Re:Spelling Reform
by grellas on Monday July 20, 2009 @02:33PM
(#714860)
The most radical proponent of English spelling reform was, of all people, Noah Webster.
In 1789, he wrote "An Essay on the Necessity, Advantages, and Practicality of Reforming the Mode of Spelling and of Rendering the Orthography of Words Correspondent to Pronunciation" (reprinted at http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/DKitchen/new_655/webster_langua...).
The problem with all such attempts at spelling reform is that language is not "top down" but rather "bottom up."
From ancient Saxon/Germanic words that defined much of the Old English to Latin words that flooded in via the various Romance languages such as French to Greek words that often came in via academic roots to scientific words that were coined as new developments occurred, English has absorbed all manner of word forms over many centuries - word forms that are ingrained in real-world usages that define how people speak, think, and write, not just in learned circles but in the street. Such words have taken on spelling characteristics connected with their origins (e.g., words of French origin that have many silent letters) and hence may vary significantly from one type to another.
It is a desirable goal to make English spelling more consistent but, if the very guy who came up with the leading American dictionary used for over 200 years could not even made a dent in the system, what chance does anyone else have?
In 1789, he wrote "An Essay on the Necessity, Advantages, and Practicality of Reforming the Mode of Spelling and of Rendering the Orthography of Words Correspondent to Pronunciation" (reprinted at http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/DKitchen/new_655/webster_langua...).
The problem with all such attempts at spelling reform is that language is not "top down" but rather "bottom up."
From ancient Saxon/Germanic words that defined much of the Old English to Latin words that flooded in via the various Romance languages such as French to Greek words that often came in via academic roots to scientific words that were coined as new developments occurred, English has absorbed all manner of word forms over many centuries - word forms that are ingrained in real-world usages that define how people speak, think, and write, not just in learned circles but in the street. Such words have taken on spelling characteristics connected with their origins (e.g., words of French origin that have many silent letters) and hence may vary significantly from one type to another.
It is a desirable goal to make English spelling more consistent but, if the very guy who came up with the leading American dictionary used for over 200 years could not even made a dent in the system, what chance does anyone else have?