Isaiah 9:6 (King James Bible) and the government shall be upon his shoulder
Oliver Cowdery consistently spelled the word government without the n before the -ment ending. In all, there are 26 occurrences of government in the Book of Mormon. In 𝓟, all 26 are in the hand of Oliver and are spelled as goverment or govorment. Five of the occurrences of government are extant in 𝓞, and again all are in the hand of Oliver and are spelled as goverment. Of course, the 1830 typesetter followed the standard spelling, government.
The pronunciation without the n before -ment is common in today’s English and is, in fact, listed as a standard pronunciation in Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. The spelling goverment is listed on (accessed 24 January 2004) as occurring 507,000 times (versus 92,600,000 for the standard spelling with the n). The online Oxford English Dictionary gives six instances of this spelling, dating from 1483 through 1650. Thus the misspelling based on the pronunciation does occur.
The critical text will maintain the standard spelling government throughout the text. Generally, the critical text will use nonstandard spellings only when the Book of Mormon spelling indicates a substantive difference in pronunciation. In the case of government, the standard spelling is commonly pronounced without the n. Typically, speakers are unaware of the loss of the n in pronunciation. For another example like government, see the discussion regarding the spelling saith for sayeth in 1 Nephi 2:1. For a case where there is a substantive difference in pronunciation, see the discussion under 1 Nephi 17:25 regarding grievious instead of the standard grievous.
Summary: Maintain the standard spelling government in the critical text rather than Oliver Cowdery’s spelling (goverment) since the loss of the n when pronouncing government is common in speech and generally unrecognized by speakers.