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I noticed in a Guardian article recently the spelling defence, which I have come to expect from a Brit publication, but also the spelling defensive rather than defencive. Is this a tacit admission that the spelling defence is wrong?
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Is this a tacit admission that the spelling of "defence" is wrong?
I don't think so.
But it could be a tacit admission that spelling is ruled by exceptions.
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Dear Faldage: the question of "defence" vs. "defense"
has me sitting on the fense.
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old hand
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I thought that here on the Right Bank, we tend to use the (c)s for noun forms but (s)s for verb or other forms. In what context was the word defence used?
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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Pooh-Bah
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Yep, the Lunnoner has it pretty much right, I reckon. You put up a spirited defence, but when they accuse you of being a bad winner you get all defensive. "c" in the noun, "s" in the verb.
The change in spelling in the US is clearly a result of extensive and successful lobbying by the AULTWU.
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defencive vs. defensiveI am no grammarian, so I cannot couch my point, as others could, in technical terms. But it seems to me that the "c" in "defensive" produces a different sound than the "s" in "defensive", whereas the "c" in "defence" and the "s" in "defense" sound the same. Since the words "defence" and "defensive" pre-existed the Thirteen Colonies, Americans-in-waiting quite admirably retained the same pronunciation but regularized (and simplified) the spelling. Personally, I think this was done not so much in a spirit of rebellion, as in a spirit of pragmatism and efficiency characteristic of the exigencies of the New World. This spirit initiated a legion of changes such as the dropping of the redundant "u" in such words as neighbor, behavior, savior and arbor. When America broke away from the Crown, it also broke away from hide-bound traditions which confused schoolchildren and the unschooled unnecessarily. There was no aristocracy in America at the time, at least no native-born aristocracy, so everyone had real work to do and silly rules of spelling were wholly dispensable and something of a pomposity. Back home in King George's England, the upper classes had no reason to make it easy for the lower classes to look as literate and polished as themselves. At least, that's my theory. 
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Pooh-Bah
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At least, that's my theory.
Noah Webster would probably agree with you.
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veteran
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But it seems to me that the "c" in "defensive" produces a different sound than the "s" in "defensive", whereas the "c" in "defence" and the "s" in "defense" sound the same.
This does not make any sense. Both defense and defence are pronounced with the same voiceless alveolar fricative /s/. We can't really argue about the non-word defencive, but if it were a word, I can't see that it'd be pronounced any different than defensive. Just like the 'c' in civet.
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