On 9 March 2012 01:23, Stewart Gordon <smjg_1...@yahoo.com> wrote: > On 08/03/2012 11:04, Regan Heath wrote: >> >> On Thu, 08 Mar 2012 10:21:00 -0000, Derek <ddparn...@bigpond.com> wrote: >>> >>> On Thu, 08 Mar 2012 05:38:08 +1100, Nick Sabalausky <a@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.
Being British means that I do notice the differences in pronunciation, I've pretty much done the opposite to Reagan, gone from England to NZ. I tend to get frustrated when I can't even correct pronunciation because nobody can hear the difference! -- James Miller
