Quote:
Originally Posted by Fbone
Isn't the US the only country that removes the "u" from certain words?
UK, Ireland, South Africa keeps them. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India?
The Philippines? I don't know
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It's more a division into two (main) types of English rather than by country. In general, the UK and its former colonies use UK English, whereas countries that are geographically closer to the US will use US English. However, there are individual differences in spelling and grammar between countries. Language is also in a constant state of flux - for instance, some of the Caribbean islands are staying steadfastly with UK English, whereas some others seem to be moving towards US English.
US spelling is generally somewhat easier than UK English - this was one of the main reasons that Noah Webster decided to make wholesale spelling changes when he wrote his dictionary (well, that and the whole not liking the British very much thing). Unfortunately, few of these changes seemed to be particularly logical, and they tend to obscure the etymology of words and the relationship between them. This is particularly true in science and medicine; many of the approved drug names are now the US version, which generally don't reflect the true meaning of the name. So for instance, the change from 'cyclosporin' to 'ciclosporin' removes the very useful indication of the original name that there is a ring group in the chemical makeup of this drug.
There also seems to be an increasing tendency in US English to remove the difference between tenses. The verb 'to fit' is probably the most glaring example - US English generally seems to use 'fit' for both present and past tense now, whereas UK English still maintains the difference between 'fit' and 'fitted'. Again, this seems to be more likely to obscure than to clarify. The first rung on the ladder to Newspeak, perhaps?