Quote:
Originally Posted by New Brisavoine
You mean defense surely.
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Canadian English combines British & American spellings. Canadian spells -or words with a u like the British do ("honour", "colour", "humour"); we also spell "centre" like the British; but for the words "tire" and "program" we spell them like the Americans.
UK: "The tyres on my car have a strange colour."
USA: "The tires on my car have a strange color".
Canada: "The tires on my car have a strange colour".
But for "defense/defence", Canada is actually inconsistent and doesn't demonstrate a clear preference. Official style guides in Canada state that "defence" should be preferred, but in practice many Canadians spell it "defense". (As opposed to "colour", for example, which very few Canadians would ever spell without the "u").
Interestingly enough the preference for British spellings is political. In the 19th century most Canadians spelt all words like the Americans; you can find old copies of Toronto newspapers from the 1890s where they spell "color" without the "u". But there was a strong push from the ruling class to adopt British spellings out of a sense of loyalty/affinity to the British Empire which led to it changing. There was also a push in the early 20th century for Canadians to speak more like the British; CBC newscasters in this era were often coached to speak with British-like accents.
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