The shrinking of American English

MEDIUM US Vieles in Amerika ist größer, höher, weiter als in der alten Welt – nur die Wörter werden immer kürzer. Unsere Kolumnistin fragt sich, an was das liegt.

Today, I saw a commercial on TV for a big pet store chain. I love animals – in a former life, I was probably an ancient Egyptian because I also worship cats – so, pet-store commercials are the TV ads I watch and listen to most. This one featured chews, and I found myself not chewing, but clenching my teeth.

“Chew” is a verb, not a noun. But in American pet-store jargon, a “chew” is a chewable treat for our four-legged friends. The word is even used these days to advertise vitamins for creatures on two legs. Ouch!

Why do Americans abbreviate everything? It’s said that time is money – maybe that’s why. Everything has to be fast here: fast food, fast talk, fast money. Modern technology, such as texting or tweeting, has taken this to a whole new level. You can now communicate without even using whole words: OMG IMO WATI!*

Unless you’re a World War II codebreaker at Bletchley Park, no one should be communicating like this.

But the American phenomenon of shortening language is not new. We’ve been doing this ever since we broke away from that pesky English monarch, George III, in the 18th century. The westward route across the Atlantic even shortened spellings. Here are some examples:

-our- in the U.K. becomes -or- in the U.S. (colour → color) double ll becomes single l (travelled → traveled) -ogue becomes -og (catalogue → catalog)

-ae- or -oe- becomes -e- or -o- (archaeology → archeology; oestrogen → estrogen) and a silent “e” is often – but not always – dropped (ageing → aging)

In words that end in -our/-or, this has to do with stress. If the syllable -our is unstressed, it becomes -or. So, “colour,” “neighbour” and “behaviour,” for example, drop the “u.” Words that stress the -our endings, such as “devour” and “amour,” keep the “u.”

In British English, if a verb ends in a vowel plus an “l”, the “l” is doubled when you add -ed or -ing. Which is why it’s “travelled” in the U.K. but “traveled” in the U.S. I see nothing wrong with the British spelling – it’s not as if “travelling” with a double “ll” somehow makes the trip longer!

I believe the real reason for all this is the American need for expedience. Trim the fat! Remember: We’re also the inventors of short and easy sales language. Even when I was a kid, there were signs in shoerepair shops: “Shoes shined while u wait!” Today, you see this everywhere: “Used car 4 sale!” – and I wonder: Are people afraid it will take too long to read the whole word?

I don’t know. But I am writing this to you on my laptop while enjoying a treat at a local frozen-yogurt bar called Tastid-lite (= “tasty delight”). Maybe I won’t find the answer here – but I have found inspiration.

* Oh my God! In my opinion, what a terrible idea!