It's a grey area... Was: Re: eye colour and other queries

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:

> Carol:
> I'll spell the word as "grey" in private correspondence or in posts,
> but in manuscripts edited for American publishers, it has to be "gray"
> (the preferred spelling in Merriam Webster's), which at least has the
> virtue of being spelled as it sounds. ("Greyhound" is spelled with an
> "e," though, oddly enough.)
> 
> No doubt Noah Webster, who took the "u" out of "colour," is
> responsible. 

Geoff:
Now I know who to blame for one of my favourite beefs about 
spelling differences. Like many UK speakers, I pronounce words like 
'colour' differently to the way I would if it lacked the 'u'.

Carol:
> Didn't George Orwell try to do something similar with
> British spelling, or did he just try to reduce the vocabulary to
> "Basic English"?

Geoff:
Without looking things up, I have a feeling you *may* be confusing 
him with George Bernard Shaw who had a bee in his bonnet about 
reforming spelling. ISTR that he left money in his will to pursue this.