A great thread!
I just thought I'd add my own twopence.......
On the question of the 13 stripes on the US flag Gav is right to say that the stripes represent the origional (east coast) colonies.
What isn't so well known is that the stripes pre-date the stars by several years. Indeed the stripes were origionally thought up and used by the British colonists. Early flags had the 13 stripes with a union jack where the stars are now placed. Similar to the Austarlian/NZ flags. I had always assumed the red and white had been taken directly from the flag of St George.
MFC also asked about the different spellings of labor/labour.
Similar differences also exist with other words such as centre/center and colour/colour.
The origins of this are to do with the historical importance of Norman French on the language of Anglo-Saxon which eventually formed the English language over many centuries.
The french influence brought several words with the gallic "tre" and "our" endings, which would (initially) have been different to the indigionous "er" and "or" ending of the Anglo-Saxons.
It also explains why english often has several words for the same thing - as both french and A.Saxon words would be adopted.
The reason for the variation in spellings is mainly a result of the UK/USA split after 1776. Prior to this time there were no set spellings for words - even peoples own names would often be written several ways.
When spellings became fixed the British adopted spellings more in keeping with the history of the words, reflecting the medieval influences. A system of grammer based on ancient Greek and Latin was also adopted. These rules became standard throughout the English speaking world......as this was basically the Empire.
Except the USA. Which chose a more phonetic spelling system (interesting how phonetic isn't spelt how it sounds
).
As a result two spelling systems developed - and as the cultural influence of the US spreads the "new world" spellings become more prevelant.
I have a question for Canadian Steve - is there any difference in spellings between Canada and the US or has the US system pushed out the UK's influence?