British/Canadian to American Spelling

KeithD said:

Can either Canadian or Australian (and New Zealand?) authors here identify how closely their systems hew to the British style and where they commonly diverge from that?

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Canada uses mainly British spelling (honour, for instance) but tends toward US punctuation (eg punctuation marks outside vice inside). There's a trend towards blending, in any case.

Canada was meant to get US technology, British government and French culture. Instead, it got US culture, British technology and French government. - Lester Pearson

Also they only say "aluminum" in North America. Most everyone else refers to the element as "aluminium". And apparently "Sorcerer's Stone" is pronounced "Philosopher's Stone" in the UK

TxRad said:

Uh, use Google and you will find they are completely different fish. Yes, the Pickerel is in the same family as a musky but the Walleye is in the perch family. I've caught a lot of both and they look nothing alike. Pickerel love shallow grassy areas and Walleye love deeper water and open space around rocks or structure.

Yes, the dirty old man is a fisherman from way back.

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That's GOOGLE. In Ontario the fish that is called a Walleye is referred to as a Pickerel here and sold commercially as such. (There is a huge commercial fishery on Lake Erie and smaller ones on the other Great Lakes) The Pike-Muskie like fish is referred to as a chain Pickerel or grass pickerel. I don't know why. Some references even refer to it as an American pickerel. Go figure. My old fishing buddy referred to the grass pickerel as a "hammer handle" from the size, shape and intellegence of the fish. Trust me, if you're ever in Ontario, and you happen on a Pickerel Lake, you should use walleye tackle.

I just thought: maybe it's to keep the tourists out. Maybe I've said too much.

Alice_Rosaleen said:

Also they only say "aluminum" in North America. Most everyone else refers to the element as "aluminium". And apparently "Sorcerer's Stone" is pronounced "Philosopher's Stone" in the UK

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Try the word "schedule"

It's "shed-yull" in the UK

it's "sked-yule" in the U S

And it's whichever we please in the Great White North, or even "sked-u-wall"

TANSTAAFL58 said:

Try the word "schedule"

It's "shed-yull" in the UK

it's "sked-yule" in the U S

And it's whichever we please in the Great White North, or even "sked-u-wall"

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The main difference being you write out your "shed-yull" in a Diary, your "sked-yule" in a Planner, and your "sked-u-wall" on a Sked-U-Wall Calendar.

I live and work in the US, but my company's IT office is in London and Bermuda. Every time I try to type words like favorable or organization, spell check kicks in and changes to favourable and organisation (ironically since I am on my personal computer the British versions were spellchecking the other way now)...

I would not mind the British versions except coming from a guy with a Lawn Guyland accent it sounds a bit silly.

Cheers! oh wait.. let me try that again.. Thanks!

Alice_Rosaleen said:

The main difference being you write out your "shed-yull" in a Diary, your "sked-yule" in a Planner, and your "sked-u-wall" on a Sked-U-Wall Calendar.

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True!

We have blatantly stolen things across the border as well. Both ways. The Adirondack chair was invented at a resort in the Adirondacks at the turn of the last century. There's even a patent. A similar chair in Ontario is commonly referred to as a Muskoka chair.

McFeely's square drive screws (Norm Abram likes them) were invented as the Robertson screw in Canada about the same time as the Adirondack chair. They almost caught on in the US because Henry Ford liked them and wanted them for the Model A. Roberson would sell the screws and screwdrivers, but not the patents. Phillips became the US standard.

That may be the chief distinction between an Adirondack chair and a Muskoka chair. A Muskoka chair would always be put together with Robertson screws.

KeithD said:

Can either Canadian or Australian (and New Zealand?) authors here identify how closely their systems hew to the British style and where they commonly diverge from that?

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Each country has different guidelines, I suspect. Decades ago I had a copy of the Australian Government's Style Guide for formal government content; how it compared to Oz publishing standards, I have no idea. I browsed through the most recent version the other day, and it had a completely different feel and flavour.

Spelling is what was learned at school. Since spelling hasn't been formally taught here for decades, god only knows what the conventions are - eroding, for sure. From what I've seen from people entering the work force nowadays, many of them (including university graduates) I would categorise as semi-literate. The spell-check setting rules.

KeithD said:

Can either Canadian or Australian (and New Zealand?) authors here identify how closely their systems hew to the British style and where they commonly diverge from that?

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Wiki has a summary of the differences between Australian and British English. Most of them are around vocabulary and idioms, but there are a few spelling differences. In particular:

- "Program" rather than "programme"... (give or take a couple of Anglophile Prime Ministers with too much time on their hands).
- -ize spellings are rare, with -ise being standard.
- "Australian Labor Party" is an important exception to the usual British-style -our spellings.