"Adding the letter U to words" Topic

Maybe it's because I'm a history lecturer in my day job, or perhaps it's the combination of Anglo-philia and Maple-centrism, but I often find myself including u within words where standard American English has dropped them (e.g. labour, colour, favourite, &tc).

So does anyone else do this? Conversy, are there those from countries where the u is usually included who find themselves dropping it?

I never do that.

I am in the US and I discourage it in my classes. I find that students often use both forms, sometimes in the same sentence.

My first English professor said that it was ok for British English writers, but I lived in the US so he didn't want to see it anymore. I would think it ok for UK Commonwealth writers.

I would think it ok for UK Commonwealth writers.

OK? It's expected and insisted on.

As a native -u- user I can't say I've started occasionally unconsciously leaving it out, though recently a few other American usages have begun to creep into my spoken English, no doubt due to Hollywood's dominance on the screen, in cinemas and on TV.

Canadian, ex-pat Brit….of course I use "u"…..I am appalled at the Americanizatoin of our newspapers when they drop it.

As a Brit, I can't see a reason not to spell the words properly

It does fascinate me as to why the "U" was dropped off if anyone can tell me :)

Don't understand the question? Of course I would never leave out the U. Other letters, possibly. But then I've never been a great speller. I also pronounce Jag-u-ar, not Jaguar and say zed, not zee. No matter how many visits I make to the USA, or films/TV shows I see, I shall stick to my English pronunciation and spelling of English. I don't envy anyone trying to learn the language though, since even native speakers can't agree on words and spelling.

And it is spelt "aluminium"

I am in the US and I discourage it in my classes. I find that students often use both forms, sometimes in the same sentence.

I always avoid it in professional writing and discourage it amongst my students (unless they're from a Commonwealth country). It's only in informal messages (e.g. TMP posts, text messages, etc) that I use it.

It's more not taking the letter U out of words in my case.

Having been taught not to use the u, I don't use it in things I start. Responding to a query here on TMP, I'd match the original correspondent--if he wrote "armour," I would, too, even though my computer thinks I've misspelled it. I also use irregular forms of verbs, which is something that has become discouraged since I was in school.

I was taught that the elimination of the u was a Theodore Roosevelt thing: he felt we should simplify the language, spelling words more nearly the way they are pronounced. Obviously, this has not been carried out with any great consistency.

Grelber

As an American I write with the non-u spelling, but when posting online with UK Commonwealth readers, about UK Commonwealth topics, I add the u as it is contextually accurate. I see this the same as using the French or German term for something where technically appropriate.

An example is when posting about Games Workshop games. Those are published in the UK, have big followings across the world but especially the UK Commonwealth, and the game's fictional backstories typically have UK spellings. It seems entirely appropriate to add in the u.

I have not yet found myself using the aluminium form, or spelling lieutenant as pronounced in the UK, "leftenant".

I either include or don't depending on in which writings I most commonly read the word growing up.

For formal writing, I follow which ever dictionary is specified in the appropriate guidance, i.e., for work the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, per the Chicago Manual of Style.

As for the "proper" spelling, the English language does not have a regulatory board in the USA or UK (or anywhere else, for that matter). And the United States does not have an official language (thus, the lack of a regulatory board). Of note, the only de jure language for the UK is Welsh, which does have a board, and gave English some of its more endearing grammatical forms. Some states and territories within the US do have official languages, which apply within those jurisdictions. For none of those does the state or territory manage a regulatory board (though some tribal governments do). So "proper" spelling in English (whichever version) is pllffltlttltpptp.

Well, except for the authoritative reference, the OSPD.

Let people spell as they wish, American English spellings are fine ---in America and its dependancies. If in the UK or Canada, spelling with a 'U' is standard.
I am tolerant of both.

In Anglo Saxon England, spelling was…fluid. So long as it made sense, spell it how you like!

"…the fact that we really have evererything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language." Oscar Wilde

LOL. When did English ever make sense? :)

Dan
PS. By the way, maybe the "U" spellings simply reflect Francophile tendencies. :)

Yes, of course as per the Oxford Dictionary.
P.S. I don't add them as they are already there.

It does fascinate me as to why the "U" was dropped off if anyone can tell me :)

Noah Webster just made up 'American' spellings, and he published the spelling books for schools.
link

I'm pretty sure I was switched at birth with a Canadian baby. I cam ehard-wired with a Canadian accent and Canadian spellings without ever working on it.

Yes, a lot of the 'u's that are eliminated in American English are from words that came from French. So it's all their fault!

I believe that a lot of the initial impetus for simplifying spelling came from Webster. But back in Britain we prefer the confusing version!

On a side note….Bill Bryson, the American travel writer who has lived in Britain for many years, has written about the British habit for being deliberately confusing. He was actually talking about our road numbering system but it applies to many, many other areas of life as well. He wrote that it is often said that so many things in Britain are confusing because the British like to confuse foreigners. He thinks that "the British don't give a about foreigners, they just like to confuse themselves."

Respectfully, and as a Brit, I believe the Americans have the spelling and grammar thing colored just about right, exactly as they do with program, gotten etc. The folks that went to the New World were an old-fashioned crew and accordingly they did not adopt the Frenchification craze of the mid-late 18th century, whence so much of this nouveau orthography arose. Even the American accent is I believe a vestige of how folks used to speak, at least in the Eastern counties of England, back in the 16th-17th century.

Legbiter: "the Frenchification craze of the mid-late 18th century"

LOL. "Frenchification". I love it!

I'm going to have to use that word around some of my friends, specially those who claim to be Anglophiles, just to get their reaction. :)

Dan

@Legbiter, the classic Boston Accent (now derided by kids who have no ethnic pride), was the accent of the rising educated mercantile class of London during the colonial period. President Kennedy's accent was straight out of the required Diction class taught at Harvard University.

I've heard that the New England habit of dropping Rs, as in "Pahk the cah in Hahvid Yahd." was actually the colonials following what was then a British fad.

That's interesting. I'm from northwest Lincolnshire, where the original founding fathers/Mayflower gang came from. The accent is dying out now, but you can still notice the American connection in the way a lot of words are pronounced, especially in the more agricultural villages.

I have both American and British students. Both groups tend to bounce back and forth between including and dropping the "u". It's really not a big concern for me. The same could be said concerning the grey/gray spelling dispute. The real battle between the two groups of students comes when they discuss football.

Australians almost never pronounce the "R's" in words. Car is pronounced "kah".

I agree with the Franco-phile comments. Words like "program" were originally spelt like that (earlier like however you wanted), but turned into "programme" by the Victorians.

JohnG

It probably all begins with someone asking a traveler recently arrived from England … "So, what's the latest fashion in London?"

Several of the regional dialects in English speaking countries are just snapshots of fads that were all the rage back in jolly old England but which, when transplanted overseas, become frozen in time within that particular community even long after the fad fades from existence back in London.

Same goes for a few of the "Southern" US dialects:

YouTube link

Dan

Interesting point you make there, CC. I've always heard the same is true of French – that the dialect spoken in former colonies like Quebec, or amongst the Cajuns, is actually a much older form of the language than that spoken in France today. It seems languages often "freeze" when transplanted to distant lands.

It depends on the subject.
I spell 3rd Armored Division (Spearhead) without it.
I spell Guards Armoured Division with it.
I spell 7th Panzer Division with none of it.

I never do that. You need to seek help.

Ju'st like a "u" alway's foullouw's an "o" an apou'strouphe alway's precede's an "s".
That make's me literate.

Seriously, the "u" was dropped by Noah Webster, of the famous Webster's dictionary fame.
He wanted to create a dictionary for the American language, and that was one of his choices.

So, we've been offending the Limeys since about 1828 or so.

Never

I add U to the end of words to make them Japanese.

Gone Fishing: "Interesting point you make there, CC. I've always heard the same is true of French – that the dialect spoken in former colonies like Quebec, or amongst the Cajuns, is actually a much older form of the language than that spoken in France today. It seems languages often "freeze" when transplanted to distant lands."

And it happens with Spanish and many other languages too!

The mother country eventually tires of a style and moves on to the next fad, which may or may not ever make it to the colonies. Next thing you know out in some of the colonies you have little linguistic pockets of what parts of the mother country once sounded like.

I was told long ago that you can drive across countries like Columbia and feel like you are traveling not just though different provinces of Spain, but also thorough different periods in their history. And then you add to those frozen "snapshots" all the local Native American and African words (and other European imports and Anglicisms) that have been adopted through the years, and you can have yourself quite a fun chronological roller coaster of accents and idioms. :)

Dan

"There even are places were English completely disappears…in America they haven't used it for years"-Prof. Henry Higgins

I'm from the south. There's a lot of letters that shouldn't be used such as "r" (unless you're a pirate of course)

The definitive demonstration of proper English.