At first I really thought it was a joke. I read that the Simplified Spelling Society was protesting in front of the National Spelling Bee back in May. What is the SSS?

The Simplified Spelling Society (SSS) started in 1908 with the aim of updating English spelling. The Society publishes leaflets, newsletters, journals, books and bulletins to promote spelling reform of the English language.

Looking for difficult words in the dictionary, English spelling can be a puzzle. Spelling problems for children and dyslexics are largely misunderstood and the aims and objectives below spell out a road map for change.

In short, they want things to be phonetic. Imagine opening the newspaper or even reading this blog written in something that looks like this:

“METHODZ ov teeching reeding hav graevly impruuvd sins Max Müller roet dhe wurdz kwoeted abuv. Neverdheles, eeven nou lurning to spel iz a far longger proeses for dhe Inglish chield dhan for children in meny udher kuntriz, such az Jurmany, Italy and Finland, and eeven dhe naetiv children ov dhe Goeld Koest and vaeryus udher parts ov Afrika.

Dhe diferens iz not to be eksplaend bie asueming infeeryorrity on dhe part ov Inglish teecherz. It iz due to dhe unfonetik karrakter ov Inglish speling. Dhe speling ov Jurman, Italyan and Finish iz faerly fonetik, whiel dhe nue orthografiz ov Fante, Twi, Ewe and a number ov udher Afrikan langgwejez ar kompleetly soe.” (read the entire crock of crap here.)

I am lacking words to describe how ridiculous (redikalus) this is. Someone else has already said it better so I will use their words: (This was written by Daniel Tammet, who I will be writing a future post about.)

1. Which pronunciation would we use to spell words like: tomato, aunt, status, tuna, amen? What about words with varying numbers of syllables depending on how you pronounce them, such as: athlete, every and chocolate?

2. How would sound-based spellings distinguish between homonyms (homographs) such as: weigh/way/whey, i/eye/aye, to/too/two, rite/write/right/wright and air/e’er/ere/err/heir?

3. Foreign languages with words found in English would be harder to learn. Currently easily recognizable French words such as conversation, succès, triomphe and idée would become something like: ‘konvuhrsayshun’, ’sahrkses’, ‘treyeahmph’ and ‘eyedihr’ in ’simplified’ English.

4. The spelling of many words in English tells us something of their history and origins. That would be lost under a system of simplified spelling.

5. Being a lover of words, I think there is a strong aesthetic case to be made for the present English spelling of words as compared to the equivalent ’simplified’ spellings.

6. Finally, I dislike the implication in the idea of ’simplified spelling’ that the best way to educate people is by lowering the bar. We should instead be focusing on the most effective ways to teach the hugely important skills of spelling, reading and writing.

Please share you opinions on this one. I would love to hear your reactions.

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