Jonathan_S wrote:n7axw wrote:This makes good sense. Language drift is inevitable. The difference between American English and English English is due to geographic separation as well as time of separation. We get accused by the English of using a bastardized form of the language when really we have just drifted apart.
Well, except for spelling differences. There Webster made a deliberate (and successful) effort to push existing ideas of spelling reform in his eponymous American dictionary.
The most obvious one being around unstressed pronunciation of an ending "ou"; where his dictionary dropped the "u" and instead used just "o" (e.g. "color" vs "colour", "flavor" vs "flavour", etc.).
I imagine even the dictionary has to be updated occasionally. Words shift in meaning. For example, the word conversation refers to speaking.In Shakespeare and the King James bible the word refers to conduct. About 10 to 15 percent of our vocabulary has shifted since that time.
Don
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