Re: All hail Bob!

From: Marshall Spight <marshall.spight_at_gmail.com>
Date: 10 May 2006 16:50:34 -0700
Message-ID: <1147305034.723624.128580@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>

Frank Hamersley wrote:
> Marshall Spight wrote:
> >
> > I have no evidence that would suggest the level of appreciation
> > for education is either rising or falling among the general
> > public. I have noted a strong tendency for people to consider
> > the present worse than the past, so I am somewhat suspicious
> > of the "us get stupider" hypothesis.
>
> This touches on a subject that I have often wondered about.
>
> With respect to the the USA does anyone know when and why, or even at
> all, the corporate decision was taken to "simplify" the spelling of some
> words? An archetype example for me is "metre" which as I routinely see
> on NASA/JPL sites as "meter".

English orthorgraphy wasn't firmly fixed at the time of the American revolution, so some divergence was inevitable. There was also a concerted effort by Daniel Webster to simplify the spelling of some words. "Color" and "honor" were his idea. Personally I don't see why he bothered; a few minor changes here and there don't justify the cost of the difference.

Orthography itself is a relatively modern concept; some otherwise modern countries/languages still don't have it down that well, such as Japanese.

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

Marshall Received on Wed May 10 2006 - 18:50:34 CDT