'Irregular English spelling should be scrapped'
Spelling should be “freed up” and the apostrophe scrapped, according to John Wells, Emeritus Professor of Phonetics at University College London.
LONDON: Spelling should be “freed up” and the apostrophe scrapped, according to John Wells, Emeritus Professor of Phonetics at University College London.
Wells proposes turning ‘give’ into ‘giv’, ‘river’ into ‘rivver’ and embracing Americanisms such as ‘organise’ with a ‘z’. In a speech to the centenary dinner of the Spelling Society, of which he is president, Prof Wells will blame the country’s literacy problems on the “burden” the English spelling system places on children.
“It seems to be a great pity that English-speaking countries are holding back children in this way,” Wells will say. “In Finnish, once you have learned the letters, you know how to spell, so it would be ludicrous to hold spelling tests. In countries like Italy and Spain it’s similar.
“But with English it’s not phonetic, and there are just so many irregularities.”.
In a statement bound to bring him into direct confrontation with traditionalists, Prof Wells will say that abbreviations commonly used in text messaging should be used more widely. “Text messaging, email and internet chat rooms are showing us the way forward for English.”
Prof Wells will also claim the apostrophe causes unnecessary linguistic barriers. “Instead of an apostrophe,” he will say, “we could just leave it out (it’s could become its) or leave a space (so we’ll would become we ll). Have we really nothing better to do with our lives than fret about the apostrophe?”
Wells proposes turning ‘give’ into ‘giv’, ‘river’ into ‘rivver’ and embracing Americanisms such as ‘organise’ with a ‘z’. In a speech to the centenary dinner of the Spelling Society, of which he is president, Prof Wells will blame the country’s literacy problems on the “burden” the English spelling system places on children.
“It seems to be a great pity that English-speaking countries are holding back children in this way,” Wells will say. “In Finnish, once you have learned the letters, you know how to spell, so it would be ludicrous to hold spelling tests. In countries like Italy and Spain it’s similar.
“But with English it’s not phonetic, and there are just so many irregularities.”.
In a statement bound to bring him into direct confrontation with traditionalists, Prof Wells will say that abbreviations commonly used in text messaging should be used more widely. “Text messaging, email and internet chat rooms are showing us the way forward for English.”
Prof Wells will also claim the apostrophe causes unnecessary linguistic barriers. “Instead of an apostrophe,” he will say, “we could just leave it out (it’s could become its) or leave a space (so we’ll would become we ll). Have we really nothing better to do with our lives than fret about the apostrophe?”