I must be bored (or am trying to avoid doing what I should be doing), but something made me look up American English on the web. Naturally, Wikipedia (taken with a pinch of salt) mentioned this ...
Differences in orthography are also trivial. Some of the forms that now serve to distinguish American from British spelling (color for colour, center for centre, traveler for traveller, etc.) were introduced by Noah Webster himself; others are due to spelling tendencies in Britain from the 17th century until the present day (e.g. -ise for -ize, although the Oxford English Dictionary still prefers the -ize ending) and cases favored by the francophile tastes of 19th century Victorian England, which had little effect on AmE (e.g. programme for program, manoeuvre for maneuver, skilful for skillful, cheque for check, etc.).
Fascinating - I thought the US just kept the old english spelling but Webster, in creating his dictionary, specifically changed (or simplified) some words to promote his dictionary. I still say it is aluminium though.
