SPELLING REFORM, a systematic at tempt to represent phonetically by letters in writing and print the accepted pronunciation of words. Such changes as have been made in any of the languages where the attempt has been made are of a purely tentative order. As was to be expected, in view of the power of the French Academy, the greatest advance •to wards a satisfactory and consistent spelling has been made in the French language, but there remains still much to be done before the written word is as indicative of the correct pronunication as is the case of Spanish and Italian. In Spanish, spelling is now absolutely phonetic, and Italian leaves little to be- desired in this direction. In Germany the first moves toward improvement were made in 1880, the chief features of which were the omission of superfluous signs, the substitution of f for ph, the determination of the distinction between the hard and soft sounds of s, and changes of such nature. Changes in spelling have been continu ous in the history of the English language, and conscious and deliberate efforts to simplify English spelling began at least as early as 1554. Dr. Johnson's 'Dictionary,' published in 1755, marked the beginning of the era of uniformity. Previous to this, people spelled as they pleased or as they could, sometimes using two or even more forms of the same word in the same paragraph. Shakespeare is known to have spelled his own name in 30 different ways, and other writers of the times previous and after 1755 were hampered by none, or very slight conventional rules, and were free to spell alike gentlemen," not like pedants. The attempt to reform English spelling, as previously noted, did not begin with Johnson; his work simply marked the place this reform had reached, and set up a common standard. The reform began very early (1554), and it is really no argument against the most advanced propositions to say we are getting away from the language of Shakespeare and the Bible, for if we compare the orthography of the Bible of 1611 with the Bible of to-day, with whose spellings there is no complaint, as many as 116 changes may he found in one chapter, Psalm cvi for in stance. The greatest step forward toward a
common-sense system was made by Webster in his 'American Dictionary' (1828), hut much as his changes were decried, they were mostly those which had been recommended by others; as for instance, dropping the Norman French u (to which the English still cling with their inborn hatred of innovation) from favour, honour, colour, etc., changing the French metre, etc., to meter; omitting certain double con sonants, and instead bringing the spelling of certain classes of words into a uniformity of style - thus making mould into mold, to agree with gold, which had been similarly treated, except in rural Ireland where it is still gook/ (gould). The Spelling Reform Association was formed at an international convention held in Philadelphia in 1876; the English association was established in 1879, and in 1884 certain changes were recommended for adoption by both associations as follows: 1. e.- Drop silent e when fonetically useless, as in lire vineyard, believe, bronze. single, engine, granite &den, rained, etc.
2. ea.- Drop a from ea having the sound of e, as in feather, leather, jealous. etc.
Drop e from ea having the sound of a, as in heart, hearken, etc.
3. eau.- For beauty use the old beuty.
4. eo.- Drop o from eo having the sound of e, as in jeopardy, leopard.
For yeoman write you'd's.
S. 1.- Drop i from parliament.
6. o.- For o having the sound of u in but, write id. in above, (alms), dose's, some (sum), tongue, (tung), etc.
For women restore wham.
7. ou.- Drop o from on having the sound of a. as in journal, nourish, trouble, rough (ruf), tough (tuf), and the like.
8. is.- Drop silent u after g before a, and in native English words, as guarantee, guard, guess, guest, guild. guilt, etc.
9. ue.- Drop final ue in aPologue, catalogue. etc., demo • gogue. pedagogue, etc.. league, colleague. harangue, tongue. (twig), etc.