Spelling Change

Spelling doesn’t
Always stay
The same with time
Like flight this way







Airline reservations 1945



Don Matthews
January 2023




Published by donmatthewspoetry

I just like playing round with words. And having fun

4 thoughts on “Spelling Change

  1. But what is “good” spelling?

    We learn to submit to stupid spelling rules and authority, not logic, not empathy, not do no harm, very early on in life. Think school. Grade 1. With excitement, you are learning and absorbing knowledge passed on, most being correct. Yet,. to do so, one must learn to read (too). It is a sine qua non to learning and escape (as in fiction reading). One learns a beautiful (smart logical) system: the alphabet. Yet! As one learns to read after, one discovers many logical errors. One is told to accept all of them. Even the most absurd ones: -le and -re words are pronounced like dyslexics do or spelled illogically. We are told to submit. Some learners are frustrated and ask why. But we are told to submit. The English spelling system has 1000’s of errors and, if we extrapolate on masha bell’s research, we can say that 1/2 of the lexicon is in effect spelled illogically in one way or another. And yet we see ppl complaining about this that don’t work as promised all the time. In some countries one can get a new product or a refund. But not with spelling. One must accept and take the scrappy product, the lemon. Seymour’s research in 2003 (orthographies …) proved that all English-speaking learners (on average) after a 2+year delay in learning to read (and learning). Google it. And, yet, we don’t recall. We tweak other things around education, incrementally dealing with the issues. The French (many countries actually) did fix their system, albeit severely diminished by the so-called caring and smart purists or doomsday victims or critics. The French allowed 2 spelling systems to live side by side for a generation or two, teaching kids at school slowly, starting with a grade 1 cohort, the new spellings. They did not go nuts and ask all road signs to follow the new spelling rules btw. So, it could be done in English. In English though One would have to teach a new global cohort a new or existing pronunciation or dialect to match the new spelling, which would mean that new learners would need to have 2 accents. No problem! Just go to many countries. Many citizens learn two dialects. Italy is a good example.

    STILL, many submit to stupid rules and laws. The Milgram experiment is a testament to that. There is a lot of ways to persuade or nudge one to too. Systems are corrupt. We need to reform them all. They have been captured by those that value $ over people.

    Liked by 2 people

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