Peter Crowther wrote:

>> Oh those Brits! They really think they invented English!
> 
> Remembered from my schooldays, so beware...
> 
> We did... with 'z'.  The mutation to 's' apparently happened over here after
> the main waves of settlement in the US.  So we can't even keep to the same
> spelling.

Ironically, whereas the British did invent it, AE is truer to the original,
probably because of its relatively smaller degree of external influence (due
to its geographical isolation).

Accordingly, AE is much closer to Shakespearian English than contemporary
BE, which makes it quite ironic when American actors put on a (modern)
British accent when they play Shakespeare.

And I think the 'z' looks more cool...

Raab, Andreas wrote:

> - being a non-native speaker I didn't think I'm in a
> position of arguing what the right spelling should be (I realize that people
> have strong feelings about languages).

Oh, that only goes for programming languages...

H