Language changes, as does spelling, both through drift and deliberate action. Even the morphology of letters changes - see "ye", where "y" is actually "th", and

Language changes, as does spelling, both through drift and deliberate action. Even the morphology of letters changes - see "ye", where "y" is actually "th", and the old "s" which looks to modern eyes like an "f". An interesting one is the distinction between yay and yes and nay and no (negatory vs affirmative), which has utterly vanished at this point. In terms of deliberate modifications, the most recent I'm aware of is French, which has seen a rapid anglicisation over the past decades (Le weekend, Le ice tea, l'office de tourisme), and had a spelling update last year - http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35496893 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35496893. As with then, plenty of purists get their pantaloons in a knotte when they zyxt phantastique new words and spellings, but time ultimately makes the change whether they like it or not. Notable is that the words in the article which have changed are the commonly used ones. "Woe" isn't in common parlance so hasn't drifted or annealed.