how do you spell that?

I was writing a post a couple of weeks ago and ran into something that has become an increasing problem for me: spelling. Now don't get me wrong. My eyes may glaze over the minute you mention chemistry or finance, and trying to fix a cabinet door is a guarantee that I will end up kicking it into next week out of impatience and frustration, but spelling has always been something I can do. I wowed 'em in school whenever I did any kind of English aptitude test. But in this case, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, and my tendency to want to sample everything, even spelling styles, has been causing me grief.

As a kid I learned to spell the Canadian way ... mostly ... except I was addicted first to British pony books and then to anything with an orange spine (selective literary snobbery) so had also received a heavy dose of English spelling and have never, therefore, been able to decide whether I want to spell it 'realise' or 'realize'. I took a purist approach for awhile, probably borne from the typical defensiveness of the Canadian whose culture is regularly stomped on by the Goliath to the south. When Yanks and Brits divided the spelling world into the American way and the English way my knickers would get soundly knotted: "No -- it's the American way and the way the bloody rest-of-the-English-speaking-world spells it. We Canadians, Australians, South Africans, New Zealanders, etc., are not British even if we share the same spelling." I was, of course, ignoring the fact that in spite of my loyalty to centre and cheque, I wasn't likely to be using aluminium or aeroplane anytime soon.

So when I got kicked to the curb/kerb by defence/defense recently I decided to do a little on-line sleuthing and came up with this fabulous page: http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/BritishCanadianAmerican.htm
It has a place of honour (not honor) at the top of my bookmarks. Now I can colour outside the lines with a little more knowledge and a little less hit-or-miss. Check it out, eh?