Chantey/Shanty
I'm in the midst of Joanna Colcord's Songs of the American Sailorman. In the foreword she says she's torn about the spelling; after a long analytical ramble about etymology and sources she decides to use "shanty" solely to remove the temptation for some bugger to pronounce it with the hard "ch." Seems to be the soundest reasoning I have ever come across.
-Glenn