Today marks the beginning of September and the beginning of the school year for students, teachers, and professors. It also marks the first joint issue of Strike-Through, authored by Rebekah Slonim, and Missing Pieces, authored by Rachel Lane. As home-educated sisters, we’ve spent much time in class together. Thus, it only seems fitting that we make this back-to-school themed newsletter a team effort, written by both of us and discussing our areas of expertise as it relates to a common school subject: spelling.
Rachel here. I’ll start first with some surprising history about spelling in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (GAPE).
In August 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt made one of the most controversial and unpopular decisions of his presidency. Yet it wasn’t about foreign policy, the economy, or even politics. It was about spelling. After meeting with some men from the Simplified Spelling Board, funded by Andrew Carnegie, in the summer of 1906, Roosevelt decided to request that the public printer in the Government Printing Office apply the 300 words to executive office documents.
Although some spellings were quite unusual (“fixt” for “fixed,” for example), many of them corrected British spellings like “arbour,” “armour,” and “harbour,” often removing what Roosevelt called the “somewhat absurd, superfluous ‘u.’” The American people weren’t too open to TR’s change, and the Brits were especially put out.
Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
One American cartoonist even captured British vitriol in a September 22, 1906, cartoon entitled, “A Few Shots at the King’s English,” as can be seen in this StoryMap. TR fires at a dictionary already riddled with holes as the ghosts of Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, and Samuel Johnson look on. Although Roosevelt insisted simplified spelling was not “an attack [on] the language of Shakespeare and Milton,” the Brits were never convinced.
Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
In the end, Congress threw out simplified spelling on December 13, 1906, but some of the spellings stuck, including Americanizing British words by removing the “u.”
Rebekah here . . .
You probably know that in American English “color” doesn’t have a “u.” Thanks, Theodore Roosevelt!
In fact, pretty much no American English word ends in “our,” except for “glamour.” Merriam-Webster lists “glamour” as the more common American English spelling, although “glamor” is an acceptable, albeit less common option.
While Congress may have rejected Roosevelt’s more extensive program of simplified spelling (note that I said “program” instead of the British “programme,” again reflecting how Roosevelt’s efforts shaped American English), when American English and British English differ, the American spellings are usually simpler, shorter, and, as I said last time, less pretentious.
The way a country or society uses language reflects its ethos. Americans have long prided themselves on being down to earth, and the way we use language often reflects that.
So, if you want to sound especially American when you write or speak, drop the “s” at the end of any word ending in “ward” (“toward,” not “towards”), ditch any “ae” (“archeology,” not “archaeology”), and make sure to get rid of any superfluous “u” (“honor,” not “honour”).
Beating through the thicket of English, while following in TR’s footsteps,
Rebekah Slonim and Rachel Lane
P.S. If you subscribe to one of our newsletters but not to both, feel free to check out Rebekah’s here and Rachel’s here.