# Have there been any recent academic efforts to simplify English spelling? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 1, 2007, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-any-recent-academic-efforts-to-simplify-english-spelling/406321 "2007-06-01T08:44:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-any-recent-academic-efforts-to-simplify-english-spelling/406321/21 "2007-06-01T18:11:54Z")
Theodore Roosevelt was passionate about the need for simplified spelling. He routinely spelled “thorough” as “thoro” and so on. He even considered having all White House documents use his simplified method of spelling, but backed down when Congress threatened to block funding. Edmund Morris tells the story in his wonderful bio _Theodore Rex_. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-any-recent-academic-efforts-to-simplify-english-spelling/406321/22 "2007-06-01T20:31:44Z")
[QUOTE=dropzone] But that would be pronounced with a long A, _kidnāper_ rather than _kidnăpper._ We may not have enough consistency in English spelling for some people but one fairly solid rule of thumb is that a vowel followed by a single consonant is long but if you double the consonant the vowel is short. [/quote] That’s my personal objection to the “modern” spelling of the word, too. > [@](#): > > Plus, I’ve never seen _kidnaper_ untill today, so it doesn’t seem to have caught on that much. 😃 Check newspaper reports of kidnap(p)ings for any time after the early 1970s. By the way, [here](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/kidnaper) is a link showing the spelling with a single _p_ for the word evidently isn’t all that uncommon. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-any-recent-academic-efforts-to-simplify-english-spelling/406321/23 "2007-06-02T02:56:58Z")
[QUOTE=Chief Pedant] Wouldn’t it be kween [/QUOTE] Agree- cween looks too Welsh 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-any-recent-academic-efforts-to-simplify-english-spelling/406321/24 "2007-06-02T03:04:42Z")
[QUOTE=Monty] Check newspaper reports of kidnap(p)ings for any time after the early 1970s. By the way, [here](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/kidnaper) is a link showing the spelling with a single _p_ for the word evidently isn’t all that uncommon. [/QUOTE] Well a Google search result comparison yields: Results 1 - 10 of about 37,900 for kidnaper [definition]. (0.17 seconds) Results 1 - 10 of about 1,340,000 for kidnapper [definition]. (0.44 seconds) In the News search, the results were a little more encouraging Results 1 - 2 of 2 for kidnaper. (0.03 seconds) Results 1 - 10 of about 806 for kidnapper. (0.09 seconds) Results 1 - 8 of 8 for kidnaped. (0.09 seconds) Results 1 - 10 of about 20,541 for kidnapped. (0.07 seconds) Firefox spell check also underlines “kidnaper” and “kidnaped” as spelling mistakes. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-any-recent-academic-efforts-to-simplify-english-spelling/406321/25 "2007-06-02T03:07:06Z")
As mentioned the big problem is that we’d have to do it again every few years. Or we could just let people do what do they do now and spell things more or less how they like as long people understand it. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-any-recent-academic-efforts-to-simplify-english-spelling/406321/26 "2007-06-02T03:44:29Z")
I think a lot of times the spelling of a word indicates its origin. It might not be wise to start writing a newspeak dictionary quite yet. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-any-recent-academic-efforts-to-simplify-english-spelling/406321/27 "2007-06-02T03:52:26Z")
[QUOTE=Monty] Check newspaper reports of kidnap(p)ings for any time after the early 1970s. By the way, [here](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/kidnaper) is a link showing the spelling with a single _p_ for the word evidently isn’t all that uncommon. [/QUOTE] Well, whatever newspapers print that aren’t following AP Style. The AP stylebook has an entry for this very word: > [@The Associated Press Stylbook and Libel Manual](#): > > **kidnap, kidnapped, kidnapping, kidnapper** Any newspapers that follow AP Style (and pretty much all follow AP Style or some variant of it) should not be spelling the word with one “p.” ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-any-recent-academic-efforts-to-simplify-english-spelling/406321/28 "2007-06-02T08:13:44Z")
One newspaper tried a rather simple spelling of: Tho= though Thru= through and so forth. You still see these and I think they are accepted as varient spellings by most. ---
**Author:** ![rayh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@rayh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rayh)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-any-recent-academic-efforts-to-simplify-english-spelling/406321/29 "2007-06-02T12:46:25Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] Agree- cween looks too Welsh 🙂 [/QUOTE] And that would be a problem because? You could always look at text messaging where some of the abbreviations seem to be working through into the mainstream of the language. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-any-recent-academic-efforts-to-simplify-english-spelling/406321/30 "2007-06-02T15:25:05Z")
[QUOTE=Hari Seldon] Then there is a question of dialects. I would want the ends of “sad” and “bad” spelled differently, but I understand that they rhyme in most dialects. [/QUOTE] Honest question… in what English-speaking place do “sad” and “bad” NOT rhyme? And how on earth would they be pronounced? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-any-recent-academic-efforts-to-simplify-english-spelling/406321/31 "2007-06-02T16:03:57Z")
The problem with simplfied spelling (“the way it’s prounounced”) and the reason it doesn’t work was clearly spelled out by Ira Gershwin: “You say tuh-may-toe And I say tuh-may-toe” And, as Ira pointed out: “Let’s call the whole thing off.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-any-recent-academic-efforts-to-simplify-english-spelling/406321.md?page=1)