囧研究：美式拼写一统天下 英国人都写美语了

British English may have come first, but around the world, the American way of spelling is now far more popular.

或许先有英式英语的，但美式拼写方法现在流行得多。

A recent examination of these two variants of the English language show that publications now largely use the American version, swapping words like ‘centre’ for ‘center’ after the 1880s.

最近一项研究审视了这两大英语语言的变种，发现出版期刊如今大幅使用美式英语，自19世纪80年代后，就把centre这样的词语替换成center。

According to the data, this shiftwas further strengthened around the time of World War I – and as the language evolved, even the British have ditched the spelling of some words for their trans-Atlanticcounterparts.

从数据看，这一变化在一战期间又进一步加剧，随着语言的演变，甚至英国人自己也摒弃有些单词的拼写方式，换成大西洋彼岸的美式拼写。

Among many words, including ‘grey’ and ‘flavour,’ British English can be seen dwindlingaround 1880, when American English began to cross into wider use.

众多词汇里包括"grey"和“flavour”。大约在1890年间，英式英语开始衰退，而美式英语的运用却越来越广泛。

Since then, English-language publications have preferred ‘gray’ and ‘flavor,’ and despite fluctuations in use over the years, they’ve remained more popular than the preceding versions since overtaking them.

自此以后，英语出版物也开始偏向用"gray"和“flavor”。尽管多年来就如何拼写有过反复，自从美式英语赶超英式英语之后，"gray"和“flavor“比起之前的拼写方式而言，还是更受欢迎。

During World War I, the world also began to favor ‘defense’ over the British English version, ‘defence.’

一战期间，世界也开始喜欢用“defense”，而非英式版本的“defence”。

注：蓝色为美式英语，红色为英式英语。

For many years, British English maintained its hold on ‘honour,’ grappling with the American version for years as the two flip-flopped in popularity around the world. In the 1970s, however, American English gained a clear lead as ‘honor’ increasingly became the more spelling of choice.

多年来，英式英语保持着“honour”的拼法，和美式英语相持不下，随着这两种英语的地位互换，受欢迎程度也起了变化。然而，在20世纪70年代，美式英语取得领先，“honor”的拼法逐渐成为拼写主流。