Interspel
Encyclopedia
Interspel is a set of principle
s introduced by Valerie Yule
to meet the challenge of how to remove unpredictability and inconsistency from present English spelling while keeping the present heritage of print through minimal change in its appearance. That can be done when prevailing assumptions are challenged. The advantages of present spelling
are maximized for users and learners by applying psychological
research
on their needs and abilities, facilitating both visual and auditory
reading processes
, and by taking account of the special features of the English language
. This also promotes visible relationships of English
and international
vocabulary
. Principles for systematization reduce present disadvantages. A phonemic spelling for beginners and dictionary
pronunciation guides
forms a base that then modifies. Such a combination of advantages has been claimed to be impossible. However, psychological
and linguistic
research and technological
advances now make such a systematic reform more feasible, including breakthroughs by innovations that run counter to the usually expected proposals for spelling reform
.
Alternate introduction, taken from http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/sprefwiki.htm, and changed into Interspel:
In this way, readers accustomed to present spelling are not inconvenienced. Writers, including poor spellers, can use the predictable spellings that can be accepted as alternative spellings in dictionaries until usage determines public preference. The first principle for present spellers can be to omit surplus letters in words that serve no purpose to represent meaning or pronunciation, and can often mislead. This streamlining trend is already occurring, especially in text messaging
.
The English spelling reform
based on Interspel envisages an International English Spelling Commission to monitor research and authorize testing and implementation of findings.
more consistent, as applied in the experimental form Interspel:
1. Retain the spelling of the most common hundred words, which make up about half of everyday text. Only 31 of these have irregular spelling: all, almost, always, among, are, come, some, could, should, would, half, know, of, off, one, only, once, other, pull, push, put, as, was, what, want, who, why, and international word endings -ion/-tion/-ssion plus -zion, as in question, passion, vizion.
2. Regard spelling as a standardized
conventionalized representation of the language
(not merely its sounds), set out as in formal speech with minimal slurring.
3. Apply the alphabetic principle
of systematic sound
-symbol correspondence
, including regularizing current spelling patterns for final vowels, as in pity, may, be, hi-fi, go, emu, spa, her, hair, for, saw, cow, boy, too.
The primary vowels letters ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’, and ‘u’ are used to spell both 'long
' and 'short
' vowels, distinguishing long vowels as necessary by a diacritic
(grave accent
) as in national/nàtion, repetition/repèt, finish/fìnal, consolàtion/consòl, and consumtion/consùmer. The remaining vowel sounds are spelled as in car, perturb (ur = stressed, er = unstressed), hair, fort, taut, round, boil, boot, and, still unsolved, spelling for the vowel sound with no spelling of its own, as in book (perhaps as buuk).
Sequences of vowels can then be represented very simply in Interspel. Accents
for learners are optional. 'Spelling for reading' vowel
spellings are included below:
Doubled consonants have only three purposes: to indicate irregular stress; rr for short vowels as in carrot and current, and possibly final /ss/ for nouns.
4. This alphabet
ic base that relates letters
to English
speech sounds is modified with morphemic
principles that represent grammar
and meaning visually, as in plural
and tense
endings –s/es and –d/ed.
5. Only a few sets of words that sound the same (homophones) are found to be so confusable that they need differentiated spellings.
6. Names and places can be spelled as they please.
7. Seven alternative vowel
spelling
s with one-way pronunciation for reading: ai, ea, ee, igh, oa, ew, ir; and two possible pronunciations each for th, c, g and y, can also be recognized at the level of ‘Spelling for reading without traps’. Nobody has to memorize these alternative spellings to use in their own writing.
The seven principles above are proposed for investigation. They offer a feasible way to prevent English spelling
remaining a serious barrier to literacy
. They change only around 2.6% of the letters in everyday text, so present readers would be hardly inconvenienced. Its more consistent visible relationship of related words regularizes the 'Chomsky
' features of English spelling, to promote faster automatic visual recognition in reading for meaning and a more predictable relationship to the spoken language
for international users and learners.
(a) Interspel ‘Spelling without traps for reading’:
(b) The basic Interspel spelling for beginners with morphemic modifications, and 31 retained irregularly spelled words:
Here is another Interspel example.
Interspel, however, is a systematic reform of present spelling with three levels, to match established needs and abilities of users and learners, in which the basic alphabetic principle is modified by morphemic principles, long and short vowels are visibly related, and the 31 most common irregular words are retained. It is more complex in design, but more practicable in use.
Until there is a breakthrough to an international script that can cross languages, like Chinese, Interspel proposes an improved spelling for English
, the world’s present lingua franca
that could be essential for wider literacy
and global communication
. The International English Spelling Commission envisaged by this language reform
proposal would oversee and monitor informal and formal experiment
al research
in English spelling
improvement, and to implement the outcomes.
Principle
A principle is a law or rule that has to be, or usually is to be followed, or can be desirably followed, or is an inevitable consequence of something, such as the laws observed in nature or the way that a system is constructed...
s introduced by Valerie Yule
Valerie Yule
Dr. Valerie Yule is a researcher in literacy and imagination, clinical child psychologist, academic, school psychologist and teacher, working in disadvantaged schools, Melbourne and Monash Universities in psychology and education; the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne and the Royal Aberdeen...
to meet the challenge of how to remove unpredictability and inconsistency from present English spelling while keeping the present heritage of print through minimal change in its appearance. That can be done when prevailing assumptions are challenged. The advantages of present spelling
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...
are maximized for users and learners by applying psychological
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
on their needs and abilities, facilitating both visual and auditory
Auditory system
The auditory system is the sensory system for the sense of hearing.- Outer ear :The folds of cartilage surrounding the ear canal are called the pinna...
reading processes
Reading skills acquisition
Learning to read is the process of acquiring the skills necessary for reading; that is, the ability to acquire meaning from print. Learning to read is paradoxical in some ways...
, and by taking account of the special features 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...
. This also promotes visible relationships of English
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...
and international
Internationalism (linguistics)
In linguistics, an internationalism or international word is a loanword that occurs in several languages with the same or at least similar meaning and etymology. These words exist in "several different languages as a result of simultaneous or successive borrowings from the ultimate source"...
vocabulary
Vocabulary
A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...
. Principles for systematization reduce present disadvantages. A phonemic spelling for beginners and dictionary
Dictionary
A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
pronunciation guides
Pronunciation
Pronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect....
forms a base that then modifies. Such a combination of advantages has been claimed to be impossible. However, psychological
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
and linguistic
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
research and technological
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
advances now make such a systematic reform more feasible, including breakthroughs by innovations that run counter to the usually expected proposals for spelling reform
Spelling reform
Many languages have undergone spelling reform, where a deliberate, often officially sanctioned or mandated, change to spelling takes place. Proposals for such reform are also common....
.
Alternate introduction, taken from http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/sprefwiki.htm, and changed into Interspel:
- English speling needs imprùvment.
- http://www.childrenofthecode.org/cotcintro.htm.
- It is a màjor contribùtor to iliteracy, semi-literacy and scool failure despite masiv financial resòrces spent on teaching, rèsearch and remèdiàtion. It is prùven to slo down literacy lerning, to several years behìnd contries with consistent spellings. Most pèpl can't spell well, and too many can't read eficiently. Its too idiosyncratic spelling is a màjor reason why English will luse its position as the wurld's lingua franca, which it inherited for politicl and comercial reasns. The rest of the wurld has problems lerning two English languajes, the spoken and the written, when it shud be posibl to lern the one from the other. For over 200 years English spelling has been a sòcial opression used to screen out from sòcial mòbility those with fewer educational advantajes and oportùnities and less linguistic ability to mesure its pecùliarities. Literacy raises intelijens, and functional iliteracy is costly for sòcìety as well as individuals.
Interspel levels
Interspel-style reform, still in process of development and testing, has the following three levels for learning and use:- The alphabetic principleAlphabetic principleAccording to the alphabetic principle, letters and combinations of letters are the symbols used to represent the speech sounds of a language based on systematic and predictable relationships between written letters, symbols, and spoken words...
of soundSoundSound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...
-symbol correspondenceCorrespondence (mathematics)In mathematics and mathematical economics, correspondence is a term with several related but not identical meanings.* In general mathematics, correspondence is an alternative term for a relation between two sets...
, for beginner learners and for dictionary pronunciation keys. The correspondence is diaphonicDiaphone (linguistics)In linguistics, a diaphoneme or diaphone is a phoneme viewed through its dialectal variants, called diaphonic variants or diaphonic allophones. For example, the vowel that constitutes the English word eye is pronounced diaphonically as or in RP and General American, as or in Scottish English,...
, that is, broad and conventionalizedConvention (norm)A convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted standards, norms, social norms or criteria, often taking the form of a custom....
so that dialect variationsRegional accents of English speakersThe regional accents of English speakers show great variation across the areas where English is spoken as a first language. This article provides an overview of the many identifiable variations in pronunciation, usually deriving from the phoneme inventory of the local dialect, of the local variety...
are subsumed, as in the spellings dog and banana, and it represents clear formal speech, not casual slurring. - Learners immediately move on to an unexpected feature of this reform, as they learn the irregular spellings of around thirty of the hundred most common wordsMost common words in EnglishThe list below of most common words in English cannot be definitive. It is based on an analysis of the Oxford English Corpus of over a billion words, and represents one study done by Oxford Online, associated with the Oxford English Dictionary...
which make up about half of everyday text. This dramatically retains half of the appearance of present print, and assists learners to start reading the print around them. - Learners progressively move into reading and writing adult text with applied morphemicMorphemeIn linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
principles, such as consistent -s/es and -d/ed spellings for pluralPluralIn linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
and tenseGrammatical tenseA tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
endings. Only a few differentiated spellings of homophones prove needful. Doubled consonantsGeminationIn phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant. Gemination is distinct from stress and may appear independently of it....
can show irregular stressStress (linguistics)In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
. Transitional features include personal choice for the spelling of names and recognizing for reading but not needed for writing, eight one-way-pronunciation alternative spellings for vowels and alternative pronunciations of three consonants for reading. This ‘Spelling without traps for reading’ then closely resembles existing English spellingEnglish orthographyEnglish 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...
, which it has made more consistent.
In this way, readers accustomed to present spelling are not inconvenienced. Writers, including poor spellers, can use the predictable spellings that can be accepted as alternative spellings in dictionaries until usage determines public preference. The first principle for present spellers can be to omit surplus letters in words that serve no purpose to represent meaning or pronunciation, and can often mislead. This streamlining trend is already occurring, especially in text messaging
SMS language
SMS language or textese is a term for the abbreviations and slang most commonly used due to the necessary brevity of mobile phone text messaging, in particular the widespread SMS SMS language or textese (also known as txt-speak, txtese, chatspeak, txt, txtspk, txtk, txto, texting language, txt...
.
The English spelling reform
English spelling reform
For hundreds of years, many groups and individuals have advocated spelling reform for English. Spelling reformers seek to make English spelling more consistent and more phonetic, so that spellings match pronunciations and follow the alphabetic principle....
based on Interspel envisages an International English Spelling Commission to monitor research and authorize testing and implementation of findings.
Interspel consistency principles
Summary of the principles for making English spellingEnglish 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...
more consistent, as applied in the experimental form Interspel:
1. Retain the spelling of the most common hundred words, which make up about half of everyday text. Only 31 of these have irregular spelling: all, almost, always, among, are, come, some, could, should, would, half, know, of, off, one, only, once, other, pull, push, put, as, was, what, want, who, why, and international word endings -ion/-tion/-ssion plus -zion, as in question, passion, vizion.
2. Regard spelling as a standardized
Standardization
Standardization is the process of developing and implementing technical standards.The goals of standardization can be to help with independence of single suppliers , compatibility, interoperability, safety, repeatability, or quality....
conventionalized representation of the language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
(not merely its sounds), set out as in formal speech with minimal slurring.
3. Apply the alphabetic principle
Alphabetic principle
According to the alphabetic principle, letters and combinations of letters are the symbols used to represent the speech sounds of a language based on systematic and predictable relationships between written letters, symbols, and spoken words...
of systematic sound
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
-symbol correspondence
Correspondence (mathematics)
In mathematics and mathematical economics, correspondence is a term with several related but not identical meanings.* In general mathematics, correspondence is an alternative term for a relation between two sets...
, including regularizing current spelling patterns for final vowels, as in pity, may, be, hi-fi, go, emu, spa, her, hair, for, saw, cow, boy, too.
The primary vowels letters ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’, and ‘u’ are used to spell both 'long
Vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
' and 'short
Vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
' vowels, distinguishing long vowels as necessary by a diacritic
Diacritics
diacritics is a quarterly academic journal established in 1971 at Cornell University and published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. Articles serve to review recent literature in the field of literary criticism, and have covered topics in gender studies, political theory, psychoanalysis, queer...
(grave accent
Grave accent
The grave accent is a diacritical mark used in written Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Dutch, French, Greek , Italian, Mohawk, Norwegian, Occitan, Portuguese, Scottish Gaelic, Vietnamese, Welsh, Romansh, and other languages.-Greek:The grave accent was first used in the polytonic orthography of Ancient...
) as in national/nàtion, repetition/repèt, finish/fìnal, consolàtion/consòl, and consumtion/consùmer. The remaining vowel sounds are spelled as in car, perturb (ur = stressed, er = unstressed), hair, fort, taut, round, boil, boot, and, still unsolved, spelling for the vowel sound with no spelling of its own, as in book (perhaps as buuk).
Sequences of vowels can then be represented very simply in Interspel. Accents
Grave accent
The grave accent is a diacritical mark used in written Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Dutch, French, Greek , Italian, Mohawk, Norwegian, Occitan, Portuguese, Scottish Gaelic, Vietnamese, Welsh, Romansh, and other languages.-Greek:The grave accent was first used in the polytonic orthography of Ancient...
for learners are optional. 'Spelling for reading' vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
spellings are included below:
-
- a – bazaar, pàella, dàis, (paid), càos, taut,
- e – idèa, (year), (meet), bèing, crèol, hidèus
- i – dìal, dìet, flìing, ìota, pìus
- o – òasis, (boat), pòet, gòing, (boil), Zoo/zòolojy, out
- u – dùal, sùet, flùid, dùo, inocùus.
Doubled consonants have only three purposes: to indicate irregular stress; rr for short vowels as in carrot and current, and possibly final /ss/ for nouns.
4. This alphabet
Alphabet
An alphabet is a standard set of letters—basic written symbols or graphemes—each of which represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or semantic...
ic base that relates letters
Letter (alphabet)
A letter is a grapheme in an alphabetic system of writing, such as the Greek alphabet and its descendants. Letters compose phonemes and each phoneme represents a phone in the spoken form of the language....
to English
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...
speech sounds is modified with morphemic
Morpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
principles that represent grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
and meaning visually, as in plural
Plural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
and tense
Grammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
endings –s/es and –d/ed.
5. Only a few sets of words that sound the same (homophones) are found to be so confusable that they need differentiated spellings.
6. Names and places can be spelled as they please.
7. Seven alternative vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
spelling
Spelling
Spelling is the writing of one or more words with letters and diacritics. In addition, the term often, but not always, means an accepted standard spelling or the process of naming the letters...
s with one-way pronunciation for reading: ai, ea, ee, igh, oa, ew, ir; and two possible pronunciations each for th, c, g and y, can also be recognized at the level of ‘Spelling for reading without traps’. Nobody has to memorize these alternative spellings to use in their own writing.
The seven principles above are proposed for investigation. They offer a feasible way to prevent English spelling
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...
remaining a serious barrier to literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
. They change only around 2.6% of the letters in everyday text, so present readers would be hardly inconvenienced. Its more consistent visible relationship of related words regularizes the 'Chomsky
The Sound Pattern of English
The Sound Pattern of English is a 1968 work on phonology by Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle. It presents a comprehensive view of the phonology of English, and stands as a landmark both in the field of phonology and in the analysis of the English language...
' features of English spelling, to promote faster automatic visual recognition in reading for meaning and a more predictable relationship to the spoken language
Spoken language
Spoken language is a form of human communication in which words derived from a large vocabulary together with a diverse variety of names are uttered through or with the mouth. All words are made up from a limited set of vowels and consonants. The spoken words they make are stringed into...
for international users and learners.
Illustration
As an illustration, the following exemplar text from H.G. Wells' ‘The Star’, used by spelling reformers, is given in two levels of Interspel.(a) Interspel ‘Spelling without traps for reading’:
- It was on the first day of the new year that the announcement was made, almòst simultàneusly from three observatorys, that the mòtion of the planet Neptùne, the outermòst of all the planets that wheel about the Sun, had become very erratic. A retardàtion in its velocity had been suspected in December. Then a faint, remòte speck of light was discovered in the règion of the perturbed planet. At first this did not caus eny very gràt exìtement. Sìentific pèpl, however, found the intelligence remarkabl enuf, èven befor it became known that the new body was rapidly gròwing larger and brìghter, and that its mòtion was quìte different from the orderly prògress of the planets.
(b) The basic Interspel spelling for beginners with morphemic modifications, and 31 retained irregularly spelled words:
- It was on the furst day of the new yèar that the anounsment was màd, almòst simultàneusly from thre obsurvatorys, that the mòtion of the planet Neptùn, the outermòst of all the planets that whèl about the Sun, had become very erattic. A retardàtion in its velossity had bèn suspected in Desember. Then a fànt, remòt spek of lìt was discoverd in the rèjon of the perturbd planet. At furst this did not cauz eny very gràt exìtment. Sìentific pèpl, however, found the intellijens remarkabl enuf, èven befor it becàm known that the nù body was rapidly gròing larjer and brìter, and that its mòtion was quìt difrent from the orderly prògres of the planets.
Here is another Interspel example.
- Britten when yung
- We may nowadays be chary about ùsing the word "gènius", but we still hav a good idèa what is ment by it. For exampal, ther are graet numbers of very gifted miùsicians who are admird but not calld gèniuses. But ther are others, manifestly prodijius, performing offen at extraordinarily erly àjes, a variety of feats so complex that the miùsical layman could hardly imajin, èven with the mòst desperat làbor, accomplishing eny of them, while èven miùsicians are astonishd and we then reach for the good, handy, vaeg Enlaitenment werd and call them gèniuses. The list includes Mozart and Mendelssohn; and, despite all the limiting jujments, it includes Benjamin Britten.
- - Frank Kermode
Comparison with other English spelling reform proposals
By way of comparison, other proposals for English spelling reform are of four types:- New alphabets, such as the Shavian alphabetShavian alphabetThe Shavian alphabet is an alphabet conceived as a way to provide simple, phonetic orthography for the English language to replace the difficulties of the conventional spelling. It was posthumously funded by and named after Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw...
or the Deseret AlphabetDeseret alphabetThe Deseret alphabet is a phonemic English spelling reform developed in the mid-19th century by the board of regents of the University of Deseret under the direction of Brigham Young, second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.In public statements, Young claimed the...
;
- Including new symbols so that all English sounds have one ‘letter’ each, as in Pitman’s Initial teaching alphabetInitial Teaching AlphabetThe Initial Teaching Alphabet was developed by Sir James Pitman in the early 1960s...
or UnifonUnifonUnifon is a phonemic orthography for English designed in the mid-1950s by Dr. John R. Malone, a Chicago economist and newspaper equipment consultant. It was developed into a teaching aid to help children acquire reading and writing skills. Like the pronunciation key in a dictionary, Unifon matches...
;
- Phonemic, with correspondence of graphemes and phonemes (letters and sounds) such as Rondthaler’s American Spelling (SoundSpel)SoundSpelSoundSpel is an English language spelling reform proposal. Its origins date back to 1910.SoundSpel has been endorsed by the American Literacy Council because English speakers can easily read it.-Phonetics:Phonemes are represented as follows:...
, the Simplified Spelling Society’s Nue Speling, or the Basic Roman spelling of English. The ‘long’ vowels cause the greatest difficulty;
- Lists of re-spellings with or without rules, such as the Simplified Spelling Society’s present House Style.
Interspel, however, is a systematic reform of present spelling with three levels, to match established needs and abilities of users and learners, in which the basic alphabetic principle is modified by morphemic principles, long and short vowels are visibly related, and the 31 most common irregular words are retained. It is more complex in design, but more practicable in use.
Until there is a breakthrough to an international script that can cross languages, like Chinese, Interspel proposes an improved spelling for English
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...
, the world’s present lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
that could be essential for wider literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
and global communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
. The International English Spelling Commission envisaged by this language reform
Language reform
Language reform is a type of language planning by massive change to a language. The usual tools of language reform are simplification and purification. Simplification makes the language easier to use by regularizing vocabulary and grammar...
proposal would oversee and monitor informal and formal experiment
Experiment
An experiment is a methodical procedure carried out with the goal of verifying, falsifying, or establishing the validity of a hypothesis. Experiments vary greatly in their goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results...
al research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
in English spelling
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...
improvement, and to implement the outcomes.
See also
- Spelling reformSpelling reformMany languages have undergone spelling reform, where a deliberate, often officially sanctioned or mandated, change to spelling takes place. Proposals for such reform are also common....
- English spelling reformEnglish spelling reformFor hundreds of years, many groups and individuals have advocated spelling reform for English. Spelling reformers seek to make English spelling more consistent and more phonetic, so that spellings match pronunciations and follow the alphabetic principle....
- List of some English spelling reform proposals
- Valerie YuleValerie YuleDr. Valerie Yule is a researcher in literacy and imagination, clinical child psychologist, academic, school psychologist and teacher, working in disadvantaged schools, Melbourne and Monash Universities in psychology and education; the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne and the Royal Aberdeen...