Standardized English spelling preserves traces of idiolectic variety.

Evidence

That the sign ough is pronounced differently in the words although, bough, lough, rough, cough, and hiccough, shows both the idiolectic variety out of which the now-standard spelling of English emerged, and the ideographic quality of the final product. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 206

Categorization

• CANDY: The ough word family is a charming light fact about English spelling worth sharing.
• XREF: connects to: English spelling is hard because words come from many source systems. — Bryan A. Garner, Jeff Newman, Tiger Jackson, The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style,…, 200; Discursive formations are held together by regularity, not uniformity, of statements

Related

• English spelling is hard because words come from many source systems. (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• English spelling is hard because words come from many source systems. #expands (0.75) — Bryan A. Garner, Jeff Newman, Tiger Jackson, The Redbook, 200
• Discursive formations are held together by regularity, not uniformity, of statements #corroborates (0.70)