Simplified Spelling Board
Encyclopedia
The Simplified Spelling Board was an American organization created in 1906 to reform the spelling
of the English language
, making it simpler and easier to learn, and eliminating many of its inconsistencies. The board operated until 1920, the year after the death of its founding benefactor, who had come to criticize the progress and approach of the organization.
funding the organization, to be headquartered in New York City
. The New York Times
noted that Carnegie was convinced that "English might be made the world language
of the future" and an influence leading to universal peace, but that this role was obstructed by its "contradictory and difficult spelling". Carnegie committed $15,000 (1906 dollars - over $350,000 in 2010 dollars) per year for five years to get the organization off the ground.
The initial 30 members of the Board consisted of authors, professors and dictionary editors, among them Supreme Court Justice David Josiah Brewer
, President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University
, Dr. Melvil Dewey
(inventor of the Dewey Decimal Classification
), Dr. Isaac K. Funk (editor of The Standard Dictionary), former United States Secretary of the Treasury
Lyman J. Gage
, United States Commissioner of Education
William Torrey Harris
(and editor-in-chief of the 1909 Webster's New International Dictionary), publishing magnate Henry Holt
, professor Calvin Thomas, and author Mark Twain
. Offices were obtained at the Metropolitan Life Building
at 1 Madison Avenue
, and Brander Matthews
was selected as the board's chairman.
Charles E. Sprague
of the Union Dime Savings Institution
, the board's first treasurer, noted that the group was careful to keep the word "reform" out of its name and gave the word "believe" as an example of a word that would benefit from elimination of its unneeded "i", stating that "If believe were spelled 'beleve', I think it would be a good change."
On March 13, 1906, The New York Times
editorialized in support of the Simplified Spelling Board's efforts, noting that 90% of English words are "fairly well spelled", but that "a vast improvement could be effected by reducing to some sort of regularity the much-used tenth that makes most of the trouble". An editorial in the following day's edition noted that opponents of the board's efforts had suggested that the language be kept as is, only taught better, but that the members of the board would respect the language's history in its improvement efforts without hiding or distorting it. Brander Matthews
, the board's chairman, emphasized that the board's primary mission in simplifying the language was to eliminate unneeded letters, noting that "[s]implification by omission - this is its platform; this is its motto". Isaac Funk wrote to The Times on March 20, 1906, emphasizing that the board's first aim was "a conservatively progressive evolution, aiming chiefly at the dropping of silent letters", accelerating a process that had been going on for centuries. This would be followed by the use of a phonetic alphabet
developed by the American Philological Association
and including the 40 basic sounds used in English. Phonetics would be taught to children in nursery school or kindergarten.
s would also be eliminated, with the board promoting anemia, anesthesia, archeology, encyclopedia and orthopedic.
The board noted that the majority of the words in their list were already preferred by three current dictionaries: Webster's (more than half), the Century (60%) and the Standard (two-thirds). In June 1906, the board prepared a list of the 300 words designed for teachers, lecturers and writers, which was sent out upon request.
In June 1906, the New York City Board of Education
received a report from the Board of Superintendents recommending adoption of the 300-word list, and would pass on the recommendation to the Committee on Studies and Textbooks for approval.
In August 1906, President of the United States
Theodore Roosevelt
had supported the plan, signing an executive order at his home in Oyster Bay, New York
, mandating the use of reformed spelling in his official communications and messages to Congress. Prof. Matthews stated that he had received no advance notice of the President's order and had been taken by surprise when it was issued.
Roosevelt tried to force the federal government to adopt the system, sending an order to the Public Printer
to use the system in all public federal documents. The order was obeyed; among the many documents printed using the system was the President's special message regarding the Panama Canal
.
The New York Times
noted that the New York State Commissioner of Education thought the state would not support the board's proposal as "he did not believe that the State educational department should tell the people how they must spell". By August 1906, The board reported that over 5,000 individuals had pledged to use the words on the initial list, with another 500 to 600 agreeing to use some of the words, but objecting to others.
The press on both sides of the Atlantic had a field day with the "reform spelling crusade", and editorials and cartoons abounded. While the London
press viciously mocked the executive order, the board received a significant spike in interest in the word list following Roosevelt's edict.
In response to mounting criticism from British newspapers, the board announced the additions of James Murray
, the Scottish
lexicographer and primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary
, along with Joseph Wright
, an Oxford University professor of comparative philology
and editor of the English Dialect Dictionary
. Combined with the earlier naming of Walter William Skeat
, editor of the Etymological English Dictionary, the board could claim it had the three top English language dictionaries from both the United States and United Kingdom on its side.
The Supreme Court entered the fray and directed that its opinions should be printed in the old style.
Finally, Congress had the last word when Representative Charles B. Landis
of Indiana, Chairman of the House Committee on Printing, introduced a resolution on December 13, 1906: "Resolved, That it is the sense of the House that hereafter in the printing of House documents or other publications used by law or ordered by Congress, or either branch thereof, or emanating from any executive department or bureau of the Government, the House printer should observe and adhere to the standard of orthography prescribed in generally accepted dictionaries of the English language." The motion passed unanimously. The President let the Public Printer and the Nation know that the old style was reinstated.
Roosevelt ultimately decided to rescind the order. Brander Matthews, a friend of Roosevelt and one of the chief advocates of the reform as chairman of the Simplified Spelling Board, remonstrated with him for abandoning the effort. Roosevelt replied on December 16, 1906: "I could not by fighting have kept the new spelling in, and it was evidently worse than useless to go into an undignified contest when I was beaten. Do you know that the one word as to which I thought the new spelling was wrong — thru — was more responsible than anything else for our discomfiture?" Next summer Roosevelt was watching a naval review when a press boat marked "Pres Bot" chugged ostentatiously by. The President waved and laughed with delight.
: "Amended spellings can only be submitted for general acceptance. It is the people who decide what is to be adopted or rejected." For their part, some members of the board believed that Carnegie was too meddlesome in its business.
Signs of a break with the board were apparent as early as 16 January 1915. Carnegie received a letter from Matthews, which included a list of daily newspapers that had adopted the reformed spellings. Carnegie was not impressed. In reply, Carnegie wrote, "Please note, not one Eastern paper. I see no change in New York and I am getting very tired indeed, of sinking twenty-five thousand dollars a year for nothing here in the East." Carnegie was further irritated to learn that his own trusts' annual financial reports were seen to be taking "a step backwards in reference to spelling."
One month later, on 25 February 1915, Carnegie penned a letter to Holt, the president of the board. In this letter, Carnegie wrote that "A more useless body of men never came into association, judging from the effects they produce. [...] Instead of taking twelve words and urging their adoption, they undertook radical changes from the start and these they can never make...." Using spelling that demonstrated his own continuing attachment to certain reforms, Carnegie added, "I think I hav been patient long enuf... I hav much better use for twenty thousand dollars a year."
Part 1 is a brief outline of the history of English spelling and the attempts to reform it up until 1920.
Part 2 presents the arguments in favor of reform and replies to the objections that are commonly made.
Part 3 contains the SSB's proposed rules for simplified spelling and a list of the words that would be changed by them.
The handbook repeated and explained the SSB's plan of "gradual" rather than "sudden" reform. It noted that all past spelling changes had come into use gradually—"so gradually, in fact, that at all times (as today) ther hav been, and ar, many words speld in more than one way on equal authority of good usage". It also noted that most reformed spellings now in general use were originally the overt act of a lone writer, who was followed at first by a small minority. Thus, it encouraged people to "point the way" and "set the example" by using the reformed spellings whenever they can. The handbook used and set forth the following rules:
The handbook also suggested the following spelling changes, which are not covered by the above rules: acre→aker, answer→anser, beleaguer→beleager, campaign→campain, counterfeit→counterfit, delight→delite, foreign→foren, forfeit→forfit, friend→frend, masquerade→maskerade, mortgage→morgage, receipt→receit, sieve→siv, sleight→slight, sovereign→sovren, sprightly→spritely, touch→tuch, yeoman→yoman.
English orthography
English orthography is the alphabetic spelling system used by the English language. English orthography, like other alphabetic orthographies, uses a set of habits to represent speech sounds in writing. In most other languages, these habits are regular enough so that they may be called rules...
of the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, making it simpler and easier to learn, and eliminating many of its inconsistencies. The board operated until 1920, the year after the death of its founding benefactor, who had come to criticize the progress and approach of the organization.
Founding
The Simplified Spelling Board was announced on March 11, 1906, with Andrew CarnegieAndrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
funding the organization, to be headquartered in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
noted that Carnegie was convinced that "English might be made the world language
World language
A world language is a language spoken internationally which is learned by many people as a second language. A world language is not only characterized by the number of its speakers , but also by its geographical distribution, and its use in international organizations and in diplomatic relations...
of the future" and an influence leading to universal peace, but that this role was obstructed by its "contradictory and difficult spelling". Carnegie committed $15,000 (1906 dollars - over $350,000 in 2010 dollars) per year for five years to get the organization off the ground.
The initial 30 members of the Board consisted of authors, professors and dictionary editors, among them Supreme Court Justice David Josiah Brewer
David Josiah Brewer
David Josiah Brewer was an American jurist and an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court for 20 years.-Early life:...
, President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, Dr. Melvil Dewey
Melvil Dewey
Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey was an American librarian and educator, inventor of the Dewey Decimal system of library classification, and a founder of the Lake Placid Club....
(inventor of the Dewey Decimal Classification
Dewey Decimal Classification
Dewey Decimal Classification, is a proprietary system of library classification developed by Melvil Dewey in 1876.It has been greatly modified and expanded through 23 major revisions, the most recent in 2011...
), Dr. Isaac K. Funk (editor of The Standard Dictionary), former United States Secretary of the Treasury
United States Secretary of the Treasury
The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, which is concerned with financial and monetary matters, and, until 2003, also with some issues of national security and defense. This position in the Federal Government of the United...
Lyman J. Gage
Lyman J. Gage
Lyman Judson Gage was an American financier and Presidential Cabinet officer.He was born at DeRuyter, New York, educated at an academy at Rome, New York, and at the age of 17 he became a bank clerk...
, United States Commissioner of Education
Commissioner of Education
The Commissioner of Education was the title given to the head of the National Bureau of Education, a former unit within the Department of the Interior in the United States...
William Torrey Harris
William Torrey Harris
William Torrey Harris was an American educator, philosopher, and lexicographer.-Early life and career:Born in North Killingly, Connecticut, he attended Phillips Andover Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. He completed two years at Yale, then moved west and taught school in St...
(and editor-in-chief of the 1909 Webster's New International Dictionary), publishing magnate Henry Holt
Henry Holt
Henry Holt , was a book publisher and author.Henry Holt was born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 3, 1840.He graduated from Yale in 1862....
, professor Calvin Thomas, and author Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
. Offices were obtained at the Metropolitan Life Building
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, also known as the Metropolitan Life Tower or Met Life Tower, is a landmark skyscraper located on East 23rd Street between Madison Avenue and Park Avenue South, off of Madison Square Park. in the borough of Manhattan in New York City...
at 1 Madison Avenue
Madison Avenue (Manhattan)
Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square to the Madison Avenue Bridge at 138th Street. In doing so, it passes through Midtown, the Upper East Side , Spanish Harlem, and...
, and Brander Matthews
Brander Matthews
James Brander Matthews , was a U.S. writer and educator. Matthews was the first U.S. professor of dramatic literature.-Biography:...
was selected as the board's chairman.
Charles E. Sprague
Charles E. Sprague
Charles Ezra Sprague was an American accountant, born in Nassau, Rensselaer County, New York. He was known as a Civil War hero, and as a proponent of the constructed language Volapük, for which he authored the first major textbook in English, Handbook of Volapük , as well as an early organizer of...
of the Union Dime Savings Institution
Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh
Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh is a financial institution located in Brooklyn, New York. Its primary products are savings accounts, checking accounts, and real estate loans...
, the board's first treasurer, noted that the group was careful to keep the word "reform" out of its name and gave the word "believe" as an example of a word that would benefit from elimination of its unneeded "i", stating that "If believe were spelled 'beleve', I think it would be a good change."
On March 13, 1906, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
editorialized in support of the Simplified Spelling Board's efforts, noting that 90% of English words are "fairly well spelled", but that "a vast improvement could be effected by reducing to some sort of regularity the much-used tenth that makes most of the trouble". An editorial in the following day's edition noted that opponents of the board's efforts had suggested that the language be kept as is, only taught better, but that the members of the board would respect the language's history in its improvement efforts without hiding or distorting it. Brander Matthews
Brander Matthews
James Brander Matthews , was a U.S. writer and educator. Matthews was the first U.S. professor of dramatic literature.-Biography:...
, the board's chairman, emphasized that the board's primary mission in simplifying the language was to eliminate unneeded letters, noting that "[s]implification by omission - this is its platform; this is its motto". Isaac Funk wrote to The Times on March 20, 1906, emphasizing that the board's first aim was "a conservatively progressive evolution, aiming chiefly at the dropping of silent letters", accelerating a process that had been going on for centuries. This would be followed by the use of a phonetic alphabet
Phonetic alphabet
Phonetic alphabet can mean:* phonetic transcription system: a system for transcribing the precise sounds of human speech into writing.** International Phonetic Alphabet : the most widespread such system...
developed by the American Philological Association
American Philological Association
The American Philological Association , founded in 1869, is a non-profit North American scholarly organization devoted to all aspects of Greek and Roman civilization...
and including the 40 basic sounds used in English. Phonetics would be taught to children in nursery school or kindergarten.
The first 300 words
The board's initial list of 300 words was published on April 1, 1906. Much of the list included words ending with -ed changed to end -t ("addressed", "caressed", "missed", "possessed" and "wished", becoming "addresst", "carest", "mist", "possest" and "wisht", respectively). Other changes included removal of silent letters ("catalogue" to "catalog"), changing -re endings to -er ("calibre" and "sabre" to "caliber" and "saber"), changing "ough" to "o" to represent the long vowel sound in the new words altho, tho and thoro, and changes to represent the "z" sound with that letter, where "s" had been used ("brasen" and "surprise" becoming "brazen" and "surprize"). DigraphDigraph (orthography)
A digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...
s would also be eliminated, with the board promoting anemia, anesthesia, archeology, encyclopedia and orthopedic.
The board noted that the majority of the words in their list were already preferred by three current dictionaries: Webster's (more than half), the Century (60%) and the Standard (two-thirds). In June 1906, the board prepared a list of the 300 words designed for teachers, lecturers and writers, which was sent out upon request.
In June 1906, the New York City Board of Education
New York City Department of Education
The New York City Department of Education is the branch of municipal government in New York City that manages the city's public school system. It is the largest school system in the United States, with over 1.1 million students taught in more than 1,700 separate schools...
received a report from the Board of Superintendents recommending adoption of the 300-word list, and would pass on the recommendation to the Committee on Studies and Textbooks for approval.
In August 1906, President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
had supported the plan, signing an executive order at his home in Oyster Bay, New York
Oyster Bay (town), New York
The Town of Oyster Bay is easternmost of the three towns in Nassau County, New York, in the United States. Part of the New York metropolitan area, it is the only town in Nassau County that extends from the North Shore to the South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2010 census, the town population was...
, mandating the use of reformed spelling in his official communications and messages to Congress. Prof. Matthews stated that he had received no advance notice of the President's order and had been taken by surprise when it was issued.
Roosevelt tried to force the federal government to adopt the system, sending an order to the Public Printer
Public Printer of the United States
The title of Public Printer of the United States refers to the official head of the Government Printing Office . Pursuant to , this officer must be nominated by the President of the United States and approved by the United States Senate...
to use the system in all public federal documents. The order was obeyed; among the many documents printed using the system was the President's special message regarding the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
.
The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
noted that the New York State Commissioner of Education thought the state would not support the board's proposal as "he did not believe that the State educational department should tell the people how they must spell". By August 1906, The board reported that over 5,000 individuals had pledged to use the words on the initial list, with another 500 to 600 agreeing to use some of the words, but objecting to others.
The press on both sides of the Atlantic had a field day with the "reform spelling crusade", and editorials and cartoons abounded. While the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
press viciously mocked the executive order, the board received a significant spike in interest in the word list following Roosevelt's edict.
In response to mounting criticism from British newspapers, the board announced the additions of James Murray
James Murray (lexicographer)
Sir James Augustus Henry Murray was a Scottish lexicographer and philologist. He was the primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary from 1879 until his death.-Life and learning:...
, the Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
lexicographer and primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
, along with Joseph Wright
Joseph Wright (linguist)
Joseph Wright FBA was an English philologist who rose from humble origins to become Professor of Comparative Philology at Oxford University.-Early life:...
, an Oxford University professor of comparative philology
Comparative linguistics
Comparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness....
and editor of the English Dialect Dictionary
English Dialect Dictionary
English Dialect Dictionary is a dictionary of English language dialects, compiled by Joseph Wright.The English Dialect Dictionary, being the complete vocabulary of all dialect words still in use, or known to have been in use during the last two hundred years; founded on the publications of the...
. Combined with the earlier naming of Walter William Skeat
Walter William Skeat
Walter William Skeat , English philologist, was born in London on the 21st of November 1835, and educated at King's College School , Highgate School, and Christ's College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in July 1860. His grandsons include the noted palaeographer T. C...
, editor of the Etymological English Dictionary, the board could claim it had the three top English language dictionaries from both the United States and United Kingdom on its side.
The Supreme Court entered the fray and directed that its opinions should be printed in the old style.
Finally, Congress had the last word when Representative Charles B. Landis
Charles B. Landis
Charles Beary Landis was a U.S. Representative from Indiana, brother of Congressman Frederick Landis and Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis....
of Indiana, Chairman of the House Committee on Printing, introduced a resolution on December 13, 1906: "Resolved, That it is the sense of the House that hereafter in the printing of House documents or other publications used by law or ordered by Congress, or either branch thereof, or emanating from any executive department or bureau of the Government, the House printer should observe and adhere to the standard of orthography prescribed in generally accepted dictionaries of the English language." The motion passed unanimously. The President let the Public Printer and the Nation know that the old style was reinstated.
Roosevelt ultimately decided to rescind the order. Brander Matthews, a friend of Roosevelt and one of the chief advocates of the reform as chairman of the Simplified Spelling Board, remonstrated with him for abandoning the effort. Roosevelt replied on December 16, 1906: "I could not by fighting have kept the new spelling in, and it was evidently worse than useless to go into an undignified contest when I was beaten. Do you know that the one word as to which I thought the new spelling was wrong — thru — was more responsible than anything else for our discomfiture?" Next summer Roosevelt was watching a naval review when a press boat marked "Pres Bot" chugged ostentatiously by. The President waved and laughed with delight.
Carnegie's dissatisfaction
Andrew Carnegie, the founding and major benefactor of the board, disagreed with its chosen approach of proscribing recommended changes. Rather, Carnegie believed that the board would be more productive by encouraging grass-roots changes. His beliefs are contained in a statement given to an editor of The TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
: "Amended spellings can only be submitted for general acceptance. It is the people who decide what is to be adopted or rejected." For their part, some members of the board believed that Carnegie was too meddlesome in its business.
Signs of a break with the board were apparent as early as 16 January 1915. Carnegie received a letter from Matthews, which included a list of daily newspapers that had adopted the reformed spellings. Carnegie was not impressed. In reply, Carnegie wrote, "Please note, not one Eastern paper. I see no change in New York and I am getting very tired indeed, of sinking twenty-five thousand dollars a year for nothing here in the East." Carnegie was further irritated to learn that his own trusts' annual financial reports were seen to be taking "a step backwards in reference to spelling."
One month later, on 25 February 1915, Carnegie penned a letter to Holt, the president of the board. In this letter, Carnegie wrote that "A more useless body of men never came into association, judging from the effects they produce. [...] Instead of taking twelve words and urging their adoption, they undertook radical changes from the start and these they can never make...." Using spelling that demonstrated his own continuing attachment to certain reforms, Carnegie added, "I think I hav been patient long enuf... I hav much better use for twenty thousand dollars a year."
Dissolution
It was always a condition that Carnegie's dollars had to be matched by results, and at his death in November 1919, his will contained no provision for the Simplified Spelling Board. Without that source of funds (a total of $283,000 over the 14 years), the board's operations ceased in 1920, in which year it published its Handbook of Simplified Spelling.Handbook of Simplified Spelling
In 1920, the SSB published a Handbook of Simplified Spelling, which was written wholly in reformed spelling.Part 1 is a brief outline of the history of English spelling and the attempts to reform it up until 1920.
Part 2 presents the arguments in favor of reform and replies to the objections that are commonly made.
Part 3 contains the SSB's proposed rules for simplified spelling and a list of the words that would be changed by them.
The handbook repeated and explained the SSB's plan of "gradual" rather than "sudden" reform. It noted that all past spelling changes had come into use gradually—"so gradually, in fact, that at all times (as today) ther hav been, and ar, many words speld in more than one way on equal authority of good usage". It also noted that most reformed spellings now in general use were originally the overt act of a lone writer, who was followed at first by a small minority. Thus, it encouraged people to "point the way" and "set the example" by using the reformed spellings whenever they can. The handbook used and set forth the following rules:
| Rule | Examples | |
|---|---|---|
| AE (Æ) and OE (Œ) pronounced /ɛ/ | use E | aesthetic→esthetic, foetus→fetus, alumnae (unchanged) |
| BT pronounced /t/ | use T | debt→det, doubt→dout |
| –CEED | use –CEDE | exceed→excede, proceed→procede |
| CH pronounced /k/ | drop silent H except before E, I, Y |
character→caracter, school→scool chemist, architect, monarchy (unchanged) |
| final double consonant | drop the last letter, but with –LL only after a short vowel, and with –SS only in monosyllables |
add→ad, bill→bil, bluff→bluf, doll→dol, egg→eg, glass→glas, loss→los But retain double consonant in all, roll, needless, a.s.f. |
| double consonant before silent –E | drop the last two letters | bagatelle→bagatel, bizarre→bizar, cigarette→cigaret, giraffe→giraf, gramme→gram |
| silent or misleading –E | drop the E | are→ar, give→giv, have→hav, were→wer, gone→gon, examine→examin, practise→practis, definite→definit, active→activ, involve→involv, serve→serv, achieve→achiev, leave→leav, freeze→freez, gauze→gauz |
| EA pronounced /ɛ/ | use E | head→hed |
| EA pronounced /ɑ/ | use A | heart→hart |
| EAU and EAUX pronounced /əʊ/ | use O | bureau→buro |
| –ED pronounced /d/ | use –D, reduce any foregoing doubled consonant to a single letter |
answered→anserd, called→cald, carried→carrid, preferred→preferd, wronged→wrongd. Do not make this change if the spelling suggests an incorrect pronunciation: bribed not bribd; used not usd, a.s.f. |
| –ED pronounced /t/ | use –T, reduce any foregoing doubled consonant to a single letter, change CED/SCED to ST |
asked→askt, advanced→advanst. Do not make this change if the spelling suggests an incorrect pronunciation: baked not bakt; hoped not hopt, a.s.f. |
| EI pronounced /iː/ | use IE | conceit→conciet, deceive→deciev |
| –EY pronounced /iː/ | use –Y | chimney→chimny, money→mony |
| GH pronounced /f/ | use F, drop the silent letter in the foregoing digraph |
cough→cof, laugh→laf, enough→enuf |
| GH pronounced /g/ | use G | aghast→agast, ghost→gost |
| –GM pronounced /m/ | use M | apothegm→apothem, paradigm→paradim |
| –GUE after a consonant, a short vowel or a digraph representing a long vowel or diphthong | drop silent –UE | catalogue→catalog, league→leag, tongue→tung But not in rogue, vague, a.s.f. |
| –ISE and –YSE pronounced /aɪz/ | use –IZE | advertise→advertize, analyse→analize, rise→rize |
| –MB after a short vowel | use M | bomb→bom, crumb→crum But not after a long vowel as in comb, tomb, a.s.f. |
| –OE pronounced /oʊ/ | drop silent E, except in inflected forms |
foe→fo, hoe→ho foes, hoed (unchanged) |
| OEU pronounced /uː/ | use U | manoeuver→manuver |
| OUL pronounced /əʊl/ | use OL, except in "soul" |
boulder→bolder, mould→mold |
| –OUGH | use O/U/OCK/UP according to pronunciation | although→altho, borough→boro, doughnut→donut, thorough→thoro, through→thru, hough→hock, hiccough→hiccup. For plough write plow, but not bow for bough. |
| –OUR pronounced /ər/ | use –OR | colour→color, flavour→flavor |
| PH pronounced /f/ | use F | alphabet→alfabet, telephone→telefone |
| –RE after any consonant except C | use –ER | centre→center, metre→meter. But retain –RE in lucre, mediocre. |
| RH– pronounced /r/ | use R | rhetoric→retoric, rhubarb→rubarb |
| RRH pronounced /r/ | use R | hemorrhage→hemorage |
| silent S between I and L | drop silent S | island→iland |
| SC– pronounced /s/ | use S | scenery→senery, scissors→sissors |
| –SQUE pronounced /sk/ | use –SK | burlesque→burlesk |
| silent U before a vowel | drop silent U | guard→gard, guess→ges, guide→gide |
| Y between consonants | use I | analysis→analisis, type→tipe |
| YOU pronounced /jʌ/ | use YU | your→yur, young→yung |
The handbook also suggested the following spelling changes, which are not covered by the above rules: acre→aker, answer→anser, beleaguer→beleager, campaign→campain, counterfeit→counterfit, delight→delite, foreign→foren, forfeit→forfit, friend→frend, masquerade→maskerade, mortgage→morgage, receipt→receit, sieve→siv, sleight→slight, sovereign→sovren, sprightly→spritely, touch→tuch, yeoman→yoman.
Further reading
- Pringle, Henry F. Theodore Roosevelt (1932; 2nd ed. 1956), full scholarly biography.
- Handbook of Simplified Spelling. Simplified Spelling Board, 1920.