May I toss in one of my favourite bits of English history here? When Jos. Caxton published "The Idylls of the King", which is considered the first book in modern English, there WERE no standard English spellings except for a few words like 'nation' that the parilament occasionally used. This gave Caxton MUCH too free a hand with spelling. It is said that there were five distinct dialects within a days ride of London in his day and that he chose the spelling of each word according to which pronunciation he liked best and spelled them as he thought fit. We owe it all to him. Damn him.