A spelling reform, is a deliberate, often officially
sanctioned or mandated change to
spelling rules of a language. Proposals for such reform are also
common and many languages have undergone such reforms. Recent
high-profile examples are the
German orthography reform of 1996 and the on-off
Portuguese spelling reform of 1990, which is still being ratified by
the different countries.
There are a number of reasons driving such reforms: easing the task
of children
or
immigrants becoming
literate, making the language more useful for international
communication, making etymology clearer, or for
aesthetic or political reasons.
Opposition to reforms is often based upon concern that old literature
will become inaccessible, the presumed suppression of regional accents,
or simple conservatism based on concern over unforeseen consequences.
Reforms that concentrate on removing unnecessary difficulties ought to
take account of such arguments. Consistency is more important than
phonemic consistency alone. Reform efforts are further hampered by habit
and, in many countries, a lack of
a central authority to set new spelling standards.
Spelling reform may also be associated with wider discussion of what
the
official script should be,
language planning and
language reform.
Arguments for
reform
In languages written with
alphabetic or
syllabary scripts, one might expect there to be a close match of the
script or spelling with the
spoken sound. However, even if they match at one time and place for
some speakers, over time they often do not match well for the majority:
one sound may be represented by various combinations of letters and one
letter or group of letters pronounced in various ways. In cases where
spelling takes account of
grammatical features these too may become inconsistent.
People who use
non-standard spelling often suffer from adverse opinions, as a
person's mastery of standard spelling is often equated to his or her
level of formal education or intelligence. Spelling is easier in
languages with more or less consistent spelling systems such as
Finnish,
Serbian,
Italian and
Spanish, than in languages where the pronunciation has moved on
since the spelling was fixed, or which use anachronistic or inconsistent
spellings, like
Irish,
English or
French.
Spelling reforms have been proposed for various languages over the
years; these have ranged from modest attempts to eliminate particular
irregularities (such as
SR1 or
Initial Teaching Alphabet) through more far-reaching reforms (such
as
Cut Spelling) to attempts to introduce a full
phonemic orthography, like the
Shavian alphabet or its revised version,
Quikscript, the latest
DevaGreek alphabet,[1]
the
Latinization of Turkish or
hangul
in Korea.
Superfluity of
graphemes (letters or characters) is often an issue in spelling
reform, which prompts the "Economic Argument"—significant cost savings
in the production materials over time—as promulgated by
George Bernard Shaw, although in modern times with computer systems
changing rapidly and equipped to produce the scripts of a variety of
languages this is now a bit far-fetched.
The idea of phonemic spelling has also been criticized as it would
hide
morphological similarities between words with different
pronunciations, and thus obscure their meanings. It is also argued that
when people read, they do not in reality try to work out the sequence of
sounds composing each word, but instead they recognize words either as a
whole, or as a sequence of small number of semantically significant
units (for example morphology might be read as morph+ology,
rather than as a sequence of a larger number of
phonemes).
In a system of phonetic spelling, these semantic units become less
distinct, as various
allomorphs can be pronounced differently in different contexts. For
example, in English spelling, most
past participles are spelled with an -ed on the end, even
though this can have several pronunciations (compare kissed and
interrupted).
One of the difficulties in introducing a spelling reform is how to
reflect different pronunciations, often linked to regions or classes. If
the reform attempts to be absolutely phonemic in some model dialect,
speakers of other dialects will find conflicts with their own usage.
By language
English
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An 1879 bulletin by the US Spelling Reform
Association, written mostly using reformed spellings
(click to enlarge).
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An 1880 bulletin, written wholly in reformed
spelling (click to enlarge).
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English spelling contains
many irregularities due to a number of factors. The large number of
words assimilated from other languages is one of them; and even more
importantly, English began to be widely written and printed during the
Middle English period: the subsequent development of
modern English included a
Great Vowel Shift and many other changes in
phonology. The older,
etymological spellings have been retained despite major shifts in
phonology.
Modern English has anywhere from 14 to 22
vowel and
diphthong
phonemes,
depending on
dialect,
and 26 or 27
consonant phonemes. A simple phoneme-letter representation of this
language within the 26 letters of the
English alphabet is impossible, and multi-letter
graphemes are a part of most spelling reform proposals. (They are
part of current English spelling as well, for example the first two
phonemes of "sheep"
//
are represented by the
digraphs <sh>,
/ʃ/, and <ee>,
/i/, respectively.)
Diacritic marks have also formed part of spelling reform proposals.
Critics have pointed out that a consistent phonemically based system
would be impractical: for example, phoneme distribution differs between
British English and
American English; furthermore, while English
Received Pronunciation features about 20 vowels, some second
language varieties of English have 10 or even fewer. A phonemic system
would therefore not be universal.
Furthermore, only a minority of the huge vocabulary of the English
language is used in everyday speech: the remainder is mainly used in
technical, literary and other contexts where the written language is the
primary means of communication, and in many cases the majority of
speakers of the language are unsure of the correct pronunciation. It
would be counter-productive to alter the spelling of these words to fit
their pronunciation more closely.
A number of proposals have been made to reform English spelling. Some
were proposed by
Noah Webster early in the 19th century. He was in part concerned to
distinguish American from British usage. Some of his suggestions
resulted in the
differences between American and British spelling.
Chinese
(romanization)
In the 1950s, the Language Reform Committee of the People's Republic
of China devised the
Hanyu
Pinyin orthography and promulgated it as the official romanization
system of mainland China. Since pinyin became the international standard
for Chinese romanization in 1982, other romanizations (including the
Wade-Giles system,
Gwoyeu Romatzyh developed by
Yuen Ren Chao, and
Latinxua Sin Wenz) have become rarely used.
The Republic of China on Taiwan continued to use Wade-Giles
romanization until the turn of the 21st century, when the Tongyong
Pinyin romanization was introduced. Tongyong Pinyin has been
sporadically adopted throughout the island, and criticized for
inconsistency. Hanyu Pinyin, the same system used in the mainland, was
formally adopted in 2009.
Dutch
Dutch has undergone a series of
major spelling reforms beginning in 1804 - with varying levels of
official sanction and popular acceptance across the areas in which
varieties of the
Dutch language are spoken.
The
Dutch Language Union, founded in 1980 by the Netherlands and
Belgium, is now the source of official reforms, and in 1995 issued the
"Green Booklet" reform. Although in Belgium the official spelling
reform was generally accepted without protest, in the
Netherlands there was a popular backlash and the release of the
White Booklet. Currently these two spellings are both in use in the
Netherlands - the 'green' one by schools and officials, and the
'white' one by newspapers, magazines and television stations[citation
needed].
French
In 1990,
a substantial reform ordered by the
French prime minister changed the spelling of about 2000 words as
well as some grammar rules. After much delay, the new recommended
orthography received official support in
France,
Belgium,
and Quebec
in 2004, but it has not yet been widely adopted. The 2012 version of
Larousse incorporates all of the changes. The 2009 version of
Le Petit Robert incorporates most of the changes. There are 6000
words, which also includes words that were not originally included in
the 1990 reform, for example, charrette or charette, based
on chariot. As of 16 March 2009, several major Belgian publishing groups
have begun to apply the new spelling in their on-line publications.
Street name adapted to last German spelling reform
German
German spelling was officially reformed in 1901 and certain older
spelling patterns were updated: for instance some occurrences of "th"
were changed to "t", the use of hyphens changed, and some instances of
"c" were changed to "z". In 1944 another spelling reform was due to be
introduced, but ultimately came to nothing because of
World War II.
Even though German spelling was already more consistent than English
or French spelling, the
German speaking countries signed an agreement on spelling reforms in
1996; these were planned to be gradually introduced beginning in 1998
and fully in force by 2005.
The so-called
Rechtschreibreform is still subject to dispute, and polls
consistently show a majority against the new rules. In summer 2004,
several newspapers and magazines returned to the old rules.
Greek
The classical, medieval, and early modern polytonic orthography
contained a number of
archaisms inherited from
Ancient Greek, which have been dispensed with or simplified in the
modern
monotonic orthography. See also
Katharevousa.
Indonesian
- Related article:
Differences between Malay and Indonesian: Orthography
Indonesian underwent spelling reforms in 1947 and 1972, after which
its spelling was more consistent with the form of the language spoken in
Malaysia (i.e.
Malay).
Old
spelling |
New
spelling |
| oe |
u |
| tj |
c |
| dj |
j |
| j |
y |
| nj |
ny |
| sj |
sy |
| ch |
kh |
The first of these changes (oe to u) occurred around
the time of independence in 1947; all of the others were a part of an
officially mandated spelling reform in 1972. Some of the old spellings,
which were more closely derived from the
Dutch language, still survive in proper names.
Japanese
The original Japanese
kana
syllabaries were a purely phonetic representation used for writing
the
Japanese language when they were invented around 800 AD as a
simplification of Chinese-derived
kanji
characters. However, the syllabaries were not completely codified and
alternate letterforms, or
hentaigana, existed for many sounds until standardization in 1900.
In addition, due to
linguistic drift the pronunciation of many Japanese words changed,
mostly in a systematic way, from the
classical Japanese language as spoken when the kana syllabaries were
invented. Despite this, words continued to be spelled in kana as they
were in classical Japanese, reflecting the classic rather than the
modern pronunciation, until a Cabinet order in 1946 officially
adopted spelling reform, making the spelling of words purely
phonetic (with only 3 sets of exceptions) and dropping characters that
represented sounds no longer used in the language.
Norwegian
- Related article:
Norwegian language struggle
Before Norway became independent in 1905, the
Norwegian language was written in Danish with minor characteristic
regionalisms and idioms. After independence, there were spelling reforms
in 1907, 1917, 1938, 1941, 1981 and 2005, reflecting the tug-of-war
between the spelling styles preferred by traditionalists and reformers,
depending on social class, urbanization, ideology, education and
dialect. The 2005 reform re-introduced several traditional spellings
that had been abolished by the earlier spelling reforms. Little used
spellings were also excluded.
Polish
The Polish alphabet has several letters whose characteristic sounds
are already represented elsewhere in the alphabet. These include "ch"
(represented as "h"), "rz" (represented as "ż") and "ó" (represented as
"u"). These letters are used in many Polish words, and cause many
misspellings. These can be replaced without any loss in pronunciation. A
similar reform has been done in Russian already.
Portuguese
The medieval spelling of Portuguese was mostly phonemic, but, from
the
Renaissance on, many authors who admired
classical culture started to use an etymological orthography. In the
early 20th century, however, spelling reforms in
Portugal and
Brazil
reverted the orthography to phonemic principles. Subsequent reforms
(Brazil, 1943 and 1971; Portugal, 1945 and 1973) have aimed mainly at
three objectives: to eliminate the few traces of redundant etymological
spelling that remained , to reduce the number of words marked with
diacritics and hyphens, and to bring the Brazilian spelling standard and
the European-African-Asian spelling standard closer to each other.
The objective of unifying the rules of writing was finally achieved
with a multi-lateral agreement in 1990, signed by every
Portuguese-speaking country, but not ratified by Angola nor Mozambique.
The reform began being implemented in Brazil and Portugal only in 2009
(although the legal instruments used are not the appropriate which makes
the imposition illegal), the time-limit set to 2016. The agreement was
imposed in 2012 and is used by the government and the teaching realms,
as well as many of the press and publishing houses of both countries
(however seldom are the Portuguese speaking writers that allow their
books to be published with the orthography that results from the
reform), and in state-related institutions. In fact, more variation in
spelling was created due to the submission of spelling to phonetics.
Because there are major differences between the Portuguese spoken in
Portugal and the Portuguese spoken in Brazil, the reform has led to the
creations of new words that once were the same and are now different.
While the Government and the institutions apply the rules of the new
Agreement, the vast majority of the Brazilian people are completely
unaware of the changes and a vaster majority of Portuguese people are
completely against the reform and refuse to use it . None of the other
Portuguese speaking countries who have signed the Agreement have
implemented it and Angola and Mozambique have made clear they are not
going to. Along with that, after pressure from the Federal Senate, the
Brazilian government has extended the "transition" times in Brazil and
moved it to 2016, while the Senate keeps debating the subject and has
not taken out of the picture the possibility of simply abandoning the
Agreement as they did in the past. In Portugal the resistance continues
and in 2013 the Portuguese Parliament has created a work group to
analyse the chaos in which the Portuguese spelling has sunk and propose
solutions, which could even pass by the suspension and even ending of
the Agreement.
There are now 4 official spellings in the Portuguese language: the
official Portuguese spelling pre-reform (used in all Portuguese speaking
countries in Africa, Asia and Oceania, as used in Portugal by the
people), the official Brazilian spelling pre-reform (used by the people
of Brazil), the Portuguese spelling after-reform (used by the Government
and it's institutions, some media and publishers in translated books),
and the Brazilian spelling after-reform (used by the Government, media
and publishers in translated books.) The latter two systems are
regulated by the same Agreement, but differ somewhere because of
different pronunciation of the same words in Portugal and Brazil.
Russian
Over time, there have been a number of changes in spelling. They
mostly involved the elimination of the (purely etymological)
Greek letters that had been retained in the
Cyrillic script by reason of ecclesiastical tradition, and those
rendered obsolete by changes in
phonetics.
When
Peter I introduced his "civil script" (гражданский шрифт,
graždanskij šrift) in 1708, based on more Western-looking letter
shapes, spelling was simplified as well.
The most recent major reform of Russian spelling was carried out
shortly after the
Russian Revolution. The Russian
orthography was simplified by eliminating four obsolete letters (ѣ,
і, ѵ, and ѳ) and the archaic usage of the letter
ъ (called
yer, or hard sign) at the ends of words, which had
originally represented a vowel with a sound similar to
schwa,
but had become silent by the Middle Ages.
South Slavic
languages
South Slavic Languages, a dialectical continuum also known as
Serbo-Croatian which forms modern standard Serbian,
Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin languages went
through a series of major spelling reforms in early and middle 19th
century. Up until that time two distinct writing traditions have
evolved. Western dialectical group has been written using Latin
alphabet, while eastern (Serbian) has been using an archaic form of the
Cyrillic script. Despite several attempts there were no universally
accepted spelling standard employing Latin alphabet and Cyrillic version
was considered outdated.
A series of reforms have been undertaken to establish the standards,
in order to bring the writing system to accordance with spoken language.
The reform movement was spearheaded by Croatian linguist
Ljudevit Gaj for Latin based writing system, and Serbian reformer
Vuk Stefanović Karadžić for Cyrillic version.
The reform efforts were coordinated in order to correlate the two
writing systems, culminating in
Vienna Literary Agreement in 1850. The system thus established has
remained in service since. Slovene language, not a part of
Serbo-Croatian dialectical continuum was also covered by the same reform
movement. After the second world war and formulation of
Macedonian literary language the same system has been extended, with
some modifications to it as well.
All of these writing systems exhibit a high degree of correspondence
between language sounds and letter characters, making them highly
phonetic and very consistent.
Another South Slavic language,
Bulgarian underwent a spelling reform in 1945, following Russian
model.
Spanish
There have been several initiatives to reform the spelling of
Spanish:
Andrés Bello succeeded in making his proposal official in several
South American countries, but they later returned to the
RAE standard.
Another initiative, the Ortografía Fonética Rasional
Ispanoamericana, remained a curiosity.
Juan Ramón Jiménez proposed changing -ge- and -gi to
-je- and ji, but this is applied only in editions of his
works or
his wife's.
Gabriel García Márquez raised the issue of reform during a congress
at
Zacatecas, and drew attention to the issue, but no changes were
made. The Academies, however, change several tidbits from time to time.
See also
Spanish orthography.
Other languages
- Armenian:
Spelling reform of the Armenian language 1922-1924
- Catalan: the spelling of the
Catalan language was standardized, mostly by
Pompeu Fabra in the early 20th century.
- Chinese:
Simplified Chinese characters replaced
traditional characters in
Mainland China, although traditional characters are still used
in
Taiwan and
Hong Kong.
- Czech: The spelling of the
Czech language was reformed and regularised as early as the 15th
century through the publication of the manuscript
Orthographia bohemica.
- Danish: In a 1948 reform, the
Danish language abandoned the capitalization of common nouns
(originally a German-inspired rule) to align with the other
Scandinavian languages. At the same time, the digraph Aa/aa was
abandoned in favor of the Swedish letter
Å/å. The
double-a digraph is still widely used in personal names and is
optional in a few placenames. In 1980,
W was
recognized as a distinct letter. Before that, it was considered a
variation of V
for purposes of collation.
- Filipino:
Filipino orthography
- Galician:
Reintegrationism
-
Georgian language: In 19th century Georgian alphabet
underwent removal of five letters(ჱ, ჳ, ჲ, ჴ, ჵ).
- Hebrew: The
Hebrew language has two systems of spelling - with and without
vowel marks, called
Niqqud.
Niqqud is used consistently only in books for children, poetry, and
some textbooks and religious literature. Most other texts are
usually written without vowel marks.
The Academy of the Hebrew Language publishes rules for both
vocalized and unvocalized spelling. The latest major revision to the
rules of unvocalized spelling were published in 1996, although in
practice they are not mandatory. To date there is no standard
spelling for unvocalized Hebrew and many Hebrew speakers spell
according to their own instinct and custom. See
Hebrew spelling.
- Korean: The
hangul alphabet replaced
hanja
ideograms in the
Korean language.
- Latvian: Old versions of Latvian orthography were
German-based, they were replaced by a more appropriate system at the
beginning of the 20th century. The
Latvian language discarded the digraph Uo in 1914, the
letter Ō in 1946, and the letters Ŗ and Ch in
1957.
- Swedish: The last major reform of
Swedish orthography occurred in 1906. It homogenized the
spelling of /v/ and changed the adverbial and neuter adjectival
ending -dt to -t or -tt depending on the length
of the preceding vowel. The phrase hvarken af silfver eller rödt
guld was now spelled varken av silver eller rött guld.
Some people had called for an even more radical reform which would
also homogenise the spellings of the
/j/,
/ɕ/ and
/ɧ/
sounds, which to this day remain highly diverse in Swedish.
- Turkish: The
Turkish alphabet replaced the
Ottoman Turkish script in the
Turkish language
- Vietnamese: In the
Vietnamese language, the
Vietnamese alphabet replaced the earlier
Nom
system in the 1920s.[citation
needed]
See also
References
- István Fodor and Clause Hagège (eds): La Réforme des langues.
Histoire et avenir. Language reform. History and future.
Sprachreform. Geschichte und Zukunft. Buske, Hamburg 1983–1989
- Edite Estrela: A Questão Ortográfica: Reforma e Acordos da
Língua Portuguesa. Editorial Notícias, Lisbon 1993
External links