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English is a difficult language as it has a lot of weird rules and then a lot of seemingly random exceptions to those rules. A lot of that can be (or just usually is) blamed on the French. Specifically the 1066 invasion of the British Isles by the Normans. When what was then English was banned and that era's French made the official language. Language creep happened and English (a Germanic Language) get a lot of Romance Language family rules and a bunch of French words added to the lists.
Since then, the langauge has changed....a lot. There use to be modifiers to words if someone was male or female (like one does in say Spanish), and there use to be formal and informal ways of speaking (Which can still be seen in the King James Bible and Shakespear). One of these was eventually removed around the time the Dictionary was invented. At that point the words became one fixed spelling and certain styles of speech began to die out.
However there are still a lot of English accents and differences even in the typed word between different English speaking countries (such as the spelling of the word "color", or "colour" depends on where you are from). I've had to act as a translator in an English to English conversation. Because Scottish Highlands accent goes not makes sense to someone with a Texan acccent and vis versa.
The Internet has not helped. In fact I think I am becoming a worse speller over time.
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