defencive vs. defensive

I 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.