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4 nevertheless changed the forms of many words to conform with their Dutch habits of orthografy. The unnecessary h in ghost (Dutch gheest, but later geest), aghast, ghastly, gherkin, ar examples of this influence, which also produced ghess, ghest, ghittar, etc.—in which the h gave place to u under French influence—and ghospel, ghizzard, ghossip, etc., from which the h was later simplified away.

Printers Disagree

There was lack of sistem, moreover, even in the best printeries. Tipe-setters wer largely itinerant, carrying their own ideas of spelling with them. Proofreading was a tipe-setter's job, and often il-done. It is not unusual to find different spellings of the same word—sometimes on the same page—in books printed as late as the 18th Century.

The cristalization of our spelling became more uniform as printers, in time, for their own convenience, conformd their respectiv "stiles" more closely to one another. But there has never been entire agreement among printers on questions of spelling, capitalization, punctuation, etc.; and every office today has its own stile sheet or stile book, which is likely to differ in some particulars from those of other printeries.

Early Spelling Reformers

Under the gidance of craftsmen, rather than of scolars, the spelling of English nevertheless continued to exhibit interesting variations, as many writers, in their efforts to spel words more nearly as they pro- nounst them, from time to time succeded in overcoming the disinclination of the printers to deviate from their accustomd practis.