English borrows heavily from German. I can actually understand most written German because it's so similar. Some words are just the same. It's almost as if it's a joke version of English, but of course I know it's not.
It's impossible to expect American English not to be different than the original language, America is made up of so many different cultures all dropped into a huge UFC arena at once. The attempt by Mr. Webster to change the spelling of words, though very nationalistic, has a practical inspiration. I do like British spellings better though.
Americans call our language English. We don't say American, if someone does then they probably live in a trailer park and have declared their trailer a sovereign country. I consider 'American' English to be a subset of English, as I'm sure many others do as well.
Come see the WIP!