RHYS BOWEN: As if I
don’t have enough to do with writing two books a year, I spend my spare moments
inventing and daydreaming up new things. Spelling for one. I’ve always been a
bad speller. So
Don’t u think its
abowt tIm wE simplEfI inglish so that forinurs can rEd it EzilE?
This is my idea for a
phonetic universal spelling in which every word is written as it sounds (ritn
as it sowns) with capital letters representing the long form of a vowel EzE and
lower case the short form. Litl.
Well, during my
research it turned out that my thinking is not new. In a week from today my
sixteenth Molly book, TIME OF FOG AND FIRE is published.
It takes place in 1906
so part of my research is to find out what else might have happened that year.
And this was one thing that surprised me:
SIMPLIFIED SPELLING
In 1906, U.S.
President Teddy Roosevelt tried to get the government to simplify the spelling
of 300 common English words. However, this didn't go over well with Congress or
the public.
Simplified
Spelling Was Andrew Carnegie's Idea
In
1906, Andrew Carnegie was convinced that English could be a universal language
used around the world, if only English was easier to read and to write. In an
attempt to tackle this problem, Carnegie decided to fund a group of intellectuals
to discuss this issue. The result was the Simplified Spelling Board.
The
Simplified Spelling Board
The
Simplified Spelling Board was founded on March 11, 1906 in New York. Included
among the Board's original 26 members were such notables as author Samuel
Clemens ("Mark Twain"), library organizer Melvil Dewey, U.S. Supreme
Court Justice David Brewer, publisher Henry Holt, and former U.S. Secretary of
the Treasury Lyman Gage. Brander Matthews, professor of dramatic literature at
Columbia University, was made chairman of the Board.
Complicated
English Words
The
Board examined the history of the English language and found that written
English had changed over the centuries, sometimes for the better but also
sometimes for the worse. The Board wanted to make written English phonetic
again, as it was long ago, before silent letters such as "e" (as in
"axe"), "h" (as in "ghost"), "w" (as in
"answer"), and "b" (as in "debt") crept in.
However, silent letters were not the only aspect of spelling that bothered
these gentlemen.
There were other
commonly used words that were just more complex than they needed to be. For
instance, the word "bureau" could much more easily be spelled if it
was written as "buro." The word "enough" would be spelled
more phonetically as "enuf," just as "though" could be
simplified to "tho." And, of course, why have a "ph"
combination in "phantasy" when it could much more easily be spelled
"fantasy."
Lastly, the Board
recognized that there were a number of words for which there already were
several options for spelling, usually one simple and the other complicated.
Many of these examples are currently known as differences between American and
British English, including "honor" instead of "honour,"
"center" instead of "centre," and "plow" instead
of "plough." Additional words also had multiple choices for spelling
such as "rime" rather than "rhyme" and "blest"
rather than "blessed."
The
Plan
So
as not to overwhelm the country with an entire new way of spelling at once, the
Board recognized that some of these changes should be made over time. To focus
their push for adaptation of new spelling rules, the Board created a list of
300 words whose spelling could be changed immediately.
The idea of
simplified spelling caught on quickly, with even some schools beginning to
implement the 300-word list within months of it being created. As the
excitement grew around simplified spelling, one person in particular became a
huge fan of the concept - President Teddy Roosevelt.
President
Teddy Roosevelt Loves the Idea
Unbeknownst
to the Simplified Spelling Board, President Theodore Roosevelt sent a letter to
the United States Government Printing Office on August 27, 1906. In this
letter, Roosevelt ordered the Government Printing Office to use the new spellings
of the 300 words detailed in the Simplified Spelling Board's circular in all
documents emanating from the executive department.
President Roosevelt's
public acceptance of simplified spelling caused a wave of reaction. Although
there was public support in a few quarters, most of it was negative. Many
newspapers began to ridicule the movement and lambasted the President in
political cartoons. Congress was especially offended at the change, most likely
because they had not been consulted. On December 13, 1906, the House of
Representatives passed a resolution stating that it would use the spelling
found in most dictionaries and not the new, simplified spelling in all official
documents. With public sentiment against him, Roosevelt decided to rescind his
order to the Government Printing Office.
The efforts of the
Simplified Spelling Board continued for several more years, but the popularity
of the idea had waned after Roosevelt's failed attempt at government support.
However, when browsing the list of 300 words, one cannot help but notice how
many of the "new" spellings are in current use today.
RHYS: So what do you think? Now
that English is truly the universal language, isn’t it about time we adopted a
simple and universal spelling?
