umm hussain
Junior Member
They've been campaigning for a century to make the spelling of the English language easier and recently picketed a spelling bee in the US to make their point. Welcome to the Simplified Spelling Society.
Masha Bell, a member of the society and author of Understanding English Spelling, believes that reform of the spelling of the English language could help children learn to read and make life easier for some adults too.
Simplified spelling glossary
Here are a selection of reformed spellings as envisaged by the Simplified Spelling Society.
Addicted - adicted
Anyone - ennywun
Are - ar
Beautiful - butiful
Becoming - becumming
Benefit - bennefit
Couple - cupl
Difference - difrence
Have - hav
Health - helth
Learn - lern
Low - lo
Memory - memmory
Money - munny
More - mor
Most - moast
One - wun
Only - onely
People - peeple
Phonic - phonnic
Poor - por
Single - singl
Simple - simpl
Slow - slo
Still - stil
Therefore - therefor
To - tu
Very - verry
Were - wer
Worse - wors
You - u
Young - yung
Your - yor
Prof Vivian Cook, a linguist, expert in second language learning and author of Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary, believes changing spellings would be unnecessary, expensive and could harm children's ability to read.
We pitched the two, spelling reformer and spelling traditionalist, into a battle to persuade the other. Here they debate the merits of spelling systems, in the form of short e-mails.
Some of Ms Bell's entries are partly-written in simplified spelling.
Some comments from the general Public I find to be Hilarious
Making the English language even simpler is a big mistake. I managed to learn it in half a year while living in America. But her idea is already happening in internet chatrooms where making words shorter is top priority. English pronunciation is tough but I would not be helped by saying ennywun. Also as a high speed reader this would definetly slow me down. And it doesnt make children more literate it just makes them put speech on paper. Look at this classic Shakespeare qoute: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em. Translates to: Som r born grate{or greight?}, Som achiv gratenes, and som hav greightnes thrust upon tem. Poetic no?
2. Ms. Bell's reasoning definitely shows that she has not taken into consideration the universality of the English language. In a country like Uganda, where I come from and where English is the official language, the word "becoming" can be rendered pronunciations like: "bikaming", "bekkaming" and "bikaamingi" depending on the tribal and linguistic background of the speaker. Does that mean that we should have a pronunciation that makes learning easier for every English speaking child, whether native or non-native? English has already gone through the evolution of American and British spellings, let that be enough. English is a universal language and we should let it preserve its common denominator, i.e. its universal spelling.
3.During a recent holiday in the UK I found myself behind a coach full of teens. As with all teens, they must have amused themselves writing graffiti on the sooty back of the coach. Irrespective of the nature of the comments (we had a good laugh over most of them) my partner and I were mortified to notice that not a single graffiti had been spelled correctly. Having learnt English from my father and from reading books (raised abroad), I wondered if the British education system is failing its pupils or whether the pupils are simply not trying hard enough. It's not rocket science, for crying out loud, it's just spelling!
To read many more comments
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6250184.stm
Masha Bell, a member of the society and author of Understanding English Spelling, believes that reform of the spelling of the English language could help children learn to read and make life easier for some adults too.
Simplified spelling glossary
Here are a selection of reformed spellings as envisaged by the Simplified Spelling Society.
Addicted - adicted
Anyone - ennywun
Are - ar
Beautiful - butiful
Becoming - becumming
Benefit - bennefit
Couple - cupl
Difference - difrence
Have - hav
Health - helth
Learn - lern
Low - lo
Memory - memmory
Money - munny
More - mor
Most - moast
One - wun
Only - onely
People - peeple
Phonic - phonnic
Poor - por
Single - singl
Simple - simpl
Slow - slo
Still - stil
Therefore - therefor
To - tu
Very - verry
Were - wer
Worse - wors
You - u
Young - yung
Your - yor
Prof Vivian Cook, a linguist, expert in second language learning and author of Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary, believes changing spellings would be unnecessary, expensive and could harm children's ability to read.
We pitched the two, spelling reformer and spelling traditionalist, into a battle to persuade the other. Here they debate the merits of spelling systems, in the form of short e-mails.
Some of Ms Bell's entries are partly-written in simplified spelling.
Some comments from the general Public I find to be Hilarious
Making the English language even simpler is a big mistake. I managed to learn it in half a year while living in America. But her idea is already happening in internet chatrooms where making words shorter is top priority. English pronunciation is tough but I would not be helped by saying ennywun. Also as a high speed reader this would definetly slow me down. And it doesnt make children more literate it just makes them put speech on paper. Look at this classic Shakespeare qoute: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em. Translates to: Som r born grate{or greight?}, Som achiv gratenes, and som hav greightnes thrust upon tem. Poetic no?
2. Ms. Bell's reasoning definitely shows that she has not taken into consideration the universality of the English language. In a country like Uganda, where I come from and where English is the official language, the word "becoming" can be rendered pronunciations like: "bikaming", "bekkaming" and "bikaamingi" depending on the tribal and linguistic background of the speaker. Does that mean that we should have a pronunciation that makes learning easier for every English speaking child, whether native or non-native? English has already gone through the evolution of American and British spellings, let that be enough. English is a universal language and we should let it preserve its common denominator, i.e. its universal spelling.
3.During a recent holiday in the UK I found myself behind a coach full of teens. As with all teens, they must have amused themselves writing graffiti on the sooty back of the coach. Irrespective of the nature of the comments (we had a good laugh over most of them) my partner and I were mortified to notice that not a single graffiti had been spelled correctly. Having learnt English from my father and from reading books (raised abroad), I wondered if the British education system is failing its pupils or whether the pupils are simply not trying hard enough. It's not rocket science, for crying out loud, it's just spelling!
To read many more comments
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6250184.stm