Quite a lot of them make sense, and are due to deliberate spelling reforms that took root,mostly proposed by Noah Webster, the Webster's dictionary guy. For some reason, the reforms on long, impressive-sounding technical words were generally accepted, while the reforms on ordinary short words (like getting rid of the silent e on have, live and give) weren't.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_spelling_reform
Some of the differences are arbitrary, but it's difficult to find American spellings that are less rational than British ones.
(,
Tue 23 Aug 2011, 18:11,
archived)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_spelling_reform
Some of the differences are arbitrary, but it's difficult to find American spellings that are less rational than British ones.