Funny thing, Americans wonder, why do Brits spell words wrong? e.g. colour

In my opinion, the spelling is made like the word is mostly pronounced. Like program instead of programme. We don't seem to pronounce the 'u' in 'color' maybe. That's just my opinion though. The truth may be something else.

Because a spoken language is dynamic and not static. The moment when two groups of people are separated by distance or even time, the same language changes. Than it is not necessarily wrong, but definitive different.

Not wrong, just not like us. They feel the need to take u's out of things. Which isn't very nice, but there we go.

actually: the american word is borrowed directly from latin, where it was spelled "color." the british word is taken through french, who changed it to "colour" (and later to "coleur" in french if i'm not mistaken). "color" is, historically, more correct.

"In the early 18th century, English spelling was not standardized. Differences became noticeable after the publishing of influential dictionaries. Current British English spellings follow, for the most part, those of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755), whereas many American English spellings follow Noah Webster's An American Dictionary of the English Language of 1828. Webster was a strong proponent of spelling reform for reasons both philological and nationalistic. Many spelling changes proposed in the US by Webster himself, and in the early 20th century by the Simplified Spelling Board, never caught on. Among the advocates of spelling reform in England, the influences of those who preferred the Norman (or Anglo-French) spellings of certain words proved decisive. Subsequent spelling adjustments in the UK had little effect on present-day US spelling, and vice versa. While in many cases American English deviated in the 19th century from mainstream British spelling, on the other hand it has also often retained older forms." -- Wikipedia

Here's a site that has a link to other internet sites which go into detail on the differences between British and American English. http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/jones/spelling.htm Right off hand, I would have to say the biggest reason the two are different is for the same reason British English itself is such an unusual language, with all it's confusing rules, spellings, and vocabulary quirks: The cultural influence that went into the develpment of the language throughout history. Britian is a conglomeration (my description, forgive me) of MANY European cultures and all their languages contributed greatly to the lexicon, morphology, phonetics, and syntax. America, as a nation, evolved into existance through intensive immigration, mainly from European cultures. English eventually became the predominant language and it was ALSO heavily influenced by the various incoming cultural systems. And American English, as a result, added even more confusing rules, spellings, and vocabulary quirks. Add that to the fact that, as a nation, America is a large country, extremely diverse in geographic terms, which further encouraged language diversity simply due to this geographical seperation.

Americans spell some words differently. Overall I think eventually as English continues to evolve, we'll end up spelling most words in their most convenient format.

I once joked on here that it is because Noah Webster was dyslexic. In reality the reason was to simplify spelling and to deliberately differentiate US English from the original.

No, I don't think Americans spell words wrong. They just wish to tell the world that the American English is different from the British English. Besides differences in the spelling of certain words like color as against colour, favorite as against favourite, the meaning of certain words are different. So it is necessary for us to be sensitive to the differences concerned.

They don't: every one else does... ;)