Poll: Time for spelling reform?
In last Sunday’s Parade magazine, Marilyn vos Savant said it’s time to push some spelling reform through:
This month marks the 100th anniversary of the attempt by Theodore Roosevelt—a poor speller himself—to reform English spelling. The President thought that spelling words such as “colour” with an extra letter (the u) was downright silly. So he issued a directive to the Government Printing Office to adopt 300 reformed spellings. Despite many notable proponents, Congress overturned the directive. With the exception of a few changes that already were creeping into use—“honour” became honor, and “centre” became center, for example—spelling reform flopped. A century has passed since then. Time to step up the pace! Let’s press on with thru, tho and altho, which I agree are excellent choices.
What do you think, dear readers? Should we let nature take its course—allowing the gradual forces of popular usage take care of things (bearing in mind that popular usage can also bring us abominations like irregardless—or should we have an organized campaign push for accelerated spelling reform?
Roy Jacobsen
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Reader Comments (1)
I.e. You... u etc... as time goes this generation will change continue enforcing this... the only real rival to your topic (its not congress) its EDUCATION....