American Spelling?  Changes made by the Americans to the English Language.?
481693
I think it was Noah Webster who when writing his dictionary decided to simplify several spellings in the English Language.  \nSome took, some didn't.  Some even changed the way Brits and Canadians and Aussies spell the word (musick is now music for instance).  \n\nI have never heard of a concentrated effort by the American Government to differentiate their language from British English and it doesn't sound like something that a limited federal government (pre-civil war) would really want to do.     More likely, English, given its ability to evolve quickly branched off because people liked the spelling in the US and a different spelling in the UK.
685754
First, quit stereo typing U.S.citizens.\nsecond, if you know anything about United States history, The pilgrims who settled here, were mostly English, so they brought the language here, and it has been here since. They spoke proper, or the Queens English. But over the years, it has evolved into American english. They didn't give us the language. Now, the settlers introduced english to the native americans, and many of them learned it very well, as many of the settlers learned some of the different dielects of the native american language. Africans learned english from the white settlers who went to africa, and set up colonies. The africans eventually learned english, some chose to keep their native languages also. Nobody is saying the Mexicans are destroying the english language, what people are saying is that we want english as the primary language in the united states. Spanish can be secondary. we need a primary language, so that people can effectively communicate. can you imagine what it would be like if every language here had to have seperate schools for the children. Besides that, one language will help to provide a common bond. If we don't have a common bond through one language, then we might as well go back to the cave man days. How funny we would all look if we had to have a thousand interperators following us around all day long. Wouldn't it be really noisey?
1151544
It goes back to the early 19th century and the publication of Noah Webster's dictionary.  The new country was anxious to establish it's separate identity from Great Britain so a spelling reform seemed like a good thing to do.  Noah Webster actually proposed hundreds of changes in spelling, such as vizion for vision, but only a few of the spelling reforms were actually put into practice, color for colour, theater for theatre, dramatize for dramatise, traveling for travelling.
810946
wrong spelling and grammar
978581
I know how irritating this seems. To me too. The only reason that seems feasible is that the language and how it's used are constantly changing.  The way we speak English now would be nearly unrecognizable to people living 400 years ago.  Phrases that were all the rage in my teens are now hopelessly out of date and the pronunciation of some common words has changed in the last 10 years. As grating as it sounds, "bored of" is probably a part of the river of language changing its course as it often does.  If you want some entertaining information on words and how they've changed try www.word-detective.com. It really broadened my view of language and made it easier to live with the occasional ear twisters like "bored of".
814516
In 3.0 they updated the spelling of "difference".\n\nRawlyn.
606417
When America was established therefore the term "Americans" comes in place.\nP.S. Please rate this well.http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Am_XfrPtleQlcdWCo.W47iXsy6IX?qid=1006050821180
680432
Certainly.  Some internet abbreviations have entered daily spoken language.  People are doing much more writing and much less speaking.  A new level of langauge (e-mail speak) seems to be developing.  Even amoung educated, careful speakers, a certain number of appreviations, symbols and careless spellings seems to have become accepted.  While some younger users are taking this to the point of incomprehensibility (if you are not in the know), this will probably level off.  The number of international users will change some English used on the Internet as new norms develop.  The Internet is a new community of speakers/writers, and as it develops, it will change.
316898
As others have noted, the letters WERE pronounced when the spellings originated.  And had the printing press come a century later, such things might be spelled the way we now pronounce them.\n\nThere is, however, some value in all this.  It is possible to see how words are related (to see something of their history) both within English and between English and the languages it grew out of.  Thus the spelling of word may show us connections with Germanic, French and Latin words\n\nI remember that it made it a lot easier to learn German, since I could recognize some of these words as related.  (Modern German, which DOES pronounce such sounds, has "Knecht" for "knight", "Nacht" for "night", etc.) I think it also helped with things like SATs.  Similarly, when I had to pick up a reading knowledge of French, I recognized a lot of related words (though I can't pronounce French worth a lick!)  I would think this is some help to Europeans learning English as well.\n\n------------\n\nSome more thoughts on the unstated (implied?) question -- why don't we fix it?!\n\nIncidentally, one of the things that has KEPT English from thorough spelling reforms is the fact that its vocabulary has been so freely borrowed from so many sources for centuries that there would be A LOT to try change and relearn.  (German and many other European languages did see such reforms in the past couple of centuires, but they had a lot less changing to do!)   And with the wide variety of regional pronunciations among just NATIVE English speakers, which ones would be adopt for the "standard"?  And if there were multiple versions what kind of mess would that make?! (The differences that now exist between British and American spelling are quite minor, hardly a barrier to reading each others' writing.)\n \nThink too what this change would do for reading anything in slightly older English!   We wouldn't be able to read documents and letters of the last several centuries without 'translating' them!
448539
I once watched a great show on the history channel about the history of english. it was broken down in to three shows, old, middle and modern english. this isn't an answer, but i would try the history channel web site and she if they have any resources.
516802
I think because English people are sympathetic towards our American cousins and make that extra effort to not give in to frustration and correct their grammar/spelling at every other corner. Due to the fact that the language most Americans speak is also understood by most native English speakers then they justify it as being English.\nCalling it American would cause a political rift in Anglo-US relations and probably allow the spoken and written accuracy level of American to sink to even further lows than it has already. By keeping English as a role-model, they hope to at least retain some vestige of respect for the history and culture of their country.
211332
http://www.nce1031.net/nce/\n\nspelling is "exchangors"
570533
On spelling and grammar, I would have to say English people, for example when somebody uses 'is there more...' instead of 'are there more...' and 'too' instead of 'to' or refuses to use capital letters!!!!! Grrrrr! On other things, who knows? I think that I would go for English people! :)
1072703
who speaks it, the accent, the use of definite and indefinite articles (e.g. "in hospital" vs "in the hospital"), a zillion gabillion idioms such as "school leaver" instead of "high school graduate", spellings (programme vs program), the use of "presently" (meaning after awhile in british and right now in american), countless slang words, the fact that american has verbed a number of former nouns such as contact... pick up a publication from britain and compare it to a similar one in america and have a look.
453910
Actually they don't all say that.  And anyway it's not true.  Language is in a constant state of flux anyway.  Let's take 'Fall' (US) v 'Autumn' (UK).  'Fall' was in widespread use in the West of England (where most of the early US settlers came from).  It changed in UK but remained the same in US.  So, the change happened in UK, NOT the US.  This is true for a number of other word/phrase pairs.\n\nIf you assume - as all linguists know - that languages change over time, then it is obvious that in the 400 years or so that English speaking people have lived in America, that their language would diverge from that of the UK.  The same happened in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and, under slightly different pressures, in India, Singapore etc.\n\nEnglish in, say, Georgia and English as spoken in New York have diverged in the same period.  As a Brit, I had real difficulty understanding some of the rural residents of Georgia I met on a recent visit.\n\nThe reason many Brits use the word 'bastardised' to describe American English (yes, with an 's'!) is not so much to do with the language butmore to do with their feeling that America is insular, arrogant and full of itself.  (A view which is only partially justified, I feel).  The assumption by some Americans (as perceived by many Brits) - and largely the assumption of the US Government - that the whole world should aspire to become more like the US, that the US system of doing everything is best, that the US can and should bully other nations leads to a groundswell of feeling of alienation from America.  As we all know, it is traditional in the UK to mock people because of the way they speak!\n\nWinston Churchill (I think) said of Britain and America that we are 'two great nations divided by a common language'.  In general (unfortunately) I think he was about right.
27307
I suspect you are refering to how the Canadians or British usually pronounce the letter "Z."  It comes from Greek, where the "letter" was pronounced "Zed" just like "A" was once pronouced Alpha, B Beta, etcetera.  It's simply a change in the language from the languages that everything evolves from, American is a decendent of British English, which is a descendent of German, French and Latin (which comes from Greek).  Ergo, British English is simply an older incarnation of the language, while Canadian English simply went in a different direction and kept the Zed.
595010
None.\n\n"Grey" is the British spelling, "gray" is American,