1066 - Noah Webster: Forging a National Language

Forging a National Language

The New Spelling System

Webster's earlier radical ideas about reforming the spelling system were scaled down and avoided the introduction of new letters and diacritics

The new spelling system followed two main principles:

“the omission of all superfluous and silent letters”;

and the “substitution of a character that has a certain definite sound, for one that is more vague and indeterminate”

Many final -e's (as in definite) and “silent” vowels (as in feather) stayed

-re words were changed to -er (center)

Omitting u from words ending in -our (color)

American words have fewer letters – in two thirds of cases, one vowel instead of two:

anemic for anaemic, armor for armour, caldron for cauldron, diarrhea for diarrhoea, smolder for smoulder

Dropping a vowel (ax for axe, catalog for catalogue, largess for largesse, story [of a building] for storey)

Consonant changes included the use of z for s in verb endings (advertize, analyze)

Replacing -ce by -se (defense, offense)

The dropping of a final -k from words ending in -ick (musick, physick – something that had already begun to happen in Britain)

Simplifying the double consonant before a suffix (traveling, appareled)

Other changes:

check (cheque), donut (doughnut), draftsman (draughtsman), [roadside] curb (kerb), jail (gaol), program (programme), maneuver (manoeuvre), mollusk (mollusc), mustache (moustache), plow (plough), pajamas (pyjamas), sulfur (sulphur), thruway (throughway), tire (tyre)