Today’s Word of the Day is “Goald.” That’s right, you heard me: Goald!
“This day some kind of mettle was found in the tailrace that looks like goald.”
— from the January 24, 1848 entry in the diary of Henry Bigler, member of the Mormon Battalion, upon James Marshall’s discovery of “goald” at Sutter’s sawmill, Coloma, CA.
********
My daughter the linguist and I had a good time yesterday laughing at the archaic language of Henry Bigler, above. But it prompted a bit of historical research: When did American English spellings become normalized? (We won’t even go into how the Brits attempt to spell things, because that’s a bird of a very different colour.)
Turns out, you can mostly blame it on Noah Webster, whose American Dictionary of the English Language was first published in 1828. My guess is Henry Bigler never had the time or inclination for it. But his diary and our history are the richer for his lack of spelling standards. Mettle! Goald!
Aside from the potential for a hip-hop musical based on Marshall’s gold discovery, with Lin Manuel Miranda playing the Henry Bigler role, the real Mother Lode in all this history is linguistic. For instance, did you know – per Wikipedia…
Modern English spelling developed from about AD 1350 onward. That’s when — after three centuries of Norman French rule — English gradually became the official language of England again. It was very different from before 1066, incorporating many words of French origin (battle, beef, button, etc.). Early writers of this new English, such as Geoffrey Chaucer, gave it a fairly consistent spelling system. But this was soon diluted by Chancery clerks who re-spelled words based on French orthography. English spelling consistency was dealt a further blow in 1476. That’s when William Caxton brought the printing press to London . He lived in mainland Europe for the preceding 30 years, and his grasp of the English spelling system had become uncertain. The Belgian assistants he brought to help him set up his business had an even poorer command of it.
********
As printing developed, printers began to develop individual preferences or “house styles”. Furthermore, typesetters were paid by the line and were fond of making words longer. However, the biggest change in English spelling consistency occurred around 1525, when William Tyndale first translated the New Testament. And in 1539, King Henry VIII legalized the printing of English Bibles in England. The many editions of these Bibles were printed outside England by people who spoke little or no English. They often changed spellings to match their Dutch orthography. Examples include the silent h in ghost (to match Dutch gheest, which later became geest), aghast, ghastly and gherkin. The silent h in other words—such as ghospel, ghossip and ghizzard—was later removed.
********
From the 16th century AD onward, English writers who were scholars of Greek and Latin literature tried to link English words to their Graeco-Latin counterparts. They did this by adding silent letters to make the real or imagined links more obvious. Thus det became debt (to link it to Latin debitum), dout became doubt (to link it to Latin dubitare). Sissors became scissors and sithe became scythe (as they were wrongly thought to come from Latin scindere). Iland became island (as it was wrongly thought to come from Latin insula). Ake became ache (as it was wrongly thought to come from Greek akhos). And so forth.
********
Alright, alright. Not interested in linguistics or spelling, you say? You just want more pictures – am I right? Let it never be said that we here at dewconsulting.net are insensitive to the will of the common folk: “What Would Hamilton Do?” That’s our motto – first, last, and always. Or, as some with a vested interest in text-length would spell it, “mottoe.” Hey, when you’re a typesetter getting paid by the line, every extra character helps.
Bonus photographic content, below.
There. Yer welcome.
