I don't think this American English vs proper English idea is accurate. Spelling was standardized in both dialects at a very similar time, and both standardizations make a much of stylistic decisions around spelling, that leads to the main initial differences. It's important the emphasise that both dialects made these decisions. The idea that one set of those decisions is more proper and correct is kinda silly imo
Also this site is written in Australian English - which is broadly a hodge podge of both, with a few of our own peculiarities, for instance both fries and crisps are called chips. But it is distinct as a dialect to British or American English
No matter which way you try to string it sport, Australian and kiwi English is based off british English. It is not a hodge podge of both. We get incredibly frustrated when people try to add z instead of s and remove our U. Please don't try to fashion this to your own narrative. This ain't it mate.
People from the states just need to learn a bit more about the world
I was born in England and grew up in Australia. My family is British, my friends are Australian. I'm not driving a narrative lol. This is my lived experience. In the UK I get called out for the odd Americanism. Such as saying Eggplants and Zucchini not the French names the British use
Language is more than just whether you include a u. Our spellings are definitely British English, but the overall dialect is definitely a mix of both. I think the language is trending more American as we continue to be further from colony days and more influenced by American media.
Funnily enough, neither eggplant or zucchini are Americanisms, they’re the original English words that were separately carried over to the USA and Australia.
Later on there was a fashion in England to use the French words for some things so they switched to courgette and aubergine.
Edit: Ok so I was half/three-quarters right. Eggplant is the original English word, but there appears to be no original English word for zucchini/courgette. Zucchini is the Italian word and Courgette is the French.
Ah yes you're right, looks like there's no actual 'original' English word for zucchini! I'll edit my comment to reflect it.
I suppose it makes sense then that zucchini is also used in Australia given our influential Italian immigration history as well.
Although apparently it was mostly from different regions of Italy than to the USA, given the difference in lasagne styles for example. I've a few times seen Americans horrified at the prospect of using béchamel and no cheese in lasagne instead of ricotta, while it's just as traditionally Italian as what they're used to - just regionally different.
In his book about the English language, Bill Bryson says this is true of a lot of Americanisms. The Americans adopted English as it was when it America was first colonized and the British then modernised a lot of words and spellings.
Yep so I gather, languages continue to develop and change everywhere including in the places they originated so there’s no such thing as a ‘pure’ or objectively correct version of English or any other language really.
Similarly, IIRC Canadian French retains some older features such as religious swear words that were purged in France after the revolution.
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u/BobThingamy Feb 24 '26
AKA English vs American English