A brief and humorous 500-year history of the Simplified Spelling Movement from advocates like Ben Franklin, C. S. Lewis, and Mark Twain to texts and Twitter. Why does the G in George sound different ...

Detroit News, December 1906. Roosevelt sits stunned in a boxing ring after losing his match with the dictionary. Stars flutter around his head like thought bubbles: “Kissed not kist,” “though not tho, ...

In the summer of 1859, a year before his election to the U.S. presidency, Abraham Lincoln received a curious letter in the mail. Addressed to “A. Linkon Esq.” and dated “Ogust 6,” it was written in ...

On August 27, 1905, The Worcester Evening Gazette loudly declared a rupture with President Theodore Roosevelt. "THE GAZETTE WILL BE PRINTED IN ENGLISH" was the headline on the lead editorial. ... “The ...

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Take a look at the following English words: butcher, squirrel, mortgage, and choir. Does something seem off about them? At one point in time, the words move and love rhymed. So did blood, good, and ...

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online ...

How can it be that “laughter” and “daughter” not only don’t rhyme but don’t sound remotely alike? What about “tomb,” “bomb,” and “comb”? Meanwhile, “liar” and “choir,” which couldn’t look more ...

IN your note last week on the United States Spelling Reform Report, there is a slight misapprehension. It is said that the result of adopting a phonetic spelling will be the break-up of the English ...

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online ...