Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling
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Carnegie, Andrew, 4, 98, 100, 112–14, 117, 119–20
Catholic Church, 19–20, 28–29, 34–35, 41, 104. See also Christianity; Latin
Cawdrey, Robert, 76
Caxton, William, 38, 46–49, 47n, 50–51
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 31–33, 37, 43–45, 51, 64, 66, 69
Cheke, John, 61
Chinese language, 40, 145
Christianity, 106. See also Catholic Church
Clairborne, Robert, 186
Collegiate New World Dictionary (Merriam-Webster), 71, 82, 83
Colloquy (ÁElfric), 23–24, 53
A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language (Webster), 13, 89
compositor, 43–45
constructed language, 105
Cook, Vivian, 29n
Correct English, 24
Crystal, David, 17–18, 67–69
on compositors, 45
on digital English, 181
on Internet spelling, 178
on Wessex dialect, 21, 25
Cut Spelng, 134
cyberspace, 174, 181–85
Danish language, 22, 27n, 50n, 86
Darwin, Charles, 5, 105
Defoe, Daniel, 72–73
descriptivism, 66–67, 95
Desert Alphabet, 102–4
Dewey, Melvil, 4, 98–100, 106–8, 110–12, 111n. See also Simplified Spelling Board
A Dictionary of the English Language (Johnson), 76–79
digital lexicon, 165–67, 181
Dryden, John, 64
Dudley, Arthur, 167
Dutch language, 37, 45, 49, 63, 86, 145
absorbed into English, 92
dyslexia, 142–43, 147–50
Earnest, Les, 156–59, 170
spelling checker of, 160–62
East Midlands dialect, 26, 33–37
Ebonics, 69–70
The Elementarie (Mulcaster), 62
The Elementary Spelling Book (Webster), 84
The Elements of Style (Strunk and White), 67
English language, 24, 34–35, 45–46, 64. See also American English
Alfred’s revival of, 20–22
class system via, 53, 73, 86
in cyberspace, 174, 181–85
digital, 165–67, 181
dyslexia v., 142–43, 146–50
French in, 26–28, 27n, 29n, 30, 37, 56, 92
Internet’s impact on, 181–85
Latin v., 34–35
Middle, 29–31, 35–37, 54–58
as power issue, 90–91
texting, 178–81
vernacular, 69–70
Esperanto, 104
Feynman, Richard, 123
Finnish language, 145
First Folio (Shakespeare), 60
Fleet Street, 75
font, 43
Franklin, Benjamin, 86–87
French language, 26–28, 37, 56, 92. See also Norman invasion
dominance reflected via, 29, 34
L’Académie Française, 63–64
Old, 22, 27n, 29–30, 29n
Frith, Uta, 139, 141, 149, 155
Funke, Charles Earle, 55n
Fust, Johann, 40, 40n
Germanic languages, 14–16. See also Old English
German language, 63, 145
Gil, Alexander, 57, 61–62
Gilder, Richard Watson, 4
Google, 82, 172–75
public’s role in, 176–78
Gove, Phillip Babcock, 162–63
Great Vowel Shift, 50–51
Greek language, 54–56, 145
Gulliver’s Travels (Swift), 73–74
Gustafson, Thomas, 96
Gutenberg, Johannes, 38–39, 84
Gutt, Tobi, 156
Harold (king), 27–28
Hart, John, 58–60, 62
Hebrew alphabet, 102
Hindi language, 56
homophone, 59, 169
Houghton Mifflin Company, 163–64
digital lexicon of, 165–67
Hyde Abbey, 21–22, 25
hyphen, 70
instinctual spelling, 183
Internet, 174, 184–85. See also language
language v., 178
Italian language, 63, 145
Jackson, Andrew, 95
Jefferson, Thomas, 131
Johnson, Samuel, 75–76, 78–79, 184
Jordan, David Starr, 4, 7
Kucera, 170–71
Kuizenga, Elizabeth, 124–25, 128, 134
language, 56, 105, 106, 144–45, 181–85. See also specific language
British class system via, 53, 73, 86
digital, 165–67, 181
as power issue, 90–91
Latin, 28–29, 30, 37, 54–55, 55n. See also Catholic Church
English v., 34–35, 34n
Latino Sine Flexione, 104
Latre, Guido, 42, 44
learning deficit, 149–50. See also dyslexia
Lefèvre, Raoul, 46, 53
Lepore, Jill, 87, 90–91, 95
Le recoeil des histoires de Troyes (Lefèvre), 46, 53
Lerer, Seth, 29–30
lexicon
digital, 165–67, 181
globalization of, 56, 106
silent letters added to, 55
libraries, 98–99
Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes, 151, 153
literacy, 73, 106
loanwords, 79
Lowe, Jim, 82–83
Mahoney, Roberta, 135
Manning, Emma, 136–38
Mencken, H. L., 5, 118, 120
on Webster, 96n
Merriam-Webster, Inc., 71, 80–83, 162, 182
Microsoft Speller, 168–69
Middle English, 29–31, 35–37, 54–58
MORE spelling system, 134
Mormons, 102–4
Morse, John, 80–83, 181–82
on Webster, 86
Mulcaster, Richard, 52, 62
Müller, Max, 106
Murray, J. A. H., 5
Murray, James, 105
Native American words, 91–92
Norman invasion, 26–28, 27n, 29n, 37
Norvig, Peter, 173–74, 176
Norwegian language, 50n
Nunberg, Geoffrey, 67
O’Dorney, Evan, 131–33
OED. See Oxford English Dictionary
Old English, 15–16, 19, 20, 31
Dutch/Latin in, 37
misspelling v., 23
Old French, 22, 27n, 29–30, 29n
Old Norman, 27n
“On Academics” (Defoe), 72–73
Origin of Species (Darwin), 5, 105
orthography, 2, 2n, 41, 97, 101, 138. See also spelling
Oxford English Dictionary (OED), 5, 57, 82, 105, 163, 184
Oxford University, 30, 33, 60
Parton, James, 163
phonemes, 143–44
phonetics, 20, 31, 58–60, 62
Plantin-Moretus Museum, 42
Plantin Press, 43–46
prescriptivism, 66–67, 82
printing industry, 43–46, 52–53, 75
Queen’s English, 60, 66. See also Standard English
reading, 141–43, 145–46
Richard II (king), 30
RITE spelling system, 134
Robinson Crusoe (Defoe), 72–73
Romans, 14, 21. See also Latin
Roosevelt, Theodore, 4, 114–17, 122
Royal Society (England), 64
Scandinavian people, 27n. See also Danish language
A Scheme for a New Alphabet and Reformed Mode of Spelling (Franklin), 87
Schleyer, Johann Martin, 104
scribes, 30–31
Scripps National Spelling Bee, 123–28, 129–33, 136–38
scriptoriums, 19–20, 30–31, 41
Shakespeare, William, 60, 65–66, 69, 79
Shaw, George Bernard, 5, 121
sign language, 90–91
silent letters, 55
Simplified Spelling Board, 4, 100, 109�
��11, 119, 122
Carnegie endorses, 112–14
Roosevelt endorses, 114–17
Simplified Spelling Society, 127
Spanish language, 56, 92, 145
spell-check software, 160–62, 167–69, 174–76
spelling, 2, 2n, 30–31, 43–46, 59, 183. See also orthography; phonetics
Caxton’s policy for, 49
creative, 144
early standardization of, 23–24
Google’s, 82, 172–75, 176–78
notion of, 29–30
for sophistication, 54–55
spelling guides, 73
spelling reform, 3–4, 6–7, 63, 87, 102–4. See also Simplified Spelling Board
Middle English, 54–58
Webster’s, 84, 87–89, 90–91
spoonerism, 140
squint, 36–37
Standard English, 24, 51, 66
Johnson on, 75–76
polite speech of, 60, 131
social class via, 53, 73, 86
Swift on, 73–74
St. Mary’s of Lutterworth Church, 34, 36–37
Strunk, William, Jr., 67
Swift, Jonathan, 73–74
A Table Alphabetical (Cawdrey), 76
Tamil language, 56
Tennyson, Alfred, 5
texting, 178–81
Thaler, Russ, 128
Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (Merriam-Webster), 162
thorn (letter of alphabet), 50
Tower of Babel, 104
Travis, Timothy, 133
Treatise on the Astrolabe (Chaucer), 32
Turkish language, 56
Twain, Mark, 5, 46, 87
typesetters, 44
uppercase/lowercase, 43
Vikings, 21, 27–28
Virgil, 38
Volapük, 104
Waldman, Naill, 126–27
Watt, George D., 103
Webster, Noah, 82, 85–86, 183, 184
dictionaries by, 5, 13, 89–90, 92–97, 96n, 101
spelling reform by, 84, 87–89, 90–91
Wessex dialect, 17, 18, 21, 25
Wheeler, Benjamin Ide, 1–3, 6–7, 67, 183
White, E. B., 67
Wikipedia, 182
William the Conqueror (king), 26–28, 27n, 29n, 37
Wycliffe, John, 26, 36–37
Bible translation by, 34–35
yogh (letter of alphabet), 50
Young, Brigham, 102–3
Zamenhof, L. L., 104
About the Author
DAVID WOLMAN is the author of A Left-Hand Turn Around the World and writes for magazines such as Wired, Newsweek, Outside, National Geographic Traveler, and New Scientist. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
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*Although spelling is a decent synonym for orthography, the technical definition of orthography is the entire writing system of a language, including not just spelling but also punctuation and capitalization.
* Not all the invaders would have taken this northwesterly route. Some arrived in the south, others to the east.
*I’m casually interchanging “French” with “Norman.” The muddier truth of the matter is that there was Old Norman, Old French, and Anglo-Norman, not to mention other regional dialects, let alone the fact that the Normans were themselves of Scandinavian descent.
† William had at one time been promised the throne of England.
* Linguist Vivian Cook points out that “French spoken in England after the Norman Conquest (1066) came from Normandy rather than Paris. Hence English often has pairs of words from both sources, for example the Anglo-Norman ‘w’ versus the Parisian ‘g.’” Consider: ward/guard, warden/guardian, and wile/guile. (Vivian Cook, Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary: Or Why Can’t Anybody Spell? p. 6)
* Despite the death of so many clergy due to the plague, Latin had held on as the language of God and the Bible.
* The expression comes from court records from the Fust lawsuit.
* He was probably born in the English town of Tenterden, although the town’s only noticeable tribute to the father of English-language printing is an unimpressive pub called The William Caxton.
* Thorn was the last of the Old English holdouts. Eth, which looks like this,
* Island has had an especially stormy history. Over the last millennium, it has been spelled: iland, ealond, illond, yland, islelanders, and, finally, island. The story of aisle is even more labyrinthine. With full credit to author Charles Earle Funke, it goes something like this: Originally from the Latin, ala, and then French, ele, for a passageway, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries English writers and printers began spelling it ile. But back then this was often how people spelled today’s isle, as in “Gilligan’s Isle.” When ile as in landmass surrounded by water was dressed up into isle, the word meaning passageway got dressed up, too—isle. To try and remedy this confusion, eighteenth-century writers borrowed ana from French ( ele had by then evolved into aile in France), but that created a new set of headaches because of the French allée, or alley. So the next and final fix was to just keep adding to the concoction, this time with an s. Voilà: aisle. (Charles Earle Funk, Thereby Hangs a Tale: Stories of Curious Word Origins, p. 8.)
* All of these renaissance men, almost by definition, have hyper-hyphenated descriptors. No high-society figure back then was just a poet, just a pundit, or just a translator.
* When looking at word innovation, linguists distinguish between word and lexeme, which is the base of a word. Take, took, taken, takes, and taking are all forms of the single lexeme, take. Shakespeare created more than 2,000 lexemes, possibly many more. (David Crystal personal interview, September 2007.)
* In 1950, a National Spelling Bee contestant was dinged for spelling supercede, only to be allow
ed back into the match after the judges conferred and decided that both supercede and supersede are acceptable spellings. (James Maguire, American Bee, p. 78)
* Taxicab is in fact a double contraction, from the French, taximeter cabriolet (Charles Earle Funk, Thereby Hangs a Tale: Stories of Curious Word Origins, p. 50).
* Titles back then were not short. The full title of Johnson’s epic work is: A Dictionary of the English Language: In Which the Words Are Deduced from Their Originals, and Illustrated in Their Different Significations by Examples from the Best Writers. To Which Are Prefixed a History of the Language and an English Grammar.