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The American tongue is chock full of inconsistencies and exceptions, like why d-o-u-g-h, r-o-u-g-h and b-o-u-g-h all look the same but sound so different. The author of a new book tells the story of American spelling and those who have tried to reform it, from Noah Webster to Theodore Roosevelt to today’s cyber world.

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• David Wolman, author of Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling