Thicknesse: Question on Pronunciation

[Carol]

Geoff:
<snip>
> 
> Going off at a tangent, another interesting topic is UK/US spelling.
It struck me that all the -or/-our variants such as honor/honour and
so on, I would never spell without the 'u' because I include the two
vowels in my pronunciation.
> 
> Mark you, I'm venturing onto dangerous ground with variant spelling.
I think a tin hat is needed. :-)
>
Carol responds:

For the record, Noah Webster is responsible for eliminating the "u"
for "colour," "honour," etc. I assume that for him as for me, the
unaccented vowel is a schwa, so any vowel will do to represent it. I
certainly don't hear an "ou" sound as in "our"/"hour." More like "er"
as in "erm"! Speaking of which, I think he also originated the
transposition of the "e" and "r" in "center" and "theater." 

Carol, wondering whether Noah was also responsible for substituting
"ize" for "ise" but too lazy to do the research