gaol!

Tonight in class I was prompted on the strange spelling of the word 'gaol' /dʒeɪl/. I wondered whether it was uniquely Australian i.e. that it might have undergone a change, etemologically speaking, in the UK and other places but retained its original form in the great southern land.

The word under trial and its partner in crime and phonetic twin 'jail' /dʒeɪl/ are in common usage, the former more so in British English and its varieties, and the latter in General American.

The word came into English in two forms during the Middle English period (c. 1150 to c. 1470), jaiole from Old French, and gaiole from Anglo-Norman French. Gaiole was originally pronounced with a hard g, as in 'goat'. Both were borrowed into (Middle) English from the language of the English nobility, the Anglo-Norman French, during that time. Read here about William of Normandy (William the Conqueror) and the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and subsequent Norman Conquest of England. Well, the other name for it is prison, which came into English via Old French prisun, from Latin prension.

'Jail' was probably adopted in the US during her great 19th-century spelling reformation. This was a period in which many words underwent orthographical change — it is beacuse of this period we have the two spelling standards today (read here about the interesting mix of standards extant in Canada). 

Its birthrights, if so, would be owed to Noah Webster (1758 - 1843), lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and prolific author, whose surname became (and still is) synonymous with 'dictionary' in the US, and who, it is said, fathered the reform. 

Part of the process involved choosing from a selection of etemological varients (in this case jaiole, gaiole, gaole, gayole) the alternative more in accord with pronunciation, in this case it would be  'jail'. 'Gaol', then, sustained its Anglo-Norman appearance in the UK. A further  example, offense, the General American spelling of 'offence', was derived from Old Fench offens (then Latin offensus), it must have seemed rather logical to adopt s in its spelling.

That 'jail' came about this way is only my hypothesis, but below are some more well known differences between spellings:

Examples of orthographical change* in order to more closely represent sound, are -ize (organize, realize, paralyze, utilize); -or (color, honor, ardor, fervor, neighbor); -er (certre, theater, liter). Also, tire, curb, clark, carburator, check (tyre, kerb, clerk, carburettor, cheque). Other simplifications can be seen in homophonic words such as 'practise' and 'practice', verb and noun (the two forms being sustained in British Englishes), also 'license', and so on. Removing double letters took place in words such as  'travelled', 'controllable', 'councelling' (traveled, controlable, counceling).

I guess it's time I had my own Webster! If at least to help highlight these differences to learners and help increase awareness.

bogeyman | boogeyman
arse           | ass  (my sympathies for the donkey)
moustache | mustache
pyjamas     | pajamas

...know of any more?

*the ending -cre as in words like acre, mediocre, massacre was preserved to protect the /k/ sound of the c