h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think this entry does not make it clear that some of the word pairs given have different pronunciations as well as different spellings.

Speciality/ specialty
My concise OED gives 'speciality' as a 5-syllable word with the stress on 'AL', while 'specialty' is pronounced with only 3 syllables, with the stress on 'SPE'

Aluminium/aluminum
Again the 5-sylllable 'alumINium' is pronounced differently from the 4-syllable 'alUMinum'.

Azara

It clearly says in the title, Spelling. Perhaps you'd like to write an entry on the differences in American and British Accents?

The one that always jars for me is 'esthetic' (the British spelling starts with ae). I don't even pronounce it like that!

Fortunately it's not very common (I hear).

Not unless you're a doctor

But that's 'anaesthetic', which is "not aesthetic", and is therefore the opposite

But Jodan, you say yourself

'In examples like 'hauler', in American-English, the British version would cause an American some difficulty pronouncing it, as they would try to add another sound to an already crowded area.'

That's why I mentioned the other examples - I found it rather hard to tell whether you thought 'haulier' has or hasn't an extra sound compared to 'hauler'.

The rest of the table gives the impression that the American spelling has dropped 'unnecessary' letters - the point I was trying to make is that in this particular subset of your examples the letters dropped in the American version are not silent in the British version.


At some point, 'two different versions of the same word' shades into 'two different words for the same thing'.

I think speciality/specialty could be easily listed as similar but slightly different words (on the lines of normality/normalcy) rather than as different spellings of the same word.

Azara

I love it when people quote me

You're right, but it would still cause an American trouble pronouncing it in their accent. We tend to pronounce color the same as colour. And as the title says, this entry is for Americans. I can't write an authoritive entry for the british.

Actually, since the American spellings where generally made to bring the spellings in line with the American pronounciation, you should probably mention it in passing. And probably Noah Webster, who's dictionary was where they came from, if memory serves.

It also may be a whole 'nother kettle of fish, but Canadians use some British spellings, some American. Damn fence-setters, should probably be mentioned, too, if only to establish that something with both spellings may not be spelling errors.

Oh, bleep me, you did mention Webster right at the beginning! I'm blind, forgive me.

I think the idea of it is covered in a link I provided to The Great Vowel Shift. A980624

Sorry for the delay in replying, I thought it was someone else I was ignoring

I always pronounce words like they'ree spelled, which often makes them incomprehensable to others.

How do you pronounce colonel?