Spelling Shuud Bee Lojical
That’s the view of the Simplified Spelling Society, who protested outside the National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. This month.
The aim of the Society is to replace what they consider the nonsensical system of English spelling, which they see as being responsible for illiteracy and problems for kids at school, with a logical, phonetic system.
Steve Shives, however, disagrees with the idea, pointing to differences in pronunciation in different places. Who is to decide, he argues, the correct phonetic spelling of his home state, Maryland, which he has variously heard pronounced MARE-a-lund, MARE-lund and MARY-land. Is a British or an American pronunciation of “drawing”, or neither for that matter, the “correct” pronunciation. He also points to the embodiment of language and cultural history in the spelling of many words.
The solution, Steve suggests, is not to simplify spelling and “rob the language of its historical and cultural heritage”, despite the Simplified Spelling Society’s argument that this could free educators from spending large amounts of class time teaching spelling (and, incidentally, make competitions such as the National Spelling Bee redundant).
Steve instead sees a solution in spending more time on the essential skills of reading, writing and spelling: “Children…should be taught [these skills] …not as a chore, not as work, but as necessary and wonderful skills that will serve them the rest of their lives.”
What do you think?
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August 15th, 2007 at 6:57 am
I think that the language should be left as it is. Give it other fifty years, and it will be naturally simplified.
I am totally convinced that the spelling reflects the history, which is rich when we talk about the English language. If we simplify the words, we will ‘rob’ the language. I am entirely against the simplifying reform.