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

　　或許先有英式英語(yǔ)的，但美式拼寫方法現(xiàn)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.

　　最近一項(xiàng)研究審視了這兩大英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)言的變種，發(fā)現(xiàn)出版期刊如今大幅使用美式英語(yǔ)，自19世紀(jì)80年代后，就把centre這樣的詞語(yǔ)替換成center。

　　According to the data, this shift was 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-Atlantic counterparts.

　　從數(shù)據(jù)看，這一變化在一戰(zhàn)期間又進(jìn)一步加劇，隨著語(yǔ)言的演變，甚至英國(guó)人自己也摒棄有些單詞的拼寫方式，換成大西洋彼岸的美式拼寫。

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

　　眾多詞匯里包括"grey"和“flavour”。大約在1890年間，英式英語(yǔ)開(kāi)始衰退，而美式英語(yǔ)的運(yùn)用卻越來(lái)越廣泛。

　　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，英語(yǔ)出版物也開(kāi)始偏向用"gray"和“flavor”。盡管多年來(lái)就如何拼寫有過(guò)反復(fù)，自從美式英語(yǔ)趕超英式英語(yǔ)之后，"gray"和“flavor“比起之前的拼寫方式而言，還是更受歡迎。

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

　　一戰(zhàn)期間，世界也開(kāi)始喜歡用“defense”，而非英式版本的“defence”。

　　注：藍(lán)色為美式英語(yǔ)，紅色為英式英語(yǔ)。

　　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.

　　多年來(lái)，英式英語(yǔ)保持著“honour”的拼法，和美式英語(yǔ)相持不下，隨著這兩種英語(yǔ)的地位互換，受歡迎程度也起了變化。然而，在20世紀(jì)70年代，美式英語(yǔ)取得領(lǐng)先，“honor”的拼法逐漸成為拼寫主流。

　?。▉?lái)源：滬江英語(yǔ)）