Reflections on Americanism in English Spelling: -o(u)r

Abstract

As a sociohistorical approach to Americanism in the ‘-o(u)r’ spelling, the present study investigates both dynamics and fluidity that occur in a process of their own spelling reforms in the US and the UK. It also examines to what extent British English and American English have been consistent in their use of ‘-our’ and ‘-or’ respectively, when it comes to the issue of fluidity in particular. However, despite such an apparent contrast between the two varieties of English, British English is revealed to share more with the American ‘-or’ ending than American English with the British ‘-our’ ending. This study attempts to account for this unbalancing state of affairs based on a phonological rationale leading to the isochrony of stress-timed languages including English. Aligned with this approach is a general tendency to show that the Americanism for the ‘-or’ spelling is gradually on the rise not only in Kachru’s expanding circle countries but also in some, but not all, of the ex-colonial countries belonging to Kachru’s outer circle. (Hannam University)