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    A HISTORY OF SPELLING REFORMS

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    المساهمات : 136
    تاريخ التسجيل : 25/12/2009
    الموقع : فارسكور - دمياط - مصر ( مدرسة فارسكور الاعدادية للبنين )

    A HISTORY OF SPELLING REFORMS Empty A HISTORY OF SPELLING REFORMS

    مُساهمة  مصطفى منصور الأربعاء يناير 06, 2010 8:57 pm

    While Samuel Johnson was aware of I need for reforming I relations of English spellings to
    sounds, he despaired of getting this kind of change accepted. Others before n since have explored
    what might be done, with occasional partial success in I process, I problems, I factors affecting
    this effort, n alternate possibilities have become far more clearly defined.
    In 1569, John Hart produced a phonetic alphabet. In 1570 he emphasized I need for spelling reform
    as an aid to learning to read.
    A century later, John Milton "deliberately used spelling to convey the sound and meaning of his
    words." (Darbishire, 1952; xi) N he used some types of simplifications:
    1. dropping final silent e: "climat, temperat, doctrin, determin, fertil";
    2. apostrophe for indistinct vowel before final n: "oft'n, op'n, spok'n";
    3. apostrophe for indistinct vowel after soft "g, c," or long vowel before final "d": "advanc't,
    oppos'd";
    4. dropping "e" from "-ed" endings where apostrophe was not needed as in 3 above: "turnd, heapt,
    armd";
    5. dropping some other silent letters: "forren, iland, suttle."

    6. Other distinctive spellings included: "buisness, childern, farder, hunderd, perfet; apeer, neer;
    cheif, conceal, receave."
    Two samples from Milton's "Paradise Lost" printed according to his instructions are:
    I should be much for op'n Warr, O Peers,
    As not behind in hate; if what was urg'd
    Main reason to perswade immediat Warr,
    Did not disswade me most, and seem to cast
    Ominous conjecture on the whole success.
    First, what Revenge? the Towrs of Heav'n are filld
    With armed watch, that renders all access
    Impregnable; oft on the bordering Deep
    Encamp thir Legions, or with obscure wing
    Scout farr and wide into the Realm of night.
    Benjamin Franklin
    A century after Milton, in I American colonies, Benjamin Franklin in 1768 developed "A scheme
    for a new alphabet and a reformed mode of spelling." Franklin proposed abandoning six letters, "c,
    j, q, w, x, y," n replacing them with six new letters. These were:
    1. A modified "a" for two sounds: I short vowel in "John" n I long vowel in "ball";
    2. an inverted "h" for two sounds; short schwa (I indistinct vowel before "r", as in "under," n I
    longer "u" in "unto";
    3. a modified "s" for "sh" sound;
    4. a modified "n" for "ing" sound;
    5. an unvoiced "th" sound, using a crossed "h" in lower case, n I Greek "theta" for I capital letter;
    6. a "dh" combination for I voiced "th" sound.
    Apparently Franklin only used this revised alphabet n spelling in a few letters to his friend Polly
    Stevenson, tho he did cast type for I new symbols. Unfortunately, his modified "a" n "s" symbols
    are hard to distinguish from I regular letters, n his "dh" looks more like our "ch" than I "th" it was
    intended to be used for.
    A sample, with transliteration (Willcox, 1972; 217), follows:
    Your third inconvenience is that "all the books already written would be useless." This
    inconvenience would only come on gradually, in a course of ages. You and I, and other now
    living readers, would hardly forget the use of them. People would long learn to read the old
    writing, tho they practice the new. And the inconvenience is not greater, than what has
    actually happened in a similar case, in Italy. Formerly its inhabitants all spoke and wrote
    Latin: as the language changed, the spelling followed it.
    Noah Webster commented on Franklin's efforts in 1806, in I preface to his first dictionary (vi):

    In the year 1786, Dr. Franklin proposed to me to prosecute his scheme of a Reformed
    Alphabet, and offered me his type for the purpose. I declined accepting his offer, on a full
    conviction of the utter impracticability, as well as inutility of the scheme. The orthography
    of our language might be rendered sufficiently regular, without a single new character, by
    means of a few trifling alterations of the present characters, and retrenching a few
    superfluous letters, the most of which are corruptions of the original words.
    Noah Webster
    Noah Webster's "Dissertation on the English Language" in 1789 proposed many improvements in
    spelling. Some of these he used I next year when he published "A collection of essays and fugativ
    writings," a sample of which follows (long s rendered here as "f"):
    In the next place, our forefathers took mezures to prezerve the reputation of fkools and the
    morals of yuth, by making the bufinefs of teeching them an honorable employment. Every
    town or diftrict haz a committee whoze duty iz to procure a mafter of talents and karacter;
    and the practice iz to procure a man of the beft character in the town or naborhood. The
    welthy towns apply to yung gentlemen of liberal education, who, after taking the bachelor's
    degree, usually keep fkool a yeer or two, before they enter upon a profeffion.
    Webster's friends ridiculed many of his reformed spellings. Hence, when he published his first
    dictionary, in 1806, he included far fewer of them. But many of I remaining ones, such as "labor"
    for British "labour," still differentiate American from British spellings.
    Webster's plan for reforming English spelling centered on 10 main classes of words (Shoemaker,
    1936; 267-271):
    1. Omitting I "u" in: "candor, error, favor, honor, labor, odor, vigor."
    2. Changing from "-re" to "-er" in: "caliber, center, luster, meter, theater." These came from I
    French, n followed I example of "chamber, cider, number," already spelled this way. However,
    this change introduced a difference between root words n their derivatives, in "central, lustrous,
    theatrical," which could formerly follow I rule of dropping final "e" before suffixes. It
    apparently did not occur to Webster to drop I "e" entirely, thus making root n derivative agree.
    3. Drop I final "k" in "-ck" words such as "cubic, music, public, rhetoric." However, I "k" was
    retained in participles before "e" or "i," to fit I Romance language rule of softening "c" in these
    situations: "frolicking, trafficking."
    4. Change "c" to "s" in: "defense, offense, pretense." These followed "expense," n fit root to
    derivative.
    5. Avoid doubling I final consonant before derivative endings: "appareled, canceled, dueling,
    traveled." He propounded I rule:
    "when a verb of two or more syllables ends in a single, unaccented consonant, preceded by a
    single vowel, the final consonant is not doubled in derivatives." He used "limiting, pardoning,
    delivering," as precedents. But to apply this rule, one must know where I accent falls, count
    syllables, vowels, n consonants, before arriving at a spelling conclusion!
    6. Somewhat inconsistently, he doubled I final consonant in: "appall, befall; fortell; distill, fulfill;
    dull, full, skill," to be consistent with their derivatives. It apparently did not occur to him to
    change I derivatives instead. He also specified that I "a" before "-ll" is broad, as in "mall." This
    is again an example of English changing I consonant to influence a vowel sound, rather than
    changing I vowel spelling itself. M latter would be more logical, n easier to decypher.
    7. Webster changed Johnson's "-er" to "-or" in: "instructor, suitor, survivor, visitor," to fit their
    derivatives.

    8. Webster's 1806 dictionary omitted final "e" in: "ax, determin, envelop, famin, medicin, opposit,
    steril." These were still listed in his 1829 edition.
    9. He used a single final "f" in, "balif, mastif, plantif, pontiff" following I French, n single "f" in
    their derivatives. But he retained double "f" in; "cuff, miff, muff, stiff," because their derivatives
    had it.
    10. He kept I Latin "-ize" endings in: "generalize, legalize, moralize," but I French "-ise" in:
    "surprise, devise, merchandise," even tho French was derived from Latin.
    In I introduction to his 1806 dictionary, Webster argued (vi) against I effort to "freeze" spellings;
    Every man of common reading knows that a living language must necessarily suffer gradual
    changes in its current words, in the significations of many words, and in pronounciation.
    The unavoidable consequence then of fixing the orthography of a living language, is to
    destroy the use of the alphabet. This effect has, in a degree, already taken place in our
    language; and letters, the most useful invention that ever blessed mankind, have lost and
    continue to lose a part of their value, by no longer being the representatives of the sounds
    originally annexed to them. Strange as it may seem, the fact is undeniable, that the present
    doctrine that no change must be made in writing words, is destroying the benefits of an
    alphabet, and reducing our language to the barbarism of Chinese characters insted of letters.
    Shorthand
    M major effort to achieve faster writing has undoubtedly been I development of I various shorthand
    systems. M first was invented by Tiro in 63 B.C. These appeared at I rate of almost one a year, from
    that of John Willis in 1602 til Isaac Pitman's in 1837. Shorthand systems almost universally aim at
    representing I sounds of I words. As early as 1766 it was recognized that 40 sounds were needed to
    represent English speech.
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    nasr mohamed


    المساهمات : 2
    تاريخ التسجيل : 10/03/2010

    A HISTORY OF SPELLING REFORMS Empty need more

    مُساهمة  nasr mohamed الأربعاء مارس 10, 2010 5:41 pm

    we need practical lessons

      الوقت/التاريخ الآن هو الجمعة مارس 29, 2024 2:26 am