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English spelling reform is the collective term [dubious — see talk page] for various campaigns to change the spelling system of English to make it simpler and more rationally consistent. There exists a controversial[citation needed], small-scale movement among amateur and professional linguists, but one with a long history and some mixed successes. Supporters assert that the many inconsistencies and irregularities of English spelling lead to severe difficulties for learners. They believe this leads to a lower level of literacy among English speakers compared with speakers of languages having a spelling system that more faithfully conforms to how the language is spoken, and have, since at least the time of George Bernard Shaw, pointed out costs to business and other users in retaining traditional spelling, which can be worked out by the casual observer as cumulatively massive. English does in fact have a very poor phonemic orthography, or correspondence between how the words are written and how they are spoken. This is due in part to changes in commonly accepted dialects of English from older pronunciations. Proper spelling is the writing of a word or words with all necessary letters and diacritics present in an accepted, conventional order. ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
George Bernard Shaw (George) Bernard Shaw[1] (born Dublin, 26 July 1856 – died 2 November 1950 in Hertfordshire) was an Irish playwright based in the United Kingdom. ...
A phonemic orthography is a writing system where there is a one-to-one relationship between graphemes in the written form and phonemes in the spoken form of a language. ...
English is often considered difficult to learn by ESL students. The written forms give relatively ambiguous clues to pronunciation, relative to the Spanish orthography, for example, which is highly phonemic. It has been suggested that Teaching English as a Second Language be merged into this article or section. ...
There is opposition to spelling reform from traditionalists who feel that something is to be lost from simplifying the spelling of English - this can range from numinous 'old world' sensibilities to feared concrete financial losses by opposing vested interests (notably printers[1] and purveyors of rival solutions such as shorthand and remedial literacy solutions such as synthetic phonics. It has recently been argued, for example, that the one-time presidency of the Simplified Spelling Society of shorthand heir Sir James Pitman represents a conflict of interests). The traditionalists' hold over the means of production of printed matter, and other key vantage points, moderated by the work of persistent spelling reformers and a public open to change where perceived necessary (their perceptions arguably largely determined by a manufactured consensus) has resulted in a slow rate of progress, but the advent of the Internet and cellphone texting rather opens up the field to surfers and texters spelling with a public freedom unknown for centuries in the English-speaking world. Vested Interest usually refers to people with a financial involvement in the particular matter being assessed. ...
Shorthand is an abbreviated, symbolic writing method that improves speed of writing or brevity as compared to a normal method of writing a language. ...
Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ...
The Simplified Spelling Society is an organization which promotes English spelling reform. ...
Sir James Pitman (the grandson of Sir Isaac Pitman) inventor of the Initial Teaching Alphabet. ...
A conflict of interest is a situation in which someone in a position of trust, most commonly a lawyer, a politician, or a director of a corporation, has competing professional or personal interests that would either make it difficult to fulfill his or her duties fairly, or would create an...
A received SMS being announced on a Nokia phone. ...
Arguments for reform Advocates of spelling reform point to the obvious difficulty that most native speakers have spelling relatively common words, difficulty that has created a huge market for spellcheck software to help writers conform to orthodox spelling. From there, they make six basic arguments: - Pronunciations change gradually over time and the alphabetic principle that lies behind English (and every other alphabetically written language) gradually becomes corrupted. Spellings then need to adapt to account for the changes.
- Unlike many other languages, English spelling has never been systematically updated and, as a result, today only haphazardly observes the alphabetic principle. The haphazard nature of English spelling has created a system of weak rules with many exceptions and ambiguities. The spellings through, though, thought, enough, cough, daughter, and laughter are obvious barriers to reading comprehension, and common misspellings of accommodate, conscientious, occurrence, opponent, existence and personnel are obvious barriers to writing mastery.
- A new system that creates a closer relationship between phonemes and spellings would eliminate most exceptions and ambiguities and make the language easier to master for children and non-native speakers without putting undue burden on mature native speakers.
- Many exceptions in English spelling are the result of misguided attempts by scholars to "correct" older spelling by adding silent letters to reflect the word's Latin or Greek origin, or create a false correlation with those. The word island is not related to isle, for example, and was once spelled iland [2]. Similarly, doubt and debt have never been said with a /b/ sound.
- Spellings are changing, regardless of conscious public resistance, just slowly and not in any organized way. The US spelling jail is replacing gaol in the UK. Thru and lite are commonly found on public signs and commercial products. Alright is slowly becoming standard over all right. And minuscule is losing its long battle against miniscule.
- Almost all reforms would reduce the number of letters per word on average, thus saving time, money, paper, ink, and effort.
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Well-known reformers and supporters A number of respected and influential people have been supporters of spelling reform. - Orrmin, 12th century Augustine canon who distinguished short vowels from long by doubling the succeeding consonants, or when not feasible, by marking the short vowels with a superimposed breve (smiley) accent.
- Rev Charls Butler, British naturalist and author of the first natural history of bees: 'The Feminin` Monarchi`,' 1634.
- Dr Johnson, poet, wit, essayist, biographer, critic and eccentric, broadly credited with the standardisation of English spelling into its current contentious form in his Dictionary of the English Language (1755).
- Noah Webster, author of the first important American dictionary, believed that Americans should adopt simpler spellings where available and recommended it in his 1806 dictionary.
- President Theodore Roosevelt commissioned a committee to research and recommend simpler spellings and tried to require the U.S. government to adopt them, but his approach in a then little-known or understood field, to assume popular support by 'executive order,' rather than to garner it, was a likely factor in the limited progress of the time.
- H.G.Wells, world renowned science fiction writer and one-time Vice President of the London-based Simplified Spelling Society.
- Andrew Carnegie, famous philanthropist, donated to spelling reform societies both sides of the Atlantic.
- Melvil Dui, inventor of the Dewey Decimal System, wrote published works in simplified spellings and even simplified his own name from Melville to Melvil.
- James Pitman, a publisher and British Member of Parliament, invented the Initial Teaching Alphabet.
- George Bernard Shaw, the respected playwright, willed part of his estate to fund the creation of a new alphabet now called the "Shavian alphabet."
- Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, one-time Patron of the SSS. Stated that spelling reform should start outside of the UK, and that the lack of progress originates in the unsurprising discord amongst reformers (albeit speaking at a time of unpopular government and national discord, still ongoing).
The Ormulum is a work of metrical Biblical exegesis written in early Middle English by a man named Ormin. The work is notable for being a key to the pronunciation of early Middle English at a critical time. ...
Charl(e)s Butler (c. ...
This article is about the literary figure. ...
Noah Webster (October 16, 1758 – April 28, 1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook author, spelling reformer, political writer, and editor. ...
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. ...
H. G. Wells at the door of his house at Sandgate Herbert George Wells (September 21, 1866 – August 13, 1946) was a British writer best known for his science fiction novels such as The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine. ...
The Simplified Spelling Society is an organization which promotes English spelling reform. ...
Andrew Carnegie (November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American businessman, a major philanthropist, and the founder of the Carnegie Steel Company which later became U.S. Steel. ...
Melvil Dewey (December 10, 1851–December 26, 1931) was the inventor of the Dewey Decimal Classification system for library classification. ...
The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC, also called the Dewey Decimal System) is a system of library classification developed by Melvil Dewey (1851–1931) in 1876, and since greatly modified and expanded in the course of the twenty-two major revisions which have occurred up until 2004. ...
Sir James Pitman (the grandson of Sir Isaac Pitman) inventor of the Initial Teaching Alphabet. ...
A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a parliament. ...
The Initial Teaching Alphabet was developed by Sir James Pitman (the grandson of Sir Isaac Pitman, the inventor of a system of shorthand, who himself took up the issue of spelling reform with a variant typeface) as a tool for teaching children to read English. ...
George Bernard Shaw (George) Bernard Shaw[1] (born Dublin, 26 July 1856 – died 2 November 1950 in Hertfordshire) was an Irish playwright based in the United Kingdom. ...
Template:Unsourced A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is someone who writes dramatic literature or drama. ...
Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...
The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, (Philip Mountbatten; born Prince Philippos of Greece and Denmark, 10 June 1921) is the husband and consort of Queen Elizabeth II. Originally a Prince of Greece and Denmark, Prince Philip abandoned those titles to serve in the Royal Navy, but did not renounce them. ...
The Simplified Spelling Society is an organization which promotes English spelling reform. ...
Obstacles Reformers recognize a number of obstacles in the reform of spelling and the implementation of new spelling systems. - English is largely a melding of ancient Latin and Germanic languages, which have very different phonemes and approaches to spelling. Reforms tend to favor one approach over the other, resulting in a large percentage of words that must change spelling to fit the new scheme.
- The large number of vowel sounds in English and the small number of vowel letters make phonemic spelling very difficult to achieve without resorting to unusual letter combinations, diacritic marks or the introduction of new letters.
- Public resistance to spelling reform has been consistently strong, especially in the United Kingdom and the United States, at least since the early 19th century, when spelling was finally codified by the influential English dictionaries of Samuel Johnson (1755) and Noah Webster (1806).
- The sheer number of variances of pronunciation depending on locality makes it difficult to agree upon spellings which take into account most dialects.
A diacritical mark or diacritic, also called an accent mark, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. ...
Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...
A dictionary is a list of words with their definitions, a list of characters with their glyphs, or a list of words with corresponding words in other languages. ...
Samuel Johnson circa 1772, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. ...
Noah Webster (October 16, 1758 – April 28, 1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook author, spelling reformer, political writer, and editor. ...
Criticism The central criticism of spelling reform is that written language is not a purely phonetic analog of the spoken form. Because the English language is a mixture of Germanic language forms and Latin and other language terms, the spelling of words often reflects their origin. This gives a clue as to the meaning of the word by providing a historical marker for the origin. For example, Latin- or Greek-based word parts are often reducible to their meaning. Even if their pronunciation has deviated from the original pronunciation, the written form of the word is a record of the phoneme, so derived words (record, recorder) give clues to their own meaning, but respelling them could break that relationship (rekkerd, reekorder). Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ...
Critics say that instituting a large scale change in the spelling of English words could increase ambiguity rather than diminish it, because the morphophonic use of vowel sounds allows for better phonemic differentiation from a limited number of sounds, and hence makes the language more descriptive. Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...
Phonemic differentiation is the phenomenon of a phoneme in a language splitting into two phonemes over time, a process known as a phonemic split. ...
Also, spelling-reforms generally do not consider dialects and regional accents. For example: The first sound in the pronunciation of the word simultaneous can rightfully be as the first sound of psychic or as the first sound of cymbal, yet SoundSpel purports siemultaeniusly as the spelling indicating preference of the former. SoundSpel is one of the many English language spelling reform proposals. ...
Spelling reform campaigns Most spelling reforms attempt to improve phonemic representation, but some attempt genuine phonetic spelling, usually by changing or introducing an entirely new alphabet: Image File history File links Circle-question-red. ...
Spelling reform generally attempts to introduce a logical structure connecting the spelling and pronunciation of words. ...
Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of sounds and the human voice. ...
Cut Spelling is a system of English-language spelling reform which reduces redundant letters and makes substitutions to improve correspondence with the spoken word. ...
The Deseret alphabet is a phonetic alphabet developed in the mid-19th century by the board of regents of the University of Deseret (later the University of Utah) under the direction of Brigham Young, second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ...
Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...
SoundSpel is one of the many English language spelling reform proposals. ...
SR1 was a spelling reform proposal advocated by Harry Lindgren. ...
Benjamin Franklins phonetic alphabet was Benjamin Franklins proposal for a spelling reform of the English language. ...
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