[OT] American versus British spelling and pronunciation (was: Arbitrary abbreviations in phobos considered ridiculous)

[Stewart Gordon]

On 08/03/2012 11:04, Regan Heath wrote:
> On Thu, 08 Mar 2012 10:21:00 -0000, Derek <ddparnell at bigpond.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, 08 Mar 2012 05:38:08 +1100, Nick Sabalausky <a at a.a> wrote:
>>
>>> British English may be the more "official" English, with American English as a mere
>>> variation ...
>>
>> In one sense, American English is often a sort of abbreviated version in which seemingly
>> superfluous letters are omitted. But in other cases, it more accurately reflects
>> pronunciation (colorize verses colourise).

Indeed.  Sometimes the British spelling is more logical (judgement versus judgment). 
Sometimes the American spelling is more logical (skeptical versus sceptical).

> In Britain (where I live) there are people to pronounce the 'u' in colour, and colourise.
> The difference is subtle, and I've found many people simply cannot hear it.
<snip>

I'm finding it hard to figure how someone would pronounce the "o" and "u" in "colour" 
separately.

But to me, it's just the same phoneme as found in most -er and -or words.

Stewart.