English-language spelling reform: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:20, 9 May 2025

Revision as of 11:29, 9 May 2025

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Between 1934 and 1975, the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'', then [[Chicago]]'s biggest newspaper, used a number of reformed spellings. Over a two-month spell in 1934, it introduced 80 respelled words, including ''tho, thru, thoro, agast, burocrat, frate, harth, herse, iland, rime, staf'' and ''telegraf''. A March 1934 editorial reported that two-thirds of readers preferred the reformed spellings. Another claimed that "prejudice and competition" was preventing dictionary makers from listing such spellings. Over the next 40 years, however, the newspaper gradually phased out the respelled words. Until the 1950s, [[Funk & Wagnalls]] dictionaries listed many reformed spellings, including the SSB's 300, alongside the conventional spellings.<ref name="barnsdle.demon.co.uk"/>

In 1949, a British [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour MP]], Dr [[Mont Follick]], introduced a [[private member's bill]] in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]], which failed at the second reading. In 1953, he again had the opportunity, and this time it passed the second reading by 65 votes to 53.<ref>

{{cite web|title=The 50th anniversary of the Simplified Spelling Bill|author=Alan Campbell|url=http://www.englishspellingsociety.org/news/media/bill.php|access-date=2011-05-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110418092327/http://www.englishspellingsociety.org/news/media/bill.php|archive-date=2011-04-18|url-status=dead}}

</ref> Because of anticipated opposition from the [[House of Lords]], the bill was withdrawn after assurances from the minister of education that research would be undertaken into improving spelling education. In 1961, this led to [[James Pitman]]'s [[Initial Teaching Alphabet]], introduced into many British schools in an attempt to improve child literacy.<ref>