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Should English Spelling Be Modernized?
Last week, Anamika Veeramani correctly spelled the word “”stromuhr” and, in doing so, won the 83rd Scripps National Spelling Bee. But while the 14-year-old girl was inside the Washington, D.C. Grand Hyatt demonstrating her amazing spelling skills, protesters were outside the building complaining about how difficult it is for the average person to do what she and the other competitors can do: Correctly spell words in the English language.
Representing the American Literacy Council and the London-based Spelling Society, the demonstrators passed out lapel pins that read, “Enuf is enuf. Enough is too much.” Both organizations believe that with over 400 ways to pronounce the 42 spoken sounds in the English language, it is far too difficult for children to learn to read, write and spell.
The answer? Modernize the spelling of English words. Get rid of all the complex rules and exceptions and spell words just like they sound. For example, fruit should be froot and slow should be slo. Phoneticizing the English language, they claim, would make it easier for everyone to learn to read, thereby drastically reducing illiteracy and dropout rates.
As someone who has always been a pretty good speller, my first reaction to this idea is to discount it as nothing more than an attempt to provide students an easy way out. Learning anything new is hard and by dumbing down the English language, would we not be pandering to the lowest common denominator?
Then I remember all the smart, educated people I know who can’t spell worth darn. There are lots of them. While none of them are illiterate, every one of them has been criticized for and embarrassed by their inability to put the correct letters in the correct order when writing. They aren’t dumb at all. They just appear that way to others.
But despite the fact that the American Literacy Council and The Spelling Society have both been advocating for simplified spelling many years, I suspect it will never happen. One need look no further than metric system fiasco of the 1970′s to know that we Americans like things complicated.
Image: elginwx/Flickr
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28 Comments
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English Springer Spaniel Training | Who Wants English Springer Spaniel Training? commented on Sep 03 10 at 10:24 amSnarky Mama commented on Jun 07 10 at 12:25 pmI remember the metric system. The one we had to learn so by the year 2000 we could be on par with the rest of the world while we are zipping around in our flying cars.
Marj commented on Jun 07 10 at 1:52 pmHave you seen the movie Idiocracy?
Anyway, I’ve been reading discussions of this since it happened. One person made a really good point about it. It discounts regional accents. Written English is the same regardless of how you pronounce it. If you drop your Rs would you leave them off, making CAR into CA? or maybe CAH? It’s more divisive than not, and it is defeatist. Instead of teaching people to spell, it teaches them to give up. Give up learning to spell because you are too stupid to learn. Not knowing how to spell is nothing to be ashamed of. Believing that because you don’t spell well that nobody can or should is something to be ashamed of.
Nicole commented on Jun 07 10 at 3:29 pmVery interesting. I’m one of the smart bad spellers (with a PhD in linguistics). English spelling used to be phonetic (with each letter corresponding to a sound), but then pronunciation shifted — and we got things like silent k in front of words like knife. One argument in favor of modernizing spelling to today’s pronunciation is that dyslexia in Italy is half of what it is in America — because, some hypothesize, Italian spelling correlates directly to (albeit standard) pronunciation. So English spelling might be working against those who are mildly dyslexic. And as for the English r-droppers, they still keep them before a vowel sound (even they would say “CAR IN”, as in I pahked my CAR IN Hahvahd Yahd), so keeping the r in the spelling isn’t as crazy as it sounds. I realize it’s just an example of a larger point, but what I’m trying to say is that maybe updating the spelling a bit should be seriously considered, even if the new system would be only less imperfect.
Maggie commented on Jun 07 10 at 3:58 pmHomonyms are a challenge, yes; but if we deleted all the spellings that give some sense of the roots of words we would lose some of our ability to communicate in writing, where tone of voice (and all it conveys) is lost.
The metric system, on the other hand, looked like something we could do, and do well and easily. And indeed we are now out of step with the entire world, and every child who wants to do anything in science or medicine has to learn both measuring systems anyway.
anglophile commented on Jun 07 10 at 4:04 pm“even they would say “CAR IN”, as in I pahked my CAR IN Hahvahd Yahd”
no, they don’t
this is preposterous and invoking the movie “idiocracy” is exactly right
mumus commented on Jun 07 10 at 5:30 pmAn Italian friend said that as a kid she used to watch American TV shows dubbed in Italian. She thought the idea of a spelling bee was absurd and that Americans must be really thick. Italian is, as Nicole said, phonetic and my friend couldn’t understand the point of spelling out a word after you’d heard it pronounced clearly.
Hollie commented on Jun 07 10 at 7:51 pmWHAT are the last 2 words in this illustration? I get “adventurous”, but WTF are “skang” and “mytreatry”?
Carol commented on Jun 07 10 at 11:48 pmSimply put – H to the E to the Double L NO.
A few years back Oakland California wanted to teach “ebonics” in their schools. It was quickly shot down. I hope this is as well.
I don’t tink it is a matter that Americans don’t like things complicated, I think they like to have things in common with each other. we are a pluralistic society but are able to cmmunicate with eachother and each generation through a common language (for most people) and that language means a common spelling and a communal understanding how the words aare used.
Amy commented on Jun 08 10 at 4:55 pmIt is bad enough that people let their kids grow up butchering the English language as they do, now people are actually thinking about letting them get away with it on paper as well? Crazizy! (see, wouldn’t that be horrible?)
BeholdersEye commented on Jun 10 10 at 9:20 pmThe only fiasco we had in the 1970′s is that we learned that our Congress has no backbone or balls. They left it to business to volunteers to go Metric, what a joke that was, business never volunteer for anything, it has to be mandated. Well thank our 1970 repukencan Congress and current Congress for keeping America in the Twentieth Century. The rest of the World is living in the Twenty-First Century.
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Megan commented on Oct 03 11 at 9:37 pmI am thinking this is an unwise idea. Anyone ever read George Orwell’s 1984? The society in that story creates a language called ‘newspeak’ that reminds me of text-talk in that it’s hyper-abbreviated for ‘convenience’–but in addition to dumbing down the language, they remove many words from the language, because if they get rid of a word (say, ‘freedom’), they get rid of a concept and get people to think less and less.
Frankly, I think the English language is just fine as it is. It’s illogical at times, but there’s a sort of beauty to it nonetheless. And if someone misspells something, it’s not the end of the world.
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