Using British English spelling

Wait, you mean there's not a difference? Crap, the fake British accent I put on for renaissance faires has been wrong for years!
Because 'color' is pronounced 'cuhler', and 'colour' has an extra 'u' in it somewhere. I can hear a difference, sometimes. Depends on the speaker.

 

Canada spells things like the UK, but pronounces things like the US. I don't think there's a connection between the spelling and the accent...

 

Huh.
Maybe it's the Midwesterner in me, but I've always pronounced 'color' with an 'er' sound and 'colour' with more of an 'or' with a tiny bit of a 'u' sound. My dumb self must have assumed that everybody pronounces it the same in all those weird countries that use it. Learn something new every day.

 

If you're American, then of course your British accent is wrong... just as our American accents are wrong

 

Not to mention all of the words we both have that are spelled exactly the same and pronounced completely differently. One I got teased for most in the States was 'shone' as in past tense of 'shine'. I would pronounce it 'shawn' and everyone else would get confused and pronounce it 'shown.'

 

Linguistics can be very silly.

The one that gets me in how the Americans say 'bring' where we say 'take'.

For example: "I'm going to visit my friend in hospital. What do you think I should bring him?"

 

English and American are two different languages now. Did you know?

 

Hmm. "Brings" makes more sense to me (a Yank). You bring things to places, and take things from places. You're bringing to the hospital. Granted, you're taking it from some other place, but ...

The only use I can think for the construct "take to" is "take to the highway" or "take to the limit," but that's really a different sense of "take."

 

"Aluminium" and "nuclear" spring to mind

 

Americans who say "nucular" sound utterly wrong to this American and all the Americans I know in real life.

Or were you thinking of a different difference?

 

No, that's what I was thinking of. But I was wrong actually, because although they're pronounced differently (by some), they're still spelt the same. Well, presumably there aren't any Americans who actually write "nucular" and "aluminum".

 

Actually, aluminum is the correct American spelling, and the way we pronounce it. I have a vague recollection that it was the original word and the added "i" is British. (Just as American eating style is older, not newer, than British.) But I'm not sure and will Google. (I read Google and it does appear that Americans did change it.)

But "nucular" is just wrong in every way.

 

I had no idea it was spelt that way in America. I'm guessing nobody writes "nucular" though...

No, the -ium suffix is original. It's a Greek suffix meaning metallic compound. It was later removed, then re-added, hence the confusion

I whole-heartedly agree. However, I've heard many more Americans say "nucular" than "nuclear" so I assumed all Americans said it wrong. It makes me scream in apoplectic rage whenever I hear somebody say "nucular".

 

Nope. It drives me crazy too.

I blame politicians. My theory is that politicians fear being accused of being educated, so they make a point of making that particular error. Yes, that may be a ridiculous theory, but it's the only explanation I can come up with for why someone with an Ivy League education can't pronounce a simple word. And then with politicians spouting that mispronunciation on TV, everybody picks it up.

 

I propose "death by mispronunciation". The word one mispronounces determines the manner of their untimely demise. In this case, it would involve exposure to "nucular" waste.

 

But that's the pronunciation you're hearing, not the spelling.

 

Count me as an American who cringes at the mispronunciation of "nuclear" as "nucular." I also pronouce the "R" in "library" the "N" in "government", and say "February" with the "R".

 

I shit you not, I had a 2nd grade teacher who insisted that the first R was silent.

 

I believe it. My accent is different than my parents' and a few of my other relatives, and some of them told me I "talk like a snob." No...I speak like an American who's lived in many different areas of the States.

 

My American daughter had an English-born teacher, and they used to torment him by making him say squirrel and then laughing at him. In a nice way, of course.

 

You've shown me what a lazy speaker I am. It's Lybrey, Govament and Febuary.

 

I think you're only supposed to drop the first 'R' for dramatic effect.

"Yeah, I'm heading to the library to see if they have the new James Patterson," versus: "That means the Vampire Conan Doyle can only be one place: TO THE LIE-BARRY!"

 

Afaik, Indiana pronounces February with one R (Fe-BOO-ary) and library with two. I can't think of anyone I've ever heard pronounce it like that...