Why are some Americans spelt differently from the UK and Australia?

Answer 1

Do you mean why is some American spelling different to British and Australian spelling? Good question- I think the answer is that American spelling is a remnant of what was original English spelling in Elizabethan and Jacobean times. For example, Americans spell 'theater' whereas the British and Australians spell the word 'theatre', and there are other examples of US words where 'er' is used as opposed to 're'. And there are other examples, both in pronounciation and in the way words are spelt.

I think it harks back to the days when America was first colonised- the first colonists were the English, who established their first civilisations there from the early to mid-17th Century onwards. In those days, the English spelt many words as Americans do today, so the first English colonists took this spelling, which is probably more phonetic in type, along with them and it survives in the US to the present day. But in England, some words became influenced by French spelling, due largely to England's increased engagement with France during the 18th - 20th Centuries, so the spelling mutated as a result of French influence. Australia was colonised by the British later than the US, mainly from the late 18th Century onwards, when the influence of French dialect was already impacting upon UK English, so Australian English is thus more influenced by the latter-day version than it's American counterpart.

As to the question why the British and Americans use different WORDS for things, this variant applies to Australia too. I don't think there is any one specific reason or explanation for this, since some of it applies to descriptions of technological or cultural advances that developed from the late 19th Century onwards (to give one small example, Americans say 'gas' whereas the British say 'petrol', they say 'fries' whereas the British call them 'chips', and so forth- chipped fried potatoes being a recent culinary development in historical terms). It can't be explained, it's something that just happened- the only possible reason I can think of is that the Americans might have found some British words irritating and wanted to use their own forms! It is also the case that Americans like to shorten words where possible and cut down on syllables- for example, what we call an 'aeroplane' the Americans call an 'airplane', and there are other examples. This could be a reflection of the American desire for a more simplified form of language.

Answer 2

The differences in spelling between American English and British/Australian English can be attributed to historical influences, such as Noah Webster's efforts to simplify spelling in the United States. Additionally, variations in spelling can also reflect the divergent language evolutions that have occurred separately in each region over time.