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English spelling reform
editMain: English language spelling reform
Based mostly on the Handbook of Simplified Spelling.
Scroll to the bottom of the table for an example.
| Spelling and/or Pronunciation |
New rule | Examples | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| /ɛ/ | always use E |
| |
| /ɪ/ | always use I |
| |
| /iː/ | always use EE |
| |
| /ʤ/ | always use J |
| |
| /ʒ/ | always use ZH |
| |
| /f/ | always use F |
| |
| silent or misleading –E | drop the E | are→ar, give→giv, have→hav, were→wer, gone→gon, examine→examin, practise→practis, definite→definit, active→activ, involve→involv, serve→serv, achieve→acheev, leave→leev, freeze→freez, gauze→gauz | |
| –EY pronounst /i/ | drop the E | chimney→chimny, valley→vally | |
| EA pronounst /ɑ/ | drop the E | heart→hart | |
| EAU pronounst /əʊ/ | use O | bureau→buro | |
| –ED pronounst /d/ –DED pronounst /dəd/ |
use –D, use –D'D, reduce any foregoing doubled consonant to a single letter |
called→cald, preferred→preferd, wronged→wrongd aided→aid'd, blended→blend'd, skidded→skid'd |
Do not make this change if the spelling suggests an incorrect pronunciation: bribed not bribd; used not usd, a.s.f. |
| –ED pronounst /t/ –CED and –SCED pronounst /st/ |
use –T, use –ST, reduce any foregoing doubled consonant to a single letter |
asked→askt, advanced→advanst |
Do not make this change if the spelling suggests an incorrect pronunciation: baked not bakt; hoped not hopt, a.s.f. |
| EXC pronounst /ɛks/ | use EX | exceed→exeed, excel→exel, except→exept, excess→exess, excise→exize, excite→exite | |
| EXH pronounst /ɛks/ | use EX | exhaust→exaust, exhibit→exibit, exhort→exort, exhume→exume | |
| AE/Æ and OE/Œ pronounst /ə/ | use E | aesthetic→esthetic, oesophagus→esofagus | This is already standard in American English. |
| AERO– | use AIR– | aeroplane→airplane, aeronatics→airnautics | |
| ALM with silent L | use AM | alms→ams, balm→bam, calm→cam, palm→pam, qualm→quam, salmon→samon | |
| AUGH pronounst /ɔː/ | use AU | caught→caut, daughter→dauter | |
| BT pronounst /t/ | use T | debt→det, doubt→dout | These words were originally spelt without the silent B. |
| CC pronounst /k/ | use C | account→acount | |
| CC pronounst /ks/ | use CS | accept→acsept | |
| CC pronounst /s/ | use S | flaccid→flasid | |
| CH pronounst /k/ | use C | character→caracter, architecht→arcitecht, school→scool, chemist→cemist | |
| double consonant before silent –E |
drop the last two letters | bagatelle→bagatel, bizarre→bizar, cigarette→cigaret, giraffe→giraf, gramme→gram | This has been partially adopted in American English. |
| GH pronounst /g/ | use G | aghast→agast, ghost→gost | These words were originally spelt without the silent H. |
| –GM pronounst /m/ | use M | phlegm→flem | |
| GN– pronounst /n/ | use N | gnaw→naw | |
| CQU pronounst /kw/ | use QU | acquire→aquire | |
| –GUE after a consonant, a short vowel or a digraph representing a long vowel or diphthong | drop silent –UE | catalogue→catalog, league→leag, tongue→tung But not in rogue, vague, a.s.f. |
This has been partially adopted in American English. |
| –IEF –IEVE |
use –EEF use –EEV |
belief→beleef, thief→theef believe→beleev, thieve→theev | |
| –ISE and –YSE pronounst /aɪz/ | use –IZE | realise→realize, analyse→analize, rise→rize | This has been partially adopted in American English. |
| –ISM pronounst /ɪzəm/ | use –IZM | realism→realizm | |
| –ISATION | use –IZATION | realisation→realization | This is standard in American English. |
| –MB after a short vowel | use M | bomb→bom, crumb→crum But not after a long vowel as in comb, tomb, a.s.f. | |
| MN pronounst /m/ | use M | autumn→autum, column→colum, condemn→condem, damn→dam, hymn→hym, solemn→solem | |
| MN pronounst /n/ | use N | mnemonic→nemonic | |
| O[consonant]E wher O is pronounst /ʌ/ | change O to U, drop the E |
above→abuv, done→dun, dove→duv, glove→gluv, love→luv, none→nun, shove→shuv, some→sum | This is already common in chatspeak. |
| –OE pronounst /oʊ/ | drop silent E, except in inflected forms |
foe→fo, hoe→ho foes, hoed (unchanged) | |
| OEU pronounst /uː/ | use U | manoeuver→manuver | This has been partially adopted in American English. |
| OO pronounst /ʌ/ | use U | blood→blud, flood→flud | |
| OOR pronounst /-ɔːr/ | use ORE | door→dore, floor→flore (to match core, more, a.s.f.) (these and their derivatives are the only words affected) | |
| OU pronounst /ʌ/ | use U | young→yung, touch→tuch | |
| OUL pronounst /əʊl/ | use OL, except in "soul" |
boulder→bolder, mould→mold | This has been partially adopted in American English. |
| OULD pronounst /ʊd/ | use UD | could→cud, should→shud, would→wud (these and their derivatives are the only words affected) |
This is already common in chatspeak. |
| OUGH pronounst /uː/ | use U | through→thru | Common informal. |
| OUGH pronounst /əʊ/ | use O | though→tho, although→altho (but doh for dough) | Common informal. |
| OUGH pronounst /ə/ or /oʊ/ | use O | thorough→thoro, borough→boro | This has been partially adopted in American English. |
| OUGH pronounst /aʊ/ | use OU | bough→bou, drought→drout, plough→plou | |
| OUGH pronounst /ɔː/ | use AU | bought→baut, ought→aut, thought→thaut | |
| OUGH pronounst /ɒf/ | use OF | cough→cof | This is already common in chatspeak. |
| OUGH pronounst /ʌf/ | use UF | enough→enuf | This is already common in chatspeak. |
| –OUR pronounst /ər/ | use –OR | colour→color, flavour→flavor | This is standard in American English. |
| silent P | drop it | coup→cou, receipt→receit, pneumatic→neumatic, psycho→syco | |
| –RE after all consonants but C | use –ER | centre→center, metre→meter | This is standard in American English. |
| RH– pronounst /r/ | use R | rhetoric→retoric, rhubarb→rubarb | |
| RRH pronounst /r/ | use R | hemorrhage→hemorage | |
| silent S | drop it | island→iland, debris→debri | |
| SC– pronounst /s/ | use S | scenery→senery, scissors→sizors | |
| –SE pronounst /z/ | use Z | house [verb]→houz, raise→raiz | |
| SS pronounst /z/ | use Z | dissolve→dizolv | |
| –SQUE pronounst /sk/ | use –SK | burlesque→burlesk | |
| silent TH | drop it | asthma→asma | |
| silent U before a vowel | drop silent U | guard→gard, guess→ges, guide→gide | |
| U pronounst /w/ | use W | linguistic→lingwistic, persuade→perswade | |
| X pronounst /z/ | use Z | xylophone→zylofone | |
| Y between consonants | use I | analysis→analisis, type→tipe | |
| YOU pronounst /jʌ/ | use YU | your→yur, young→yung | This is already common in chatspeak. |
Example
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For hundreds of yeers, meny groups and indivijuals hav advocated spelling reform for English. Spelling reformers seek to make English spelling more consistent and more fonetic, so that spellings match pronunciations and follow the alfabetic principl. Common motivs for spelling reform include making the langwij eezier to lern, making it more useful for international communication, or saving time, muny and effort. Spelling reform propozals can be divided into two main groups: thoze that uze the traditional English alfabet, and thoze that wud extend or replace it. The former ar more conservativ and do not introjuce eny new letters or simbols. The latter may involv adding letters and simbols from other alfabets or creeating an entirely new one. Sum reformers favor an imeediat and total reform, while others wud prefer a grajual chanje implementd in stajes. Sum spelling reform propozals hav been adoptd partially or temporarily. Meny of the reforms propozed by Noah Webster hav becum standard in the United States but hav not been adoptd elsewher. Harry Lindgren’s propozal, SR1, was popular in Australia for a number of yeers and was temporarily adoptd by the Australian Government. Spelling reform has rarely attractd widespred public support, sumtimes due to organized rezistanse and sumtimes due to lack of interest. Ther ar a number of lingwistic arguments agenst reform; for exampl that the orijins of wirds may be obscured. Ther ar also meny obstacls to reform: this includes the effort and muny that may be need’d to implement a wholesale chanje, the lack of an English langwij authority or regulator, and the challenj of getting peeple to acsept spellings that they ar unacustomd to.
After the invention of the printing press in the 1440s, English spelling began to becum fixt. This happend grajually thru printing houzes, wherby the master printer wud chooz the spellings "that most pleezd his fancy". Theze spellings then became the "house stile". Meny of the erliest printing houzes that printd English wer staft by Hollanders, who chanjed meny spellings to match their Dutch orthografy. Exampls include the silent h in ghost (to match Dutch gheest, which later became geest), aghast, ghastly and gherkin. The silent h in other wirds—such as ghospel, ghossip and ghizzard—was later remoovd. Ther hav been two periods when spelling reform of the English langwij has attractd particular interest.
The first of theze periods was between the middl of the 16th century to the middl of the 17th when a number of publications outlining propozals for reform wer publisht. Sum of theze propozals wer:
These propozals jenerally did not attract serius consideration becauz they wer of too radical a nature or wer based on an insufficient understanding of the fonolojy of English. However, more conservativ propozals wer more sucsessful. James Howell in his Grammar of 1662 recommend’d minor chanjes to spelling, such as chanjing logique to logic, warre to war, sinne to sin, toune to town and true to tru. Meny of theze spellings ar now in jeneral use. From the 16th century onward, English writers who wer scolars of Greek and Latin literature tried to link English wirds to their Greeco-Latin counterparts. They did this by adding silent letters to make the real or imajind links more obvius. Thus det became debt (to link it to Latin debitum), dout became doubt (to link it to Latin dubitare), sissors became scissors and sithe became scythe (as they wer wrongly thaut to cum from Latin scindere), iland became island (as it was wrongly thaut to cum from Latin insula), ake became ache (as it was wrongly thaut to cum from Greek akhos), and so forth. The English Restoration also braut with it the introduction of a rococo French influense, prompting English spelling towards a cavaleer retreet to a complex spelling culture (e.g., 'Charles' replacing 'Charls'), arguably asosiatd with the monarcy, which lasts to this day. Oxford, one-time hedquarters of the embattld Royalist army, now hosts the English dictionary so equatd with supreme English lingwistic authority in the current era (altho it has been argued that those publishing dictionaries therby hav a commercial interest in keeping spelling less than transparent).
The second period startd in the 19th century and apeers to co-incide with the development of fonetics as a siense. In 1806, Noah Webster publisht his first dictionary, A Compendius Dictionary of the English Langwij. It includ’d an essay on the oddities of modern orthografy and his propozals for reform. Meny of the spellings he uzed, such as color and center, wud becum hallmarks of American English. In 1807 Webster began compiling an expand’d dictionary. It was publisht in 1828 as An American Dictionary of the English Langwij. Altho it drew sum protest, the reformd spellings wer grajually adoptd thruout the United States. In 1837, Isaac Pitman publisht his sistem of fonetic short-hand, while in 1848 Alexander John Ellis publisht A Plee for Fonetic Spelling. Both of theze wer propozals for a new fonetic alfabet. Altho unsucsessful, they drew widespred interest. By the 1870s, the filological societies of Great Britain and America choze to consider the matter. After the "International Convention for the Amendment of English Orthografy" that was held in Philadelphia in August 1876, societies wer found’d such as the English Spelling Reform Association and American Spelling Reform Association. That yeer, the American Filological Society adoptd a list of eleven reformd spellings for imeediat use. These wer: are→ar, give→giv, have→hav, live→liv, though→tho, through→thru, guard→gard, catalogue→catalog, (in)definite→(in)definit, wished→wisht. In 1883, the American Filological Society and American Filological Association workt together to produce 24 spelling reform rules, which wer publisht that yeer. In 1898, the American National Education Association adoptd its own list of 12 wirds to be uzed in all writings. These wer: tho, altho, thoro, thorofare, thru, thruout, catalog, decalog, demagog, pedagog, prolog, program.
The Simplified Spelling Board was found’d in the United States in 1906. The SSB's orijinal 30 members consistd of authors, professors and dictionary editors. Andrew Carnegie, a founding member, supportd the SSB with yeerly bequests of more than US$300,000. In April 1906 it publisht a list of 300 wirds, which includ’d 157 spellings that wer alredy in common use in American English. In August 1906 the SSB wird list was adoptd by Theodore Roosevelt, who orderd the Government Printing Office to start uzing them imeediatly. However, in December 1906 the U.S. Congress past a resolution and the old spellings wer re-introdust. Nevertheless, sum of the spellings survived and ar commonly uzed in American English today, such as anaemia/anæmia→anemia and mould→mold. Others such as mixed→mixt and scythe→sithe did not survive. In 1920, the SSB publisht its Handbook of Simplified Spelling, which set forth over 25 spelling reform rules. The handbook noted that evry reformd spelling now in jeneral use was orijinally the overt act of a lone writer, who was followd at first by a small minority. Thus, it encurajd peeple to "point the way" and "set the exampl" by uzing the reformd spellings whenever they can. However, with its main sorse of funds cut off, the SSB disband’d later that yeer. In Britain, the cauz of spelling reform was promotd from 1908 by the Simplified Spelling Society and attractd a number of prominent supporters. One of these was George Bernard Shaw (author of Pygmalion) and much of his considerabl will was left to the cauz. Among members of the society the conditions of his will gave rize to major disagreements which hinderd the development of a singl new sistim. In 1949, a Labor MP, Dr. Mont Follick, introdust a privat members bill in the House of Commons, which faild at the second reeding. However in 1953 he again had the opportunity and this time it past the second reeding by 65 votes to 53. Becauz of anticipated oppozition from the House of Lords, the bill was withdrawn after assuranses from the Minister of Education that reserch wud be made into improoving spelling education. This led in 1961 to James Pitman's Initial Teeching Alfabet, introdust into meny British scools in an attempt to improov child literasy. Altho it sucseed’d in its own terms, the advantajes wer lost when children transferd to conventional spelling and after several decades the experiment was discontinued. In 1969 Harry Lindgren propozed Spelling Reform 1 (SR1), which calls for the short /ɛ/ sound (as in bet) to always be spelt with <e> (for example friend→frend, head→hed). For a short time, this propozal was popular in Australia and was adoptd by the Australian Government. In Geoffrey Sampson's book Writing Sistims (1985) he wrote that SR1 "has been adoptd widely by Australians. Meny jeneral interest paperbacks and the like ar printd in SR1; under Gough Whitlam's Labor Government the Australian Ministry of Helth was officially so spelt (tho, when Whitlam was replaced by a liberal administration, it re-introdust orthografic conservatizm)". |
English words that were once spelt more phonetically
edit
Many English words were once spelt more phonetically and in line with English spelling conventions. Thus, by switching to these spellings we would not be creating "new" spellings, but reviving older ones. The -ize ending (for example realize) is often seen as an Americanism. However, the English poet Edmund Spenser had used spellings such as rize, wize and advize throughout his famous poem The Faerie Queene, published in the 1590s.
Furthermore, there are many words that were once spelt less phonetically and have been reformed. For example, almost all words with the -or ending (such as error) were once spelt -our (errour) and almost all words with the -er ending (such as member) were once spelt -er (membre). In American spelling, most of them now use -or and -er, but in British spelling, only some have been changed. It seems silly to change some but not the rest, especially when they all come from the same source!
In the list below:
EME = a spelling used during the Early Modern English period
ME = a spelling used during the Middle English period
OE = a spelling used in Old English
Sources:
- Accursed = accurst [EME]
- Ache = ake
- Against = agenst [ME]
- Anchor = anker [ME]
- Any = eny [ME]
- Appear = apeer [ME]
- Apple = appel [ME]
- Are = ar [ME]
- Banished = banisht [EME]
- Barley = barly [ME]
- Beak = beek [ME]
- Beam = beem [ME]
- Beast = beest [ME]
- Beat = beet [ME]
- Beauty = bewty [EME]
- Believe = beleve [ME]
- Blessed = blest [EME]
- Blood = blod [OE/ME]
- Board = bord [ME]
- Bread = bred [ME]
- Breast = brest [ME]
- Breath = breð [ME]
- Broad = brod [ME]
- Brooch = broch [ME]
- Build/building = bild [ME]
- Busy = bisy/bisi [ME]
- Celery = sellery
- Cellar = seller [ME]
- Character = caracter [ME]
- Cheese = chese [ME]
- Chief = cheef [ME]
- Clear = cleer [ME]
- Come = cum [ME]
- Could = coud [ME]
- Court = cort [ME]
- Crystal = cristal [ME]
- Cursed = curst [EME]
- Dead = ded [ME]
- Deal = deel; Dealt = delt [ME]
- Debt = dett [ME]
- Delight = delite [ME]
- Dispensed = dispenst [EME]
- Dolphin = dolfin [ME]
- Done = don [ME]
- Door = dore [ME]
- Doubt = dout/dowt [ME]
- Dread = dred [ME]
- Dropped = dropt [EME]
- Dream = dreem [ME]
- Dumb = dum [ME]
- Earl = erl [ME]
- Early = erly [ME]
- Earnest = ernest [ME]
- East = eest [ME]
- Eat = eet; Ate = et [ME]
- Ecstacy = extasy
- Elephant = olifant [ME]
- Empty = emty [ME]
- Entice = entise
- Feat = feet [ME]
- Feather = fether [ME]
- Field = feeld [ME]
- Fiend = feend [ME]
- First = furst/ferst [ME]
- Flea = flee [ME]
- Fleece = flees [ME]
- Floor = flore [ME]
- Flood = flod [ME]
- Food = fude [ME]
- Force = fors/forse/forss [ME]
- Friend = frend [ME]
- Fruit = frut [ME]
- Gauge = gage [ME]
- Ghost = gost [ME]
- Gone = a-gon [ME]
- Guess = gessen [ME]
- Guest = gest [ME]
- Guile = gile [ME]
- Guilt = gilt [ME]
- Gushed = gusht [EME]
- Health = helthe [ME]
- Heap = heep [ME]
- Heard = herd [ME]
- Hearth = harth [EME]
- Heather = hether [EME]
- Heaven = heven [ME]
- Heavy = hevy [ME]
- Here = heer [ME]
- High = hy/hi; Higher = hyer; Height = hight [ME]
- Hoarse = hors [ME]
- Honest = onest [ME]
- Honey = hony [ME]
- Horse = hors [ME]
- House = hous [ME]
- Leaf = leef [ME]
- Leap = leep; Leapt = lept [ME]
- Learned = lerned [ME]
- Leather = lether [ME]
- Leave = leve [ME]
- Limb = lim [ME]
- Liquor = licur [ME]
- Loathe = lothe [ME]
- Love = luf [ME]
- Meal = meel [ME]
- Measure = mesure [ME]
- Mixed = mixt [EME]
- Mouse = mous [ME]
- Myrrh = mir [ME]
- Nephew = nevew [ME]
- Niece = nece [ME]
- Nigh = ny
- None = non [ME]
- Only = onely
- Parliament = parlement [ME]
- Peace = pees [ME]
- Perplexed = perplext [EME]
- Persuade = perswade [EME]
- Phantom = fantom/fantum [ME]
- Pheasant = fesant [ME]
- Piece = pece [ME]
- Pinched = pincht [EME]
- Pissed = pist [EME]
- Plague = plage [ME]
- Plea = plee [ME]
- Plough = plow [ME]
- Priest = preest [ME]
- Psalm = salm [ME]
- Quick = quik/quic/cwic [ME]
- Read = reed; Read (past-tense) = red [ME]
- Ready = redy/redi [ME]
- Rehearse = rehersen [ME]
- Relief = releef/relefe [ME]
- Rhyme = rime [ME]
- Sacked = sackt [EME]
- Salmon = samon [ME]
- Say = sey/sei [ME]
- Schism = scism
- Scholar = scoler [ME]
- Scourge = schurge [ME]
- Scythe = sithe [ME]
- Sea = se/see [ME]
- Seal [v] = seel [ME]
- Search = serchen [ME]
- Seat = seet [ME]
- Shoulder = shulder [ME]
- Siege = sege [ME]
- Sleeve = sleve [ME]
- Smoulder = smolder [ME]
- Some = sum [OE/ME]
- Source = sours [ME]
- Speak/Speech = speke/speche [ME]
- Spread = spredd [ME]
- Stead = sted [ME]
- Steam = steem [ME]
- Stopped = stopt [EME]
- Stream = streem [ME]
- There = Þer/ther [ME]
- Thief = Þeef/theef [ME]
- Thieve = Þeve/theve [ME]
- Thirst = Þurst/thurst [ME]
- Threaten = Þreten/threten [ME]
- Tongue = tung [ME]
- Treachery = trechery [ME]
- Tread = tred [ME]
- Trousers = trowsers [EME]
- True = tru/trew [ME]
- Veal = veel [ME]
- Wealth = welðe [ME]
- Weapon = wepen [ME]
- Weather = wether [EME]
- Were = wer [ME]
- Where = wher [ME]
- Woe/Woeful = wo/woful [ME]
- Wonder = wundor [OE], wunder [ME]
- World = werld/wurld [ME]
- Worm = wurm/wirm [ME]
- Worse/worst = wurs/wurst [ME]
- Worth = wurth [ME]
- Wrapped = wrapt [EME]
- Year = yeer [ME]
- Yearn = yernen [ME]
- Yield = yeeld [ME]
[[Category:English spelling reform]]