Spelling reforms [was RE: punchcard svg file available]

[geneb]

On Fri, 11 Sep 2015, Chuck Guzis wrote:

> On 09/11/2015 12:03 PM, Rich Alderson wrote:
>
>> However, it was far earlier than the Victorians.  Noah Webster
>> (1758-1843) only overlaps the Victorian era by 6 years; he was
>> reacting against the aristocratic spelling norms of the 17th and 18th
>> centuries, when Latin and Greek were held to be more important than
>> English in the learning of the latter language.  His spelling book
>> was originally published in 1783.
>
>
> It should be noted that neither Webster, nor Col. McCormick (he of the 
> Chicago Tribune simplified spelling) got all of what they wanted.
>
> Webster wanted spellings of "ake", "soop", "cloke", "wimmen"...
>
> The NEA in the 1890s accounted for "catalog", "prolog", "program"...
>
> Then there was the Simplified Spelling Board of 1906, advocated by Andrew 
> Carnegie and Theodore Roosevelt.  Congress didn't much care for the 300-word 
> list, but some spellings made it into modern usage. "Meter", "maneuver", 
> "orthopedic", "omelet", "sulfate", "wagon" are among those.
>
> Thus, US spelling has been a work in progress.
>
This discussion reminds me of this quote:

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that 
English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; 
on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat 
them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary."

:)

g.
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