Wordcraft Home Page    Wordcraft Community Home Page    Forums  Hop To Forum Categories  The Written Word    Don't be agast!
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Don't be agast!
 Login/Join
 
Kalleh
Member
Picture of Kalleh
posted
I bet you thought I misspelled agast, right? Well, not for this article. I can't believe that the Chicago Tribune used "simplified spelling" from 1934 to 1975. Besides the publisher who supported it, apparently Mark Twain, Upton Sinclair, Andrew Carnegie and President Theodore Roosevelt all backed "reformed spelling." Here are a few of the words the Tribune used:
quote:
Advertisment (for advertisement)
Agast (for aghast)
Aile (for aisle)
Bailif, sherif, staf, tarif (for bailiff, sheriff, staff, tariff)
Bazar (for bazaar)
Controled (for controlled)
Controler (for controller)
Criscross (for crisscross)
Distaf (for distaff)
Extoled (for extolled)
Fantom (for phantom)
Frate (for freight)
Frater (for freighter)
Gally (for galley)
Genuinly (for genuinely)
Hammoc (for hammock)
Hassoc (for hassock)
Hefer (for heifer)
Hemloc (for hemlock)
Indefinitly (for indefinitely)
Instalment (for installment)
Lacrimal (for lachrymal)
Lacrimose (for lachrymose)
Missil (for missile)
 
Posts: 24735 | Location: Chicago, USAReply With QuoteReport This Post
Geoff
Member
posted Hide Post
Just carrying on in the Webster tradition, I suppose.


It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -J. Krishnamurti
 
Posts: 6171 | Location: Muncie, IndianaReply With QuoteReport This Post
goofy
Member
posted Hide Post
I just got this awesome book: The History of English Spelling by Christopher Upward and George Davidson. They say that the possibly up to 25% of English vocabulary has accepted alternative spellings.
 
Posts: 2428Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Geoff
Member
posted Hide Post
That's obvious with regard to given names. My own name is a good example. Jesus is another. Family names change too, as in Loughead morphing into Lockheed. Damned Yankees couldn't understand it the proper Scottish way! Wink


It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -J. Krishnamurti
 
Posts: 6171 | Location: Muncie, IndianaReply With QuoteReport This Post
<Proofreader>
posted
R u kidng me?
 
Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Kalleh
Member
Picture of Kalleh
posted Hide Post
quote:
They say that the possibly up to 25% of English vocabulary has accepted alternative spellings.
Well, I wonder what they mean by "acceptable." Acceptable by them?
 
Posts: 24735 | Location: Chicago, USAReply With QuoteReport This Post
arnie
Member
Picture of arnie
posted Hide Post
They say "accepted", not "acceptable". Therefore they are accepted by someone. I expect authors mean dictionaries in practice.


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
 
Posts: 10940 | Location: LondonReply With QuoteReport This Post
goofy
Member
posted Hide Post
They're talking about dictionaries. They say the number changes depending on the dictionary one consults.
 
Posts: 2428Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 

Wordcraft Home Page    Wordcraft Community Home Page    Forums  Hop To Forum Categories  The Written Word    Don't be agast!

Copyright © 2002-12