PREFERENCE IN ENGLISH SPELLING. 43 



British spelling of tyre, kerb, programme and cheque perhaps has as 

 much to commend it as the American lire, curb, program and check. 

 Usage in America varies in the case of program, the more conservative 

 still clinging to programme. Tyre and kerb are but little employed 

 here. These words are merely variant forms which British usage has 

 adopted. The spelling cheque, in general use in Great Britain for 

 our bank check, has resulted through the influence of the word ex- 

 chequer with which it is connected. 



The usual American spelling of wagon is held up to public obloquy 

 by British journalists, who regard waggon as the orthodox orthography. 

 Skeat, who gives both forms in his etymological dictionary, asserts that 

 the doubling of the g is simply a device to show that the preceding 

 vowel is short. In the early history of the language when the etymo- 

 logical spelling was in vogue, pedants had recourse to this method of 

 changing the form of a word to make it phonetic, as they claimed. In 

 point of fact, by their practise they made the language far less phonetic. 

 Spenser and other early English authors write the word after the 

 American fashion. Horace Greeley once made a departure from our 

 American usage and wrote waggon, saying by way of apology, when 

 his attention was called to it, that 'they used to build wagons heavier 

 in the good old times when he learned to spell.' 



It is not to be supposed for a moment, however, that our utilitarian 

 disregard of tradition is so strong as to have eliminated all useless let- 

 ters in our American spelling. There is many a word in which an 

 epenthetic letter is still retained merely because the traditional spell- 

 ing shows it. Sovereign, comptroller, island and rhyme may be cited 

 as examples in point. Perhaps it ought to be added that the emended 

 spelling rime for rhyme appears to be meeting with favor in certain 

 philological circles. 



There is one class of words which does not exhibit a uniform 

 method of writing, either in Great Britain or in America. This class 

 is typified by the words traveler, counselor, worshiper and the like. 

 It will be readily seen that these words are all derivatives, formed from 

 the primary by the addition of a suffix; and the writing vacillates be- 

 tween a single and a double consonant preceding the suffix. According 

 to the well-known principle of English orthography, these words are 

 not entitled to a double consonant, and therefore should never be 

 written traveller, counsellor and worshipper. The rule is, if the final 

 syllable of a word ending in a single consonant and preceded by a 

 short vowel is accented, the final consonant, on the addition of a suffix 

 beginning with a vowel, is doubled; but never otherwise. Thus we 

 write offered, deviled and the like, but referred, transferred and 

 jammed. Hence the orthodox spelling should be traveler, counselor, 

 worshiper, unrivaled and the like. But practise shows that either 

 spelling is regarded as correct on both sides of the Atlantic. These 



