Speculative Grammarian Podcast

A 21st Century Proposal for English Spelling Reform; by H. Sanderson Chambers III; From Volume CXLIX, Number 2 of Speculative Grammarian, January 2004. — As is well-known to all educated people—and if it’s not well-known to you, then you’re not one of us—the early part of the 20th century was the heyday of the Simplified Spelling movement, which sought to reform English spelling on the grounds that it was “mard by absurdities and inconsistencies”. So what, you might say? Well, among other things, the simplifiers claimed that the spelling system kept English from being adopted as an international language: “A language, in which to learn to spel imperfectly takes two ful years of scool-time in the countries where it is spoken, does not recommend itself to the forener as a convenient medium for conducting his relations with other foreners”. (Read by David J. Peterson.)