A major source of irritation in English spelling is the ough, augh, igh anachronism. This ancient
spelling should have faded away centuries ago. The reformers purged it completely.
(^) Here, we can only praise the reformers and wish they had modernized every single word in this group.
That Greek nuisance, the ph, was also eliminated. The reformers reasoned that because the Greeks used
only one letter for that particular sound, we should do the same.
(^) For this, we can again praise the reformers.
There are times when g must be followed by a u in order to achieve the correct hard sound, but there
are also numerous cases where the u is superfluous and the reformers removed it.
(^) Today, at least four of the examples given above are often spelled in the reformed manner.
French spellings, particularly suffixes, can be a hazard in English spelling and these also were
eliminated wherever possible.
(^) There were not many of these because Webster had eliminated most of them a century earlier.
Needless to say, there were numerous other changes made, including the removal of silent letters. They
removed the silent t in etch and crutch. They did the same with the silent b in debt and doubt. The useless
h in ghost and ghastly was exorcized, and even the s in island went its lonely way. There were, of
course, vowel changes too numerous to list.
Some of the changes were quite strange. The word school was changed to scool, retaining the c where
a k would have been more logical, yet the word sceptic was correctly respelled skeptic. Today this is the
preferred spelling. Another logical spelling that was accepted almost immediately was saltpeter instead
of saltpetre. Strangely enough, the committee made no change to sceptre except to transpose the e and the
r, though they left the silent c in place. However, the word scimitar was changed to cimitar instead of the
more logical simitar.
If we look at the work of the reformers from a purely logical point of view, we must agree that they did
an excellent job. However, a language is more than just symbols on paper. It is much more personal. It is
too deep a part of the culture of those who use it and who have spent a great deal of time and effort
perfecting their use of it. Any tampering with something so important is bound to meet stiff resistance.
FOUR GUIDELINES FOR SPELLING REFORM
There are four basic points that should always be borne in mind when considering spelling changes.
Perhaps if we look at the work of the reformers from this point of view, we may be able to see more
clearly why their efforts were largely ignored.
(^) FOUR GUIDELINES FOR SPELLING REFORM