The American Language
traveler traveller
tumor tumour
valor valour
vapor vapour
veranda verandah
vial phial
vigor vigour
vise (a tool) vice
wagon waggon
woolen woollen
§ 2
/General Tendencies/--This list is by no means exhaustive. According
to a recent writer upon the subject, "there are 812 words in which the
prevailing American spelling differs from the English."[2] But enough
examples are given to reveal a number of definite tendencies.
American, in general, moves toward simplified forms of spelling more
rapidly than English, and has got much further along the road.
Redundant and unnecessary letters have been dropped from whole groups
of words--the /u/ from the group of nouns in /-our/, with the sole
exception of /Saviour/, and from such words as /mould/ and /baulk/;
the /e/ from /annexe/, /asphalte/, /axe/, /forme/, /pease/, /storey/,
etc.; the duplicate consonant from /waggon/, /nett/, /faggot/,
/woollen/, /jeweller/, /councillor/, etc., and the silent foreign
suffixes from /toilette/, /epaulette/, /programme/, /verandah/, etc.
In addition, simple vowels have been substituted for degenerated
diphthongs in such words as /anaemia/, [Pg246] /oesophagus/,
/diarrhoea/ and /mediaeval/, most of them from the Greek.
Further attempts in the same direction are to be seen in the
substitution of simple consonants for compound consonants, as in
/plow/, /bark/, /check/, /vial/ and /draft/; in the substitution of
/i/ for /y/ to bring words into harmony with analogues, as in /tire/,
/cider/ and /baritone/ (/cf./ /wire/, /rider/, /merriment/), and in
the general tendency to get rid of the somewhat uneuphonious /y/, as
in /ataxia/ and /pajamas/. Clarity and simplicity are also served by
substituting /ct/ for /x/ in such words as /connection/ and
/inflection/, and /s/ for /c/ in words of the /defense/ group. The
superiority of /jail/ to /gaol/ is made manifest by the common
mispronunciation of the latter, making it rhyme with /coal/. The
substitution of /i/ for /e/ in such words as /indorse/, /inclose/ and
/jimmy/ is of less patent utility, but even here there is probably a
slight gain in euphony. Of more obscure origin is what seems to be a
tendency to avoid the /o/-sound, so that the English /slog/ becomes
/slug/, /podgy/ becomes /pudgy/, /nought/ becomes /naught/, /slosh/
becomes /slush/, /toffy/ becomes /taffy/, and so on. Other changes
carry their own justification. /Hostler/ is obviously better American
than /ostler/, though it may be worse English. /Show/ is more logical
than /shew/.[3] /Cozy/ is more nearly phonetic than /cosy/. /Curb/ has
analogues in /curtain/, /curdle/, /curfew/, /curl/, /currant/,
/curry/, /curve/, /curtsey/, /curse/, /currency/, /cursory/,
/curtail/, /cur/, /curt/ and many other common words: /kerb/ has very
few, and of them only /kerchief/ and /kernel/ are in general use.
Moreover, the English themselves use /curb/ as a verb and in all noun
senses save that shown in /kerbstone/.
But a number of anomalies remain. The American substitution of /a/ for
/e/ in /gray/ is not easily explained, nor is the substitution of /k/
for /c/ in /skeptic/ and /mollusk/, nor the retention of /e/ in
/forego/, nor the unphonetic substitution of /s/ for /z/ in /fuse/,
[Pg247] nor the persistence of the first /y/ in /pygmy/. Here we have
plain vagaries, surviving in spite of attack by orthographers.
Webster, in one of his earlier books, denounced the /k/ in /skeptic/
as "a mere pedantry," but later on he adopted it. In the same way
/pygmy/, /gray/ and /mollusk/ have been attacked, but they still
remain sound American. The English themselves have many more such
illogical forms to account for. In the midst of the /our/-words they
cling to a small number in /or/, among them, /stupor/. Moreover, they
drop the /u/ in many derivatives, for example, in /arboreal/,
/armory/, /clamorously/, /clangorous/, /odoriferous/, /humorist/,
/laborious/ and /rigorism/. If it were dropped in all derivatives the
rule would be easy to remember, but it is retained in some of them,
for example, /colourable/, /favourite/, /misdemeanour/, /coloured/ and
/labourer/. The derivatives of /honour/ exhibit the confusion clearly.
/Honorary/, /honorarium/ and /honorific/ drop the /u/, but
/honourable/ retains it. Furthermore, the English make a distinction
between two senses of /rigor/. When used in its pathological sense
(not only in the Latin form of /rigor mortis/, but as an English word)
it drops the /u/; in all other senses it retains the /u/. The one
American anomaly in this field is /Saviour/. In its theological sense
it retains the /u/; but in that sense only. A sailor who saves his
ship is its /savior/, not its /saviour/.
§ 3
/The Influence of Webster/--At the time of the first settlement of
America the rules of English orthography were beautifully vague, and
so we find the early documents full of spellings that would give an
English lexicographer much pain today. Now and then a curious
foreshadowing of later American usage is encountered. On July 4, 1631,
for example, John Winthrop wrote in his journal that "the governour
built a /bark/ at Mistick, which was launched this day." But during
the eighteenth century, and especially after the publication of
Johnson's dictionary, there was a general movement in England toward a
more inflexible orthography, and many hard and fast rules, still
surviving, were then laid down. It was Johnson himself who [Pg248]
established the position of the /u/ in the /our/ words. Bailey, Dyche
and the other lexicographers before him were divided and uncertain;
Johnson declared for the /u/, and though his reasons were very
shaky[4] and he often neglected his own precept, his authority was
sufficient to set up a usage which still defies attack in England.
Even in America this usage was not often brought into question until
the last quarter of the eighteenth century. True enough, /honor/
appears in the Declaration of Independence, but it seems to have got
there rather by accident than by design. In Jefferson's original draft
it is spelled /honour/. So early as 1768 Benjamin Franklin had
published his "Scheme for a New Alphabet and a Reformed Mode of
Spelling, with Remarks and Examples Concerning the Same, and an
Enquiry Into its Uses" and induced a Philadelphia typefounder to cut
type for it, but this scheme was too extravagant to be adopted
anywhere, or to have any appreciable influence upon spelling.[5]
It was Noah Webster who finally achieved the divorce between English
example and American practise. He struck the first blow in his
"Grammatical Institute of the English Language," published at Hartford
in 1783. Attached to this work was an appendix bearing the formidable
title of "An Essay on the Necessity, Advantages and Practicability of
Reforming the Mode of Spelling, and of Rendering the Orthography of
Words Correspondent to the Pronunciation," and during the same year,
at Boston, he set forth his ideas a second time in the first edition
of his "American Spelling Book." The influence of this spelling book
was immediate and profound. It took the place in the schools of
Dilworth's "Aby-sel-pha," the favorite of the generation preceding,
and maintained its authority for fully a century. Until Lyman Cobb
entered the lists with his "New Spelling Book," in 1842, its
innumerable editions scarcely had [Pg249] any rivalry, and even then
it held its own. I have a New York edition, dated 1848, which contains
an advertisement stating that the annual sale at that time was more
than a million copies, and that more than 30,000,000 copies had been
sold since 1783. In the late 40's the publishers, George F. Cooledge &
Bro., devoted the whole capacity of the fastest steam press in the
United States to the printing of it. This press turned out 525 copies
an hour, or 5,250 a day. It was "constructed expressly for printing
Webster's Elementary Spelling Book [the name had been changed in 1829]
at an expense of $5,000." Down to 1889, 62,000,000 copies of the book
had been sold.
The appearance of Webster's first dictionary, in 1806, greatly
strengthened his influence. The best dictionary available to Americans
before this was Johnson's in its various incarnations, but against
Johnson's stood a good deal of animosity to its compiler, whose
implacable hatred of all things American was well known to the
citizens of the new republic. John Walker's dictionary, issued in
London in 1791, was also in use, but not extensively. A home-made
school dictionary, issued at New Haven in 1798 or 1799 by one Samuel
Johnson, Jr.--apparently no relative of the great Sam--and a larger
work published a year later by Johnson and the Rev. John Elliott,
pastor in East Guilford, Conn., seem to have made no impression,
despite the fact that the latter was commended by Simeon Baldwin,
Chauncey Goodrich and other magnificoes of the time and place, and
even by Webster himself. The field was thus open to the laborious and
truculent Noah. He was already the acknowledged magister of
lexicography in America, and there was an active public demand for a
dictionary that should be wholly American. The appearance of his first
duodecimo, according to Williams,[6] thereby took on something of the
character of a national event. It was received, not critically, but
patriotically, and its imperfections were swallowed as eagerly as its
merits. Later on Webster had to meet formidable critics, at home as
well as abroad, but for nearly a quarter of a century he reigned
almost unchallenged. Edition after edition of his dictionary was
published, [Pg250] each new one showing additions and improvements.
Finally, in 1828, he printed his great "/American/ Dictionary of the
English Language," in two large octavo volumes. It held the field for
half a century, not only against Worcester and the other American
lexicographers who followed him, but also against the best
dictionaries produced in England. Until very lately, indeed, America
remained ahead of England in practical dictionary making.
Webster had declared boldly for simpler spellings in his early
spelling books; in his dictionary of 1806 he made an assault at all
arms upon some of the dearest prejudices of English lexicographers.
Grounding his wholesale reforms upon a saying by Franklin, that "those
people spell best who do not know how to spell"--/i. e./, who spell
phonetically and logically--he made an almost complete sweep of whole
classes of silent letters--the /u/ in the /-our/ words, the final /e/
in /determine/ and /requisite/, the silent /a/ in /thread/, /feather/
and /steady/, the silent /b/ in /thumb/, the /s/ in /island/, the /o/
in /leopard/, and the redundant consonants in /traveler/, /wagon/,
/jeweler/, etc. (English: /traveller/, /waggon/, /jeweller/). More, he
lopped the final /k/ from /frolick/, /physick/ and their analogues.
Yet more, he transposed the /e/ and the /r/ in all words ending in
/re/, such as /theatre/, /lustre/, /centre/ and /calibre/. Yet more,
he changed the /c/ in all words of the /defence/ class to /s/. Yet
more, he changed /ph/ to /f/ in words of the /phantom/ class, /ou/ to
/oo/ in words of the /group/ class, /ow/ to /ou/ in /crowd/,
/porpoise/ to /porpess/, /acre/ to /aker/, /sew/ to /soe/, /woe/ to
/wo/, /soot/ to /sut/, /gaol/ to /jail/, and /plough/ to /plow/.
Finally, he antedated the simplified spellers by inventing a long list
of boldly phonetic spellings, ranging from /tung/ for /tongue/ to
/wimmen/ for /women/, and from /hainous/ for /heinous/ to /cag/ for
/keg/.
A good many of these new spellings, of course, were not actually