Despite the various English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most not
An 1814 American medical text showing British spellings that were still in use (tumours, colour, centres)
Many proposals have been made to change the system of English orthography with the aim of making it more consistent and closer to the spoken language. Common motives for spelling reform include making
American and British English spelling differences
…English spellings follow Webster's An American Dictionary of the English Language ("ADEL", "Webster's Dictionary", 1828). Webster was a proponent of English spelling reform for reasons both philological and nationalistic. In A Companion to the American Revolution (2008), John Algeo notes: it is often assumed that…
Noah Webster's reforms to American spelling are the most successful to date.
President Theodore Roosevelt was criticized for supporting the simplified spelling campaign of Andrew Carnegie in 1906.
The epitaph on the grave of William Shakespeare spells friend as frend.