Simplified Spelling

Simplified Spelling is a prescriptive American-English language system of spelling conventions placing greater emphasis on English verbal phonetics and orthographic economy than traditional and derivative forms. The system was promoted by the Simplified Spelling Board during the first two decades of the twentieth century, a body which enjoyed strong initial support from Andrew Carnegie and President Theodore Roosevelt; however, after failing to achieve widespread support over a nearly fifteen-year existence, Carnegie withdrew his financing and the Board was disbanded in 1920.

Some of the supported changes included in the Simplified Spelling system were already in use or have since come into use in American English, including the dropping of certain silent letters, such as words ending in -OUR becoming -OR (as in colour/color), and conventional replacement of Latin graphemes œ (oe) and æ (ae) with e (as in æther vs. ether).