A Call For Simpler Spelling

AP ^ | 7/6/06 | Staff

[Millee]

When "say," "they" and "weigh" rhyme, but "bomb," "comb" and "tomb" don't, wuudn't it maek mor sens to spel wurdz the wae thae sound?

Those in favor of simplified spelling say children would learn faster and illiteracy rates would drop. Opponents say a new system would make spelling even more confusing.

Eether wae, the consept has yet to capcher th publix imajinaeshun.

It's been 100 years since Andrew Carnegie helped create the Simplified Spelling Board to promote a retooling of written English and President Theodore Roosevelt tried to force the government to use simplified spelling in its publications. But advocates aren't giving up.

They even picket the national spelling bee finals, held every year in Washington, costumed as bumble bees and hoisting signs that say "Enuf is enuf but enough is too much" or "I'm thru with through."

Thae sae th bee selebraets th ability of a fue stoodents to master a dificult sistem that stumps meny utherz hoo cuud do just as wel if speling were simpler.

"It's a very difficult thing to get something accepted like this," says Alan Mole, president of the American Literacy Council, which favors an end to "illogical spelling." The group says English has 42 sounds spelled in a bewildering 400 ways.

Americans doen't aulwaez go for whut's eezy — witnes th faeluer of th metric sistem to cach on. But propoenents of simpler speling noet that a smatering of aulterd spelingz hav maed th leep into evrydae ues.

Doughnut also is donut; colour, honour and labour long ago lost the British "u" and the similarly derived theatre and centre have been replaced by the easier-to-sound-out theater and center.

[SoothingDave]

Some words can be changed, such as those cited, but a huge change can never occur because of regional differences in pronunciation especially involving vowel sounds in many words, e.g., ice, check, cash.

Bingo. The main difficulty in adopting a universal pronuciation-based spelling system is that there is no universal pronuciation.

Also, as another noted, the spellings of our words often reveal their lineages and allow literate people to figure out what unfamiliar words mean, or see the connection between them.

SD

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

LOl, that's pretty clever Dave:)

Becky

[SoothingDave]

It is, but I didn't write it. I've actually seen it written earlier as an EU mandate. Obviously someone re-wrote it when the Chrysler merger happened.

Still funny, though.

SD

[Still Thinking]

Americans doen't aulwaez go for whut's eezy ? witnes th faeluer of th metric sistem to cach on.

Bad analogy. The metric system isn't easier. See Freedom 2 Measure.

[dighton]

Snort!

“Oh yeah. We live at 415 Spruce Street!”

[eraser2005]

"Bad analogy. The metric system isn't easier. See Freedom 2 Measure."

My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!

[Mrs. Darla Ruth Schwerin]

You'd think this man would have something better to do with his time...

[linda_22003]

So did Melville Dewey (founder of the cataloging system public libraries still use today). He simplified his own first name to "Melvil".

[Still Thinking]

Hey, it's better than femto-dicklencths per megawhosis.

[theFIRMbss]

>Actually the move to point-and-click was about capturing the home market. Corporations didn't mind the difficult computer interface . . .

No. You're not seeing
the big picture. LONG before
ease-of-use made news

for home machines, Wang
revolutionized office
work with their systems.

Every company
was trying to duplicate
Wang's penetration

of the corporate world.
All the graphic elements
of home systems first

appeared in elite
corporate machines like the Star,
research systems like

the Smalltalk machines
and Lisp Machines targeting
defense contractors.

The home market was
a natural follow-on
to all the work done

to expand the Wang
success through the corporate world.
That's where the bucks were

[stylecouncilor]

png

[Experiment 6-2-6]

Publik ejakashun ping.

That's Edgumakashun.

You're spelling it wrong..

[windcliff]

lol

[Still Thinking]

The home market was a natural follow-on to all the work done to expand the Wang

I love it when my Wang gets expanded.

[theFIRMbss]

>a natural follow-on to all the work done to expand the Wang
>>I love it when my Wang gets expanded

[theFIRMbss]

>I love it when my Wang gets expanded

In another thread,
I got to put together
this pic and these words:

This is Wimbledon Fortnight. About all I've seen for the last two weeks is Sharapova screaming and Roger creaming everyone he's faced . . .

[Bigg Red]

Also, as another noted, the spellings of our words often reveal their lineages and allow literate people to figure out what unfamiliar words mean, or see the connection between them.

**
So true. Knowing those roots has helped me on many occasions.

[Bigg Red]

Math would be alot easier if everything equaled seven.

&&
You mean it doesn't? No wonder I always have trouble with math.

[Bigg Red]

Bad analogy. The metric system isn't easier.

&&&
Actually, it is. It is just difficult for us because we have always used the American/English system, but SI units make a lot more sense when one is converting from one unit to another. For example, figuring out how many millimeters that x meters equals just requires moving of the decimal point -- no paper or electronic calculations needed -- whereas going from inches to feet requires division that many people can't do in their head.

[Continental Soldier]

A timly artical! I have long ben intrestid in speling reform, as words ar very importent to me and making them understandible to everone shood bee given hi priorty.