Encyclop?dia, sulphur, diarrh?a...

... oestrogen, foetus, anaesthetic ...

We seem to be as fond of ligatures as we are of "u"s.

There's also the practise/practice thing. Practice is more of like...a noun in British English (i.e A Doctor's Practice) whereas 'practise' is the verb. I think in the US, 'practice' is used both ways? Similarly, there's the whole cheque/check thing. Correct me if I'm wrong, but countries that use British English again use both, but the US only uses 'check'? There's also the gaol and jail spelling, I believe. Any document (legal or otherwise)/news article will spell it as 'gaol' in Australia. I know that gaol is the correct (by which I mean 'official') spelling in Australia (not sure about New Zealand or the UK), though there are a number of people that spell it as jail. Either are acceptable, though.

I am Scots (& Irish) and I think it us the British who say things wrong due to accent and slang vocabulary and the Americans are the ones who are keeping the language (not accent) more correct.

In old English pants were a style of trouser and not "under pants" as the British now say.

I have been somewhat surprised that accents in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area were less pronounced than "Popular" seems to want the World to believe. My Missouri accent sounds more Southern than most accents I have heard locally. The gradual loss of My Missouri accent is not that disturbing to Me, surprisingly. Normal Folk understand Me much easier

Although English as used in Britain has also evolved and changed, American English is certainly no more "authentic" due to the amount of spelling reform courtesy of Mr Webster: apparently the risk of causing misunderstandings and so forth wasn't a priority of his! Regarding accents, plenty of British accents are pretty ancient, Geordie apparently still sounding not entirely unlike Danish, for example.

Bunper/fender. I can see why a bumper is called that, because it bumps things, but why fender? Does it relate to fending off other vehicles?

I like them. If you use them, it makes you refined like an old scholar.

Well, I believe that the closer you are to the language of origin, the more diverse the language forms. Some of the dialects and accents seem to retain archaic words that no one else uses in modern English. It's similar, I think, to the U.S. in that East Coast dialects are more diverse than West Coast dialects. But, regionalisms are abound, especially if communities are isolated or are in contact with another group like your Geordie. The Fargo accents of the northern Midwest like Minnesota are influenced by Norwegian language and culture, so you got "uff da!" Rural American communities from the Appalachians or rural Pennsylvania will have more of a distinctive accent than someone speaking the General American pronunciation of the Midwest.

There's too much emphasis on England and America in this thread. I know Ghanians and Kenyans who speak and spell the British way, and Singaporeans say "la" a lot at the end of the sentences because of the Chinese emphatic particle "le." And foreigners say "Thanks God" a lot too.

Not all Brits. In the northwest pants have always meant trousers.

Al-you-min-ium/Aluminum.

Also, I think someone said that they can't differentiate between American accents. I'm from the South so if I say I lost my khakis, someone from Boston might think I lost my car keys. There's a huge difference and I think it varies state-to-state until you get to the West Coast.