Re: [Groff] Spelling [was Possible Bug in s.tmac]

[Meg McRoberts]

--- Peter Schaffter <address@hidden> wrote:

> On Fri, Sep 24, 2004, Meg McRoberts wrote:
> 
> > I must say that I've always questioned the decision of the technical
> > community to make American English the standard.
> 
> I suspect the reason has to do with the economy of bytes.  By and
> large, American spellings are leaner and meaner, making them the
> obvious choice back when size (smaller = better) mattered.  "Donut"
> vs "doughnut," for example.  Plus, American spellings tend to
> be slightly more phonetic than British, making them easier for
> non-English speakers to master.

Maybe.  And just for the record, "doughnut" is the spelling I
was taught in American schools.  But now everything is abbreviated,
such as "thru" rather than "through."

Does anyone know what Noah Webster's justification was for doing
the honour->honor, colour->color, and theatre->theater switch in
the XIX century?  I think he is the one who chose a lot of the
alternate spellings for US English but I don't know what his
justification was.

I always figured the computer industry went with the US spellings
because so much of the original industry was US companies and we
Americans are so parochial...  But be gentle with us -- it's a
rough week in the US, with the company that makes Twinkies filing
for bankrupcy ;-)

meg