# Questions about U.S. spelling
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 2, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053 "2010-05-02T18:58:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/1 "2010-05-02T18:58:49Z")
Idle question about U.S. spelling. I \*think \*this does allow a factual answer, but I trust the mods will move it elsewhere if necessary, as I agree that it \*could \*also be said to be a bit mundane and pointless. It’s a real question, though.
Right, I do get the idea that it’s intended to be a bit more “sensible” than the British version, (which would not be difficult 🙂 ) but some things about it cause me puzzlement. (Come on, people, I’m lazing on a Sunday afternoon here, so I’m allowed to indulge in some idle wondering).
What set me off on this was thinking about the “cheque/check” difference, but Og alone knows why, given that it’s hard to remember when I last wrote a cheque. I suddenly wondered why reformers would stop at “check”, rather than “chek” or “chec”.
For example, why is what I know as a “plough” spelled as “plow”, when one might reasonably argue that the spelling can lead to confusion when compared with other words such as “snow”, “crow” etc? And it seems that no-one felt sufficiently moved to change spellings of “slough” and “cough” and so on. Yeah, I realise the the whole “ough” spelling and pronunciation is a whole can of worms all by itself. Or even wurmz, I suppose. However, since the “ough” thing must surely be the most egregious example of confusing spelling, why was that one not addressed, given the ghoti=fish idea? One might think that would be the place to start, before bothering about theatres and theaters and colours and colors.
Similarly, it seems that (British) “trawl” (as in fishing) is “troll”, just like the mythical Scandinavian creature and like the annoying internet creature, despite the fact that they are pronounced differently. (Or perhaps they are not pronounced differently in the U.S.A., so feel free to correct me on this).
Also, there are some words that even people who ought to know better often spell wrongly. (Please read “wrongly” as “other than the generally accepted way”, if “wrongly” sounds too prescriptive for your liking). For example “weird”\* often appears as “wierd”, even on the S.D.M.B. If reasonably literate people often get that one wrong, surely that ought to have been a candidate for simplification.
And it seems that no-one felt moved to worry about “sew” and “sow”. And what about “bow” and “bow”? “Style” and “stile”? What about “word” and “worn”, having the same spelling form but different pronunciation? And it now occurs to me to wonder why, if Noah Webster was so keen on spelling reform, did he not become “Noa”? 🙂
So (or sow or sew) I suppose my question is: why stop halfway? Did the spelling reformers get so far and then get bored? (Or board, even). Note that I am NOT suggesting the either the U.K. style or the U.S. style is better or worse in any way, but merely wondering why the spelling reformers started then stopped.
I would bet real money that I have managed a few strange spellings/typing mistakes of my very own in this post, but that’s just Gaudere’s law for you. 🙂
-
- on preview, yes I realise that the meaning of that word as used at present is somewhat different from its earlier meaning but let’s leave that aside for now.\*
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/2 "2010-05-02T19:05:36Z")
Short version: You can attribute most of the differences to a man named [Noah Webster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Webster), a crank who wrote _An American Dictionary of the English Language_ in 1828. Early in the US’s history of independence, there was a felt need to differentiate it and its history and culture from Britain’s, and using an actual American dictionary in schools and elsewhere was one way to do it. Celebrating an Italian’s voyages to the Caribbean as “the discovery of America” was another.
Anyway, Webster had his own idiosyncratic and inconsistent ideas about simplifying spelling, and put those into his dictionary. You’ve given a number of examples. Since that was the only “American” dictionary available, those spellings became standard here.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2010, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/3 "2010-05-02T19:13:16Z")
Actually, many of the ones mentioned was due to [Teddy Roosevelt](http://www.johnreilly.info/trlist.htm), not Webster.
In any case, language isn’t consistent, and the English language is more inconsistent than others. It boils down to what changes people were willing to accept, logic or not.
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### Author:  [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/4 "2010-05-02T21:42:39Z")
Trawling & trolling are different methods of fishing. A trawler drags a net, a troller hangs a long line. Not really the same word, surprisingly.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2010, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/5 "2010-05-03T00:35:40Z")
And the Internet type of troll derives from the method of fishing, not the Scandinavian monster.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2010, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/6 "2010-05-03T00:41:55Z")
There has been a long tradition of efforts to “reform” spelling in the U.S. My favorite has always been Robert McCormick, publisher of the _Chicago Tribune._ He gave the world such contibutions as _donut, thru_ and _ameba,_ and changed his own name to M’Cormik.
Despite being one of the most powerful newspaper publishers of the 1930s and 40s, his efforts were met with indifference.
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### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2010, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/7 "2010-05-03T07:12:17Z")
> [@kunilou](#):
>
> There has been a long tradition of efforts to “reform” spelling in the U.S.
Not just in the US. The [(Simplified) Spelling Society](http://www.spellingsociety.org/) is a British organization that’s been around for about a century. And despite all of its efforts, they’d be hard-pressed to point to a single simplification that they’ve advocated that’s been adopted by the general public.
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2010, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/8 "2010-05-03T09:39:42Z")
QFT:
> [@Mark Twain](#):
>
> For example, in Year 1 that useless letter “c” would be dropped to be replased either by “k” or “s”, and likewise “x” would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which “c” would be retained would be the “ch” formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform “w” spelling, so that “which” and “one” would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish “y” replasing it with “i” and Iear 4 might fiks the “g/j” anomali wonse and for all.
>
> Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez “c”, “y” and “x” – bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez – tu riplais “ch”, “sh”, and “th” rispektivli.
>
> Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.
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### Author:  [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2010, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/9 "2010-05-03T09:50:21Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#):
>
> Trawling & trolling are different methods of fishing. A trawler drags a net, a troller hangs a long line. Not really the same word, surprisingly.
I guess I just learnt the alternative pronunciation for troll.
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### Author:  [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2010, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/10 "2010-05-03T09:54:20Z")
> [@friedo](#):
>
> Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.
I guess my head just asploded.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2010, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/11 "2010-05-03T14:21:19Z")
**Friedo** , why do you attribute that to Mark Twain?
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2010, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/12 "2010-05-03T14:48:08Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#):
>
> **Friedo** , why do you attribute that to Mark Twain?
Probably because that’s the common version. It is [wrong](http://www.ojohaven.com/fun/spelling.html), as you note.
> [@](#):
>
> the “Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling” that you attribute to Mark Twain is actually (IIRC) a few paragraphs out of a letter to _The Economist_, written by one M.J. Shields (or M.J. Yilz, by the end of the letter). The letter is quoted in full in one of Willard Espy’s _Words at Play_ books, as well as in other places (I believe it’s in Giles Brandreth’s _The Joy of Lex_).
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/13 "2010-05-03T15:33:51Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Probably because that’s the common version. It is [wrong](http://www.ojohaven.com/fun/spelling.html), as you note.
Weird! I had always seen that attributed to Mark Twain on the intertubes. Oh well. He can’t have everything.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2010, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/14 "2010-05-03T15:34:37Z")
> [@friedo](#):
>
> QFT:For example, in Year 1 that useless letter “c” would be dropped to be replased either by “k” or “s”, and likewise “x” would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which “c” would be retained would be the “ch” formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform “w” spelling, so that “which” and “one” would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish “y” replasing it with “i” and Iear 4 might fiks the “g/j” anomali wonse and for all.
>
> Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez “c”, “y” and “x” – bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez – tu riplais “ch”, “sh”, and “th” rispektivli.
>
> Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.
He misspelled "dubble"and “delt”.
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### Author:  [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/15 "2010-05-03T19:31:01Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#):
>
> **Friedo** , why do you attribute that to Mark Twain?
Because _everything_ written on the Internet is eventually attributed to Mark Twain.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/16 "2010-05-03T19:52:43Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Because everything written on the Internet is eventually attributed to Mark Twain.
Not true – sometimes they’re attributed to Plato.
Or Philo
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### Author:  [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/17 "2010-05-03T20:00:46Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#):
>
> … Webster had his own idiosyncratic and inconsistent ideas about simplifying spelling, and put those into his dictionary. … Since that was the only “American” dictionary available, those spellings became standard here.
Webster didn’t get everything he wanted though. Only some of his reforms took off. Found a [couple](http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/spell/histsp.html) [pages](http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/spelling-reform.htm) on the subject here.
> [@Celyn](#):
>
> So (or sow or sew) I suppose my question is: why stop halfway? Did the spelling reformers get so far and then get bored? (Or board, even). Note that I am NOT suggesting the either the U.K. style or the U.S. style is better or worse in any way, but merely wondering why the spelling reformers started then stopped.
Spelling reformers have been at it a long time now, but as others here have said, it almost always goes nowhere. The reforms that did succeed in the US happened because the country was new at the time, when Webster published his dictionary, and Americans were eager for ways to distinguish themselves from the English.
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### Author:  [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2010, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/18 "2010-05-03T22:38:49Z")
I suppose spelling reformers eventually gave up and thought that something like world peace might be easier to achieve. 🙂
I hadn’t known that trolling and trawling were different. Ignorance fought!
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2010, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/19 "2010-05-03T23:58:23Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Not true – sometimes they’re attributed to Plato.
>
> Or Philo
Flakey pastry?
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### Author:  [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2010, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-u-s-spelling/538053/20 "2010-05-04T12:34:41Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#):
>
> Because _everything_ written on the Internet is eventually attributed to Mark Twain.
Just as every witty comeback is attributed to Churchill.
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