Noah Webster was among the first individuals to put an American stamp on the 2nd globalization, that of writing. In his works A Compendius Dictionary of the English Language (1806) and An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), Webster tried to both take a snapshot of the ways American English differed from the British, and also nudge spellings in a direction that he thought was more logical.

Noah Webster was born to a prominent Connecticut family in the mid 1700s. Though he studied law, he only practiced it for a short time, turning instead to the area of education. As a schoolteacher, not being content with the British schoolbooks that were then being used in New England and New York, he began to author his own books for instruction. He first wrote a “speller,” followed it with a book on grammar, and finally produced a reader, which became widely used in the early United States.

For a man of his interests, a dictionary was the logical next step. As a member of the Federalist political party in the 1790s, Webster was politically inclined toward efforts that brought the first states closer together politically and culturally and linguistically. Webster was encouraged to create a dictionary for American English by such Federalist figures as Benjamin Franklin and James Madison to standardize the English of the new republic. Using Samuel Johnson's British dictionary as a model (and, indeed, appropriating much of its content), Webster published A Compendius Dictionary of the English Language in 1806, with a view to eventually expanding it. In 1828, he published An American Dictionary of the English Language, with 70,000 entries.

Webster's 1806 work included words that had previously been omitted from earlier British works. There were widely used terms which were derived from the languages of the native Americans, such as “skunk” or “hickory.” Additionally, Webster also also made entries for words that were commonly used in Britain but, for whatever reason, had been left out of British dictionaries of the period. In all, Webster's first dictionary described 5000 more terms than any dictionary published in Britain.

Noah Webster didn't merely provide definitions and examples of words usage in his dictionaries. He also changed and simplified the spellings of several terms, making their spellings more consistent with their local pronunciation. Perhaps this is not surprising, considering his early career teaching schoolchildren. There was a small variety of the modifications that he prefered. Most famously, Webster chose to drop the letter 'u' from “colour” and “neighbour.” Another category of Webster's modifications was the changing of the British 's' near the end of a word to an American 'z' As a result, “analyse” became “analyze,” formalizing the American inclination to make the final consonant a voiced one. The spelled words stuck in the United States, and consequently, so did that pronunciation.

Noah Webster was committed to the idea that the use of a language not be dictated by the speakers in its place of origin, but rather a reflection of its use by the speakers, no matter where they are.

I was trying to get submit this project quickly, and I'm afraid I'm not sure of the formatting of these sources. I hope that what I have here is helpful.

- Volume 21, p143 'Noah Webster' by G.E. Bentley and Volume 5, p. 157 'Dictionary' by Clarence L. Barnhardt, The World Book Encyclopedia, 1986 

Webster's 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language | Merriam-Webster https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/noah-webster-dictionary

Noah Webster's Spelling Wins and Fails | Merriam-Webster https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/noah-websters-spelling-wins-and-fails

The National Museum of Language (languagemuseum.org) Noah Webster, The First American Lexicographer https://languagemuseum.org/exhibits/emerging-american-language-in-1812/noah/