What do you think of spelling reform? Should changes be made to the English language to make it easier to write and read. How far should it go? Should redundant letters be removed in words like ‘accommodate’ and ‘tomorrow’ and get rid of the ‘c’ in in circus and spell it ‘sirkus’?
Actually, I’m all for it but don’t like a lot of the reforms proposed, like taking the ‘e’ out of ‘the’ and making it ‘th’ …th alone looks weird and seems like going to far.
There are good arguments for making English spelling more phonetic like: it takes children at least three more years to master reading and writing in English than it takes in other languages like Italian and Finnish, which are more phonetically logical.
Finnish seems to be a good example of a language where in the spelling is very logical and phonetic and linguists say Finnish children learn to read 5 years earlier on average than English children because its so much easier. Maybe English spelling could be changed to use the Finnish alphabet and follow Finnish rules? Why Finnish is cooler than English
Here are some articles written on spelling reform that make a good argument.
http://www.valerieyule.com.au/ssurplu.htm
Also, there is a society you can join for English spelling reform here, http://www.spellingsociety.org It was founded in 1908 and Unfortunately it has a long history of failing to make any head way in changing the spelling of the English language.
So, what are your thoughts on spelling reform?
