English is a composite of many languages and, like other languages, has undergone vast changes over the centuries. This was especially true of the endings of words. During the Middle Ages, the endings of these words were pronounced much as they were spelled. During the late 1470's Edward Caxton began printing books in England, which brought about a certain amount of standardization in spelling. The American lexicographer Noah Webster introduced many standardized American spellings with his dictionary in 1828.
English spelling continues to evolve, though at a slower pace.
Notice that other symbols such as the icons for Find, zoom, and Print Preview are not yet completely standardized in most applications and don't convey a distinct meaning to an overwhelmingly majority of users. The foregoing discussion points out two major conflicting needs filled by the languages we as humans use. Standards, especially spellings of words, are becoming increasingly important as standard word lists are increasingly used by search engines to meet the needs of people to find what they need in the massive body of information that is accumulating geometrically. Also in the name of accessibility to information, languages need to be flexible enough to incorporate visual symbols and provide for access to information through innovations such as hypertext linking. Maintaining a delicate balance between these two needs has always been the hallmark of a living language and points up the differences between modern English or Chinese and ancient Greek and Latin, which stopped evolving many centuries ago.