Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
What happened was that the Pilgrims came to America and brought with them UK English. They then took that UK English and made what is now the better US English.  |
It was Webster that decided to change (possibly French origin) -re endings to -er and drop internal double LL to L and drop U from OUR. He was prescriptive and deliberately changing variations of US spellings to his own idea. Whereas the OED people have always argued they are simply documenting actual usage.
Each ethnic group to USA brought their own dialect and spellings. Irish, Scottish and Welsh people. Also Irish Travellers (miscalled Gypsies because they are not Romany). Then Germans (USA Dutch instead of Deutsch), Poles, Russians, Italians, Spanish speakers (often from Mexico but some before USA independence).
People also have blind spots in pronunciation because of reading far more than talking. Also their ethnic and-or geographic background may give them a valid different pronunciation. Often the BBC, English "Home Counties" and London people from posher backgrounds have worse pronunciation than elsewhere. In the UK and Ireland it's a myth that there is one official way to pronounce words, though some people of course mispronounce. My own grandfather was from a mixed working class background but read a lot in his younger years and to the end of his days pronounced "niche" as "nicky".
My father qualified in Maths and Geography but was an English teacher and I was sent to elocution class, 1:1 with a woman in her own home. I hated it and I'm sure it wasn't many months. Despite (or because?) being married for over 40 years, the wife delights in occasionally correcting my pronunciation. I never seem to get Chicago right. Some pronunciations baffle me, like "Belvoir Park" in Belfast is called "Beaver Park". Some English place names are more baffling to me than Welsh ones, and though I don't know Irish I have some idea of the pronunciation (which is unrelated to English and closer to Old Latin, not Church Latin, or even Hebrew and Arabic).