Push for Simpler Spelling

[Dick Margulis]

Janice Gelb wrote:
> Read it and wince:
> 
> http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=1543991 
> 


Ho-hum. Again, huh? Will they ever learn?

There have been successful spelling reforms (in Russian(1), in 
French(2), and in Turkish(3), for example). There have also been failed 
spelling reforms, in German most recently(4).

The last successful spelling reform in English was promulgated by a 
certain N. Webster(5), of Massachusetts, although many, on both sides of 
the pond, have tried repeatedly since.

What the successful attempts have in common is that they preserve the 
information contained in the original orthography. Changes are small and 
subtle and do not discard etymological clues. What the crackpot schemes 
have in common is precisely that they discard all etymological coding in 
favor of phonological coding.

Dick
http://ampersandvirgule.blogspot.com/

NOTES

(1) The "hard" mark was dropped some decades ago, during the Soviet era. 
I don't know if there were other changes.

(2) I don't know the details, but there was a transition from Old French 
to Modern French at some point in the last few hundred years. One of the 
prominent changes was the replacement of s in certain positions with a 
circonflex over the preceding o (as in hostel > hôtel). For a long time 
L'Académie has governed such matters, and their general approach has 
been to resist change as much as possible.

(3) Kemal Atatürk ordered Turkish to be written in a modified version of 
the Latin alphabet starting in 1928.

(4) The German government ordered a major spelling reform a few years 
ago, beginning with schoolbooks. The changes were massively resisted and 
led to all sorts of confusion. I believe the changes were withdrawn, but 
perhaps someone else can supply more details.

(5) The changes Webster introduced were politically motivated. He 
explicitly wanted to create an American lexicon independent of Britain's 
to symbolize the cultural gulf between the two countries. There have 
been evolutionary changes in the American lexicon since his time, but 
his basic reforms are still in place.