The Use of U

1. The Use of U.

The English language has become the second most spoken in the world because of its flexibility. It absorbs and accomodates, it does not exclude. Nonetheless, efficiencies could be made in spelling, especially where confusions arise. For example the use of “U”. In the UK we spell “neighbour” and in the US the same word drops the “U” to become neighbor.

Many of the words I use are like this – favour, honour, labour. This does not matter until Americans commit atrocities such as referring to the UK Labor Party. An equivalent mis-spelling – calling US party politicians Democats or Emocrats – would produce howls of protest and no doubt alarm music fans and dog-lovers everywhere.

Therefore I propose new spellings for every word which is conflicted in this way, taking the opportunity to reduce letters (dropping the “O”) and shorten words where possible. This will make education simpler as well as making pronunciation easier for non-native speakers.

Neighbour – can now be spelled – NAYBR
Flavour – can now be spelled – FLAVR
Honour – can now be spelled – HONR

The first in a series of proposals designed to make all our lives easier, more fulfilling, lovelier journeys.