English Spellings

I have lived in the United States of America for almost 15 years. I am sincerely fond of the people, the culture and the geography. I am even developing a weakness for projectile weapons, though of an extremely modest calibre. And if you caught that last word, you will begin to see my point: I have yet to be able to embrace the US taste for rashly reworking the good Queen's English.

I understand, language is change. Lovely, true, remarkable. Careers made of it. The inexorable "Great Vowel Shift", "a linguistic fact", you say. You say, "We'd all be speaking some Indo-European proto language, merrily inviting the wrath of an Abrahamic god, if you had your way." And, barring the metaphysical backlash, would that be so bad?

Surely, as a professional working in a US context I conform to the US standard of spelling. Indeed, I am peevishly reminded by nearly every electronic composition tool that my use of colour, amoung and calibre is a failing. Red underlining and brusquely worded pop-ups pile on the calumny. As a working individual in this culture, I will conform to your spellings.

I will not, however, us US spellings here. I leave aside past posts where I may have used the US spelling with mindless acceptance of authority. I now rebel! I will spell with all the valour the Good Queen intended!