H as in “Humour” or “Humor”
The conundrum of American or English spellings, plus a bonus Canadian word
By Phyllis Knox
This blog is part of a very special series created and written by Phyllis Knox, “Alphabetic Musings”, whereby she chooses a word starting with a particular letter from the alphabet and injects it with her storytelling magic.
Why do so many words have different, or ambiguous spellings – words like Humour, or Humor? Which is the correct spelling? Tp the rescue comes an article I found on the writingexplained.org site. It has some answers! It is my pleasure to now share my findings with you, EH! I’ll be referring specifically to the article on the Writing Explained website: “Humor or Humour – What’s the Difference” which can be found here.
Humor or Humour-What’s the difference?
According to the questions asked on the website, If you want to write about a comedian’s ability to be funny, would you write about his or her sense of humor or humour? Depending on where you are writing, you could actually use either term. (Well, so far, that comment is of no help whatsoever, EH?) The differences between these terms comes down to spelling conventions between two English language communities.” (Still not so clear, EH!) Shall we continue?
From the article: “In this post, I will compare humour vs humor. I will outline which language community used each spelling and explain when it would be appropriate for you to use each. I will show you a memory tool that will allow you to choose humour or humor correctly every time.” Wow, I say! But there’s more, too…Let’s look at this blog post in detail, to figure things out.
“(Humor) can be a noun or a verb…” Oh no, it can be either? That’s potentially confusing! “As a noun, humor means being amusing or comical. Its associated adjective is humorous. A person who has a good sense of humor, for example, is good at making other people laugh.” (Have you completely understood the difference between humor and humour yet? No? Okay, stay with me!)
The blog then gives 3 examples of humor/humour used as a noun: The first seasons of the tv show succeeded on high drama, but as its cast aged, it began to rely more often on humor. Kelsie will not date anyone who doesn’t have a sense of humor. And the 3rd example, my favourite: For a long time, presidential humor was as predictable as a knock-knock joke-The Washington Post.
Ok so enough examples, thank you very much. Are you still there? Are you still reading? Hello? You can’t stop reading my blog now (please!) You might actually find the answer to the question below, so stay with me...don’t give up on me and my analysis of this blog on “Writing Explained.” Let’s go on to the second possibility for humor: As a verb, humor means to accommodate or entertain, especially to an unreasonable request (WHAT?!). A father might humor his son by making sure none of the food on his dinner plate touches each other, for instance. Ok so now I might be ready to give up - what does that sentence even mean? At this point, I am waving a white flag, I am ready to give up on language, spelling and grammar and on words, vocabulary, and the list goes on, EH! But I pride myself on never ever giving up (even when I should, ha ha ha!). Onwards!
Here is another example from the blog article to guide us through this maze on humor: “I know you’ve explained it to your mother already, but humor me and tell and tell me why you pulled up all the flowers in the garden,” said Margie’s dad.
Now, we are (presumably) ready to get to the crux of the matter: what does humour mean? Is it different from humor? Eventually, the blog lets us know that: Humour is an alternative spelling of the same word. It is the predominant spelling in British English: Americans writers are more likely to use humor. Aha! Ok, now I get it!
Shall we continue? Are you with me? Yes? Okay! It’s all about two different conventions: the American spelling (see my blog, A is for America) and the British English one. American spellings modify words, such as the convention of dropping the u from words that end in -our, such as colour (color), labour (labor) and honour (honor), to name but a few. Have you, the reader of my sometimes humorous (or is it humorless?) story, come to feel more comfortable with British English or American spelling? Here in Canada, it seems that we use elements from both systems – see here for more info. Even though I knew it was tough to walk through the delicate but very thorough “study” of our most mind-boggling-word spellings, some of the subtle differences in spelling between systems can be very mysterious (or is it “mysterios”, ha ha ha!)
A Digression
But allow me to digress to a purely Canadian word. It’s time to segue (great word, “segue,” EH?) towards the next humorous spelling challenge which I personally encounter every single day of my life – and this is neither American nor English, but truly Canadian. As a real down-homer from the Maritimes, born in Halifax, I ask: how should we Canadians spell our most renowned and revered expression: EH?, EH!, eh? or eh!? And what does “EH” actually mean?
It can be problematic for my friends who do not speak English as a first language to use, to understand, and to identify with this two-letter word or expression, but we Maritimers (and most other English-speaking Canadians) know exactly what each sound means. This tiny word could cover a multitude of meanings or feelings, EH! Ranging from kindness to anger to understanding to doubt to fear to happiness to helpfulness: need I go on? I say: use it for ANYTHING, ANYWHERE, ANY TIME, for WHATEVER, with or about WHOMEVER, WHEREVER, WHENEVER...it is a multi-purpose word. Why use complicated two, three and four-syllable words when the word EH! is right there and ready & able to be used in all occasions and in every situation? It is a very handy word to tag onto the end of any sentence and to communicate whatever emotion you like!
But what does EH? or EH! or eh? or eh! actually mean?
At this point, I have decided to use my trusted iPad for research (somehow, it knows everything, EH!). How could an over-used, two-letter, kinda-Canadian word take up so much place and space on-line, I wonder. Impressive. Canada is on the grammatical map, so to speak, thanks to EH! I feel like I have won the jackpot of dictionary searches! Who would have thought that by simply going on to Google and typing in the word EH that a world of information would be on my screen, at my door!
The definition from Oxford Languages, no less, defines the word “eh” as “an exclamation used to represent a sound made in speech in a variety of situations, in particular to ask for something to be repeated or explained or to elicit agreement. Eh? What’s this?” Personally, I would say, What’s this, Eh? But who am I to question anything to do with Oxford, EH? But I digress. To continue: Merriam-Webster says that eh is “used to ask for conformation or repetition or to express inquiry-used especially in Canadian English in anticipation of the listener’s or reader’s agreement.” Finally, Cambridge Dictionary has its own spin: eh is “used to express surprise or confusion, to ask someone to repeat what they have said, or as a way to get someone to give some type of reaction to a statement that you have made.”
I would now like to suggest you watch some really interesting Canadian videos about our national word, “Eh”. CBC’s The National posted this video called “What does eh mean anyway?” The CBC also posted this video “Why do Canadians say eh?” which goes into the history of the word. And if you want a ton of info about it, including how it’s used, look at the Canadian Encyclopedia (which includes a video of Bob and Doug Mackenzie). And nothing can compare to the following site: Canadian eh... Yale Grammatical Diversity Project: English in North America. In my opinion, it is simply the best – an ENDLESS compilation of comparisons and contexts for the word EH!
As this winding missive comes to an end, it is my paramount wish that you stayed with me through my digression from spelling differences to finding out EVERYTHING there is to know about the word that best represents us. Apparently, we Canadians can be picked out from huge bunches or clumps or clusters of people wherever we go, thanks to a tiny, compact and flexible word. That feels good, EH? -Phyllis (fill es)
