Learn Simple Spelling

Many people have tried to simplify the spelling of English words. Unlike other languages, English spells the same sounds in very different ways. For example, there is ‘light’ but ‘white’, ‘loan’ but ‘phone’ and there are at least¹ seven different ways of pronouncing the letters ‘ough’! Each of the following words is pronounced differently: ‘though’, ‘through’, ‘bough’, ‘cough’, ‘enough’, ‘ought’ and ‘thorough’.

The great Irish writer, George Bernard Shaw, was very interested in making English spelling more logical. The American president Theodore Roosevelt almost succeeded in doing this.

In 1906 one of the richest men in America, Andrew Carnegie, started the Simplified Spelling Board. This Board was a group of people whose plan was to make the spelling of words nearer to the way they sounded. For example, the word ‘though’ would be spelt ‘tho’, ‘through’ would become ‘thru’ (which it did, but much later), ‘enough’ would become ‘enuf’ and so on. Other people on the Board were Melvin Dewey, the head of the New York libraries, and Professor Brander Matthews of Columbia University.

They took the idea to President Roosevelt who thought it was a very good one. He immediately told the government printer to use the simplified spelling on all government letters.

But people do not like change – even change that makes life easier – and many people disliked the new, simpler spelling. The British – who probably thought they owned the English language – were particularly angry.

More importantly, when American politicians discussed the plan, they did not like it. As Roosevelt did not want to have a problem with the politicians, he changed his plans and told the printer to go back to the old way of spelling.

Since then no one in any government has dared to try to simplify English spelling. However, people do simplify many words, mainly in advertisements. We often see ‘tonite’ instead of ‘tonight’, for example, and ‘thru’ instead of ‘through’.

Note

¹ at least по крайней мере

Words

spell произносить или писать (слово) по буквам

try пытаться

succeed преуспевать, иметь успех; достигнуть цели

board правление; совет; коллегия

immediately немедленно

change перемена, изменение

own владеть

angry сердитый, злой

dare сметь, посметь

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Ответьте на вопросы

1. How many ways can we pronounce the letters 'ough'?

2. Who was Andrew Carnegie?

3. Why did President Roosevelt change his mind?

4. Where do we find a lot of simplified words?