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Hello all, The editor in me can't refrain from making a comment on this issue. It's probably more than anyone on the list wants to know, but what the heck. We Canadians have a split personality on the question because of our history. As Canadians on the list know, this argument arises regularly in Canada. Here is an extract from my copy of Fowler's English Usage and as always, in my opinion, Fowler makes good sense. ======================================= -our and -or. The American abolition of -our in such words as honour and favour has probably retarded rather than quickened English progress in the same direction. Our first notification that the book we are reading is not English but American is often, nowadays, the sight of an -or, 'Yankee' we say, and congratulate ourselves on spelling like gentlemen; we wisely decline to regard it as a matter for argument. The English way cannot but be better than the American way; that is enough. Most of us, therefore, do not come to the question with an open mind. Those who are willing to put national prejudice aside and examine the facts soon realize, first, that the British -our words are much fewer in proportion to the -or words than they supposed, and, secondly, that there seems to be no discoverable line between the two sets so based on principle as to serve any useful purpose. By the side of favour there is horror , beside ardour pallor, beside odour tremor, and so forth. Of agent nouns saviour (with its echo paviour, itself now tending towards pavior) is perhaps the only one that retains -our, governor being the latest to shed its -u -. What is likely to happen is either that, when some general reform of spelling is consented to, reduction of -our to -or will be one of the least disputed items, or that, failing general reform, we shall see word after word in -our go the way of governour. It is not worth while either to resist such a gradual change or to fly in the face of national sentiment by trying to hurry it; it would need a very open mind indeed in an Englishman to accept armor and succor with equanimity. Those who wish to satisfy themselves that it is right to deny any value to the -our spelling should go to the article -or in the OED for fuller information than there is room for here. ===================== TTFN Peter PS: I still lean to using the 'our' form, but have gradually dropped other redundant consonants and vowels such as the second 'm' in program (and of course, the extraneous 'e'. However, I do find it hard to accept American pronunciation of 'program' as 'pog-ram'! Maybe Americans should go back to 'programme.':) PPS: Canadians are all over the map on this spelling issue and it is partially regional. ************************************************************************** Peter Kidd Learning Materials Consulting Services 62 Coronation Avenue, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3N 2M6 Canada Tel/FAX: (902) 443-4262 Email: [log in to unmask] URL: http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~aa163/peterkidd.html