhodes8983 famus
Copulation before sex though
@@Sheamu5 Copulation before Marriage
Also adultery, coitus, and fornication.
He liberated us from the British spelling of "gaol." We owe him so much.
And yet he still left us with that gem from the French taunters in the classic film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Sir Arthur and all his "silly English k'niggets" of the Round Table...
And why not "jale"? Surely lots of people ended up there after one too many pints of ale, whereupon they'd spin quite a tale.
The ***gall*** of that man with his disrespect of "gaol." Clearly wasn't a man with Jesus in his heart. I mean, what was his goal? It wasn't like he cared enough about others to help out the gypsies...
@@kjaime7030 Homonyms... ever heard of them?
@@bakerboat4572 Your point being? I don't think any word that I or the OP wrote are homonyms. We're both talking about Webster's interest in changing the spelling of the words to simplify the learning of written English for those who may already know some spoken English (children and immigrants).
@@kjaime7030 but why didnt he change the spelling of Ligma?
Hahaha! Yes, "the book languished from a lackluster plot" indeed! You have such a rollicking wry wit, Laurence! Thanks so much!
The best part!
As an American I really appreciate you you show the history and logic behind why America compared to other English speaking Nations right and or say things differently and it's really interesting and shows how much different a language ends up being when you're on another continent from each other.
I saw a meme about this that was both funny and surprisingly kinda accurate! England: "What are you doing with the spelling!?" Webster: "Getting rid of U!" Surprisingly accurate for the politics of it all
Damn Sticking to the original word by accident and staying functional too and practical seems to be the trend of sticking to the true word or pronunciation
SOCCER!
Not an accident Webster's rules for spelling use a preference for the original language ... contour the u was kept because it was French not Latin
Weren't a lot of the letters dropped in part because of newspapers charging by the letter, or is that an urban myth?
As a Canadian it’s like a roller coaster ride watching these videos. Sometimes I’m on the American side, and other times like with colour, I’m on the British side. 😅
Letters you don't pronounce or use to indicate a vocal shift (silent E) is a war crime. I'm looking at you Worchestershire.
Gotta love the fact that the guy tried to standardize english. It really does need that.
To be fair things being spelled as they’re pronounced and heard is the right way
Only thing is that the whole English language isn't spelled the way it's pronounced... To any non native speaker at least😉
@@Lily_and_River i forgot about Arkansas and a few others but you right.
Now if we could just fix the bloody alphabet.
Tell that to the French. Please. Tell them. Because their language is getting out of hand.
Two trew.
Lackluster plot🤣🤣
I see it as less lackluster in plot terms--though a slow read to be sure (and yet, quite the page-turner at the same time!)--I would say the plot was more like it was all over the place and had no consistent theme. I mean, that book provided comedy and farce, drama and melancholy, love and romance, action and adventure, politics and intrigue, revenge and redemption, gement, growth and encouragement, suspense and mystery, etc, scattered throughout.
@@kjaime7030 according to Steven Wright (and The Simpson) it turns out that the zebra did it
I wish a lot more words would be spelled how they sound.
I'm learning Spanish and I definitely find it refreshing how much more of Spanish is spelled as it sounds.
Spanish spelling based on pronunciation is super easy until you need to figure out whether there's an H at the beginning of a word or if it's a G or J. Or is it a Y or LL?
@@kazzymoogle4976 Ok, so it isn't perfect. But, these examples you mention are relatively easy to figure out.
I don't believe I've ever neglected an "h," or confused a "y" with "ll," or confused a "g" with a "j."
@@johnc1014 They prove your point wrong and rebuttal with “oK sO iT IsNT pErFecT” 🗑️
@@whatjake7898 His point from the start was "a lot more of spanish [compared to english]", not "all of spanish"
Spanish is easy till you realize it’s much longer to say a sentence in Spanish than in English : se me rompió el carro- my car broke down 🤷♀️I speak both 😂
Read doesn't rhyme with lead, but read rhymes with lead. And for some god-forsaken reason pony and bologna rhyme flawlessly.
You forgot that read rhymes with lead.
But read doesn’t rhyme with Pb.
The biggest bunch of baloney... is that bologna is Italian, where it's pronounced bolonia.
LOL at professional James Polk impersonator!
Your delivery is my favorite thing about your content. It's hilarious.
James Polk impersonator!!! I'm dying!!!
Lawrence, you’re such a good teacher. I hope to hear your fun facts for years.
Every time I see it spelled "colour", I want to say kuh lure.
Whenever I see it spelled like than I just hear a posh British man saying, “coh-loure” all fancy like.
Similarly, there’s a neighborhood near me called Harbour something, spelled that way and I always want to say it “har-BORE” instead of the usual “HAAR’brr”.
Wait till he gets around to explaining how much French influenced British spelling.
@@Annie_Annie__ shouldn't it be pronounced "Har-boo-er"
I always want to say it as Kuh - low- er
Thank you Merriam Webster for ridding us of the unnecessary U and such pronunciation anomalies!
Thank you for saying different instead of wrong
I had to watch this one twice because I couldn’t hear anything after “before color was even invented” over my laughter!
Imagine trying to say the word "color", but making it sound like "hour", "sour", "flower", "tower", etc... lol
It's thinking things like that out loud that gets my Canadian friend upset with me, since she does the "aboot" instead of "about" thing, so I have to ask her how she says "out," "stout," "clout," "shout," etc., after she tries the whole, "But it's not spelled 'abowt'" thing...
@@kjaime7030 You think we say "aboot" but we hear you say "abaawt." 😂
Where is your Canadian friend wrong?
@@phantomkate6 abaawt? No Canadian hears an American say A-bought. The word is correctly pronounced A-bowt. But some Canadians do say aboot
that’s really interesting! didn’t the price to print newspapers contribute as well? in america, the cost to print newspapers was by letter, so removing unnecessary letters (like the u in color) made it cheaper. maybe that helped webster’s standardized spelling take off?
Yes, newspapers and telegrams. In order to place ads and telegrams, a person had to pay by the letter, so they would simplify spelling to lower the cost.
The telegraph came in about 1844 while Webster's Dictionary came out 1828. I have heard thenu was taken due to printed press. Everything I read about Webster, he want the spelling closely match the pronouncation of the word.
Yes! a whole new language emerged when texts had to stay under 180. But it came & went so fast all we really kept was the LOLs.
"While the book suffered from a lackluster plot"
That was pretty good, that got a good laugh out of me. Thank you.
It’s always great to find out you’ve been right all along when everyone else has made fun of you for it.
Wow I actually learned a lot in that 1 minute short thanks...your show is fun and a delight
But will you ever use it?
0:52 Thank you British guy for finally settling that.
I'm loving the wadded up napkin you've so creatively decided is a cravat.
The amount of pride i feel in knowing we're right is glorious
Ah, Lawrence, you're a jewel! "Professional James Polk impersonator" 😅.
Just FYI, here in Connecticut, we have the town of Coventry. You, I & hoards of other reasonable people, pronounce it as it is spelled. Locally, it is pronounced Caventry (with the long 'a' as in caution). I refuse to do this & even though I was born a Massachusetts Yankee, I receive many a strange looks. But as I am a snob about certain things (the list is too long to enumerate here), there are some things one must hold one's ground on. My heels are firmly dug in on this one!
The "a" in "caution" is not long.
@@urmorph You are quite right, John. I should not have described the sound I wanted, just given the word.
I can appreciate your viewpoint. This stuff irritates the H*** out of me. Stay stuck!
It’s GREAT to “see” you AGAIN (!!); THANKS for showing this!! 👍🏼👍🏼🥰👣👠
Tf does feet high heels mean?
My new favorite video genre is a British person passive aggressively explaining to me that American English is more proper than UK English
"While the book suffered from a lackluster plot..." 😂 literal tears, people.
I'm not hitting the telegraph button 4 more signals just to signal the "U" for color. Besides I save a cent for the letter!
Well done all around video! Thank you!
Excellent music today! Love Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture. And the colour thingie was also good
Im obsessed with how you talk and the way tou side eye the camera lmao
I love these little lessons.
I bet Webster LOVED the French language
The dictionary "suffered from a lack of plot" joke made me smile.
That Polk joke had me lolling
I don't know why, well it's damn interesting of course, but the way this british cat presents it brings out the uk in all of us, because, it's not what you say.... it's HOW you say it, is where the real meaning is related.... love this stuff, cheers from NE FLA.
You can see Webster's house in Greenfield village, part of the Henry Ford museum!
And herewith, you have stumbled upon the author of many notes Lost in the Pond!! Congratulations!
Thanks for educating, without destroying.😊
Australia followed the UK spelling of "-our" words until WWII ink rationing, then all the newspapers and publishers switched to the US way of spelling color, valor, honor, neighbor, etc. In the post-war years most switched back to the UK spelling, although some major newspapers retained the US spelling well into the 1990s. There's no consistent rule in the US since they adopted glamour and parkour.
Yet two more marks against the French! 🤣
The word Parkour comes from French _parcourse_. Which have ties to Medieval Latin: _percursus_, and Latin: _percurrere_, meaning to run through.
Notice all the U in these words.
Because orgin of those words are French not Latin
There was also the part where it was cheaper to print words without the extra letters. So, there were a lot of reasons.
Professional James Polk impersonator!🤣😂🤣
The most significant spelling reform for me from Britain to America is from the the word ‘Analogue’ to ‘Analog’
Great short and great presentation. You should wear that 18th century suit more often.
Growing up in school, I honestly didn't know which way I was supposed to spell color/colour. I ended up just relying on spelling autocorrectors to teach me the way people understand it in the US
You are essentially a very funny Professor. Thanks! Always entertaining😄
i love this mans inflection
I actually already knew that, Lost in the Pond. Thank you.
I can spot a UK ,or Brit commonwealth resident in CZcams comments sections by the way they spell color and favorite 😁
That about covers it, from Eh to Zed.
As a kid, I used to spell "or" words as "our" like flavour. I grew up in Indiana, a great big nowhere in the Rust Belt. Idk how I picked up that habit. Maybe I was a British sleeper cell.
It also became popular since it was more expensive the more letters you put in telegraphs.
Love how the US edition is closer to the source material
Long story short, we got rid of the way England spelled words when we got rid of U!
You always entertain, but sometimes I actually learn something. 👍
"While the book suffered from it's lack luster plot" 😂
So why don't the English use it correctly then? LOL
Because they like to change words and act like they are somehow better when it’s not even the original word or pronunciation
Maybe its not the US that needs to change how they spell color (as well as some other words). Maybe some other English speaking countries (who will remain unnamed) should learn from the US and fix their spelling of these words. LOL
From the Latin spelling, we took our cue, and dropped the u.
True answer is that's how the Frenchies spell it and the Brits love them so much
So the real question should be why do non-American English users insert extraneous letters in word spellings?
The answer is always because the Brits love the French.
"Lack-luster plot!" 🤣🤣🤣
Took their cuuuue, love it 😄
"lackluster plot" 😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣👍👍👍👌
That Latin connection is why scissors is spelled so wrong. Same guy did it.
I'm 51, lived my whole life in eastern Pennsylvania, well educated for the most part, BUT I feel as though I've learned more about my own country watching your clips versus public education. And, you make it fun and interesting to learn as well. Forgive me if thats not grammatically correct phrasing, I was a terrible English class student. LOL 🤷🏼♂️🤪😁
(As an American these are all great videos keep it up!!!)
at this point im waiting on the thesis of Aluminum versus Aluminium
Describing a dictionary as Not having a lackluster plot....😂🤣
I used to think they would charge newspaper’s by the letter so the newspaper publishers and writers got rid of ‘useless’ letters
"The book suffered from a lackluster plot"😂
Suffered from a lacklustre plot....😂😂😂😂😂
This is really superb TKY.
Imagine releasing a whole dictionary, then some comes up to you says "you forgot a word."
Cuz we were sick of u! 🤣
Dont forget that the reason the spelling of words like colour was so varied because newspapers charged for the letter.
Thank you for these, I always think it's very interesting how we speak so differently even just speaking the same language! The internet exposes me to lots of other countries and I talk to people from all over.
You earned a like just by managing to stick a James K. Polk joke in there.
Thank you for that lesson. And I must say, you are a colorful individual with your channel!!
The BBC reported that American spellings are mostly the original spellings.
I did not know about Webster's history that's actually really cool and maybe a little discerning but mostly just cool!
"Webster believed that spelling should closely match pronunciation."
Irish: HA! 🤣
I gotta tell you, I love your brand of dry, British humor.. because of social media and personal handheld technology, people lack the ability to stay engaged, focus, comprehend for any more than 7 seconds.. so, although your humor is easily understood, your jokes go right over many peoples heads.. oddly, just knowing that, makes it exponentially more funny to me..
I had no idea that “color” was an original Latin spelling. Interesting.
That is just wild man. Wild.
So America just beat UK to the punch 🇺🇸😆
My beloved had to learn Australian. Bet you could relate. Enjoying your channel. We’ve both subscribed.
👍🏼🇦🇺
Webster was a boss. His name is on so many dictionaries on this side of the pond.
I would love to see you have a "shorts" series where you slowly learn the American accent. That would be great content.