It’s very common as a translator to receive translation requests for both United States English as well as United Kingdom English. These two flavors of English are not as different as (say) the Canadian and Europe’s versions of French but, when it comes to spelling, there are a few things we must take into account.

We all know that some words are spelled differently between the United Kingdom and the United States flavors of written English, but the question is: How, when, and why did these changes take place? Why the need for differentiation when there is no difference in pronunciation of both forms?

The Thinking of Noah Webster

The answer to this question is rather interesting. It appears that, prior to the 18th century, the English language was not standardized and so the language and its speakers were mainly influenced by dictionaries. Following the independence of the United States, Noah Webster was busy at work writing dictionaries and spelling books. Apparently he wasn’t happy with what he deemed to be unnecessary letters in words, so he decided to leave some letters out and relocate others: this resulted in the creation of words such as theater (instead of theatre) and harbor (instead of harbour). Even today, many people completely agree with his thoughts on this matter: we use many vowels and consonants in writing that are seemingly placed there for no particular reason.

What Was the Reasoning behind These Changes?

So, what influenced Noah Webster into transforming these words? He believed that altering the traditional spelling of some words and developing a new American English would boost patriotism and nationalism for this newly founded country. Of course, it wasn’t only the fact that he removed some vowels from words; he also created the letter ‘zee’, which replaces the ‘zed’ in British English.

Not All of Webster’s Changes Were Approved

Some people may not be aware that Webster went even further with this and proposed spelling words in a more phonetic way, like ‘soop’ for soup, and removing the final vowel ‘e’ from words such as ‘medicine’. Clearly, these were not approved, but in the 1880s, the American Philological Association issued an official list showing the acceptance of some of Webster’s reforms. The spelling was changed in 3,500 words! Following Noah Webster’s death in 1843, Merriam-Webster, the publishing company, purchase the rights to Noah Webster’s ‘An American Dictionary of the English Language’.