Spelling of Siamang

Bernie raises the question of the spelling of "Siamang": this brings up an interesting point: US spelling of words.

Having grown up in the UK, with the correct spelling of many words, it always amuses me to see the US spelling of various words; such as aluminum instead of aluminium, color instead of colour, and dove instead of dived.
And in at least two of these examples, the pronunciation is messed up as a result of the spelling too! Not to mention those cases where pronunciation is messed up in spite of the spelling being the same --- "Z" being zee instead of zed comes to mind.

I believe that much of the american pronunciation/spelling comes from the Dutch: there are lots of words, such as cookie which come from the Dutch, and many that are less well known: for example: in English we say "Mummy", but in the US it is "Mommy" (ugh!)


Back to Bernie: he also insists that the photo is in fact of him: whereas I have it on good authority that he is in fact a much more handsome devil, with a somewhat smaller wattle.


Yurs,
N.