this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2024
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When was the last time English spelling was updated? (hexbear.net)
submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I almost feel like English should start from scratch with spelling, There are basically no consistent rules at all. I think we should assign spelling to kindergartners who actually follow the rules of English and spell things like they should be spelled.

Quinoa -> Keen-wa

Ballet -> Baal-Eh

Design -> De-zine

etc.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

The last major successful attempt was done by Noah Webster, which is where the difference between American and British spelling comes from. American spelling is ever more slightly consistent than British spelling:

  1. There's basically no consistency in what gets spelled with "-or" vs "-our." "Honor" is spelled as "honour," but "horror" is still "horror." Webster just dropped the "-our." The same thing is true for "-er" vs "re." Why "centre" but not "entre?"

  2. Webster changed "-ise" to "-ize," which is more phonetically consistent with how Americans say it.

  3. Baffling or confusing spelling like "mould" or "cheque" or "gaol" or "draught" got changed based on what words rhymed with them. "Mould" became "mold" because "mold/mould" rhymes with "cold," not "could."

  4. Ligatures aren't used in American English, so no bullshit like "foetus" or "paedophile."

English spelling reform is not going to happen anytime soon since Webster used nationalism at a very opportune time to get Americans to change English spelling to be slightly less terrible. And even then, a lot of his proposals got shot down. For example, he wanted to change the spelling of "tongue" to "tung," but that (unfortunately) didn't happen.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

I still can't spell tongue properly a lot of the time

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Baffling or confusing spelling like "mould" or "cheque" or "gaol" or "draught" got changed based on what words rhymed with them. "Mould" became "mold" because "mold/mould" rhymes with "cold," not "could."

I don't agree these were fixed, just smeared the shit around a bit differently. Mould rhymes with the first part of shoulder or boulder, for example.

Cheque is not confusing, but if you decided it was the you ought to turn antique into antick, opaque into opak, plaque into plack, etc.

Logic did used to be logique, incidentally.