When my American editor asked me to research why Brits spell their words with so many extra‘u’s，I immediately knew he had it all wrong. As a British journalist，it's perfectly obvious to me that we have the correct amount of ‘u’s，and that American spelling has lost its vowels along the way.
当我的美国编辑让我研究一下为何英国人拼写的单词多了那样多“u”时，我立刻意识到，他完全搞错了。作为一名英国记者，我觉得大家的拼写显然是正确的，是美国人的拼写在演化过程中渐渐失去了元音字母。
“Color，” “honor，” and “favor” all look quite stubby to me — they're positively crying out to be adorned with a few extra ‘u’s.
在我看来，“color”（颜色）、“honor”（荣誉）和“favor”（喜欢）这类单词的形态都十分短粗，它们迫切需要添加几个“u”来修饰。
But it turns out that the “o（u）r” suffix has quite a confused history. The online Etymology Dictionary reports that -our comes from old French while -or is Latin. English has used both endings for several centuries. Indeed，the first three folios of Shakespeare's plays reportedly used both spellings equally.
但事实上，“o（u）r”这个后缀的进步脉络并不明确。据在线词源词典称，“-our”来源于古法语，而“-or”来源于拉丁语。英语用这两个后缀都已有几百年历史。事实上，据了解在莎士比亚戏剧集的前3个对开本版本中，这两种拼写出现的次数一样多。
But by the late 18th and early 19th centuries，both the US and the UK started to solidify their preferences，and did so differently.
但在18世纪末至19世纪初，美国和英国都开始强化其语言偏好，并且以不一样的方法。
The US took a particularly strong stand thanks to Noah Webster，American lexicographer and co-namesake of the Merriam-Webster dictionaries. Webster was a language reformer and，as Merriam-Webster.com notes，the creator of a dictionary in 1806 that attempted to rectify some of the inconsistencies he observed in English spelling. He preferred to use the -or suffix and also suggested many other successful changes，such as reversing “re” to create “theater” and “center，” rather than “theatre” and “centre.”
由于美国词典编纂者诺厄·韦伯斯特（《梅里厄姆-韦伯斯特词典》就部分得名于他）的原故，美国的立场特别鲜明。韦伯斯特是一位语言改革家，据《梅里厄姆-韦伯斯特词典》网站介绍，他曾尝试在其编纂并于1806年出版的词典中修正他所看到的英语拼写不同。韦伯斯特更喜欢用“-or”这个后缀，他还提出了很多其他的成功建议，比如将“re”改为“er”，由此将“theatre”（剧院）和“centre”（中心）变为“theater”和“center”。
However，other Webster proposals，such as changing “tongue” to “tung，” “women” to “wimmen，” “island” to “iland，” and “thumb” to “thum” were ultimately rejected.
但韦伯斯特的另一些建议最后没被采纳，比如将“tongue”（舌头）改为“tung”，将“women”（女人）改为“wimmen”，将“island”（岛屿）改为“iland”，将“thumb”（拇指）改为“thum”。
Meanwhile in the UK， Samuel Johnson wrote A Dictionary of the English Language in 1755. Johnson was far more of a spelling purist than Webster，and decided that in cases where the origin of the word was unclear，it was more likely to have a French than Latin root.“We have few Latin words，among the terms of domestick use，which are not French，”wrote Johnson. And so he preferred -our to -or.
同时，在英国，1755年塞缪尔·约翰逊编纂了《英语词典》。在追求拼写的纯正性方面，约翰逊的需要远高于韦伯斯特。他觉得，在词源不明的状况下，来自于法语比来自于拉丁语的可能性更大。约翰逊写道：“就国内用的词语来讲，来源于拉丁语而不是法语的词语极少。”所以，他更喜欢用“-our”。
“I have endeavoured to proceed with a scholar's reverence for antiquity，and a grammarian's regard to the genius of our tongue，”he wrote. As such，he “attempted few alterations.”
他写道：“我努力以学者对古文字的敬畏和语法学家对大家语言特点的尊重来进行这项工作。”因此，他“极少尝试改变”。
So while the UK chose to preserve linguistic roots，the US opted to modernize spelling. And if you're wondering which country got it right，the answer is，well，neither. Language is constantly evolving，and the US and UK simply went their different linguistic ways.
所以，英国选择保留语言的来源，而美国选择对拼写进行现代化改造。假如你想了解什么国家做得对，答案是，没对错之分。语言在不断演变，美国和英国只不过选择了不一样的语言道路。
