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A
List of mild respellings which have a high liklihood of being accepted.
o> Change 'ph' for [f] to 'f', e.g. 'emfasis',
'telefone'
o> Spell all short [e] as 'e' ("SR1"), e.g. 'hed',
'frend'
o> Remove misleading silent final 'e', e.g. 'hav',
'determin', ...
o> Respell 'ough' only where it reduces to '-o', '-u', e.g. 'tho'
Change
'ph' for [ f ] to 'f'
In words (or roots) which ar among the 5,000 most commonly appearing
in English:
atmosfere
fotograf/foto frase
emfasis
geografy
fysical
fase
fotocopy, etc. fysics, etc.
fenomenon
graf, etc. telefone/fone
filosofy
Among other English words (including ones
with roots of words above):
afis/afid
dolfin fysician
pamflet
aforism
efemeral fysiology
parafernalia
afrodisiac
elefant fysique
paragraf
alfabet
emfysema gofer
periferal
amorfous (+ othr encefalogram
grafeme polygraf
'-morf-' words) endorfin
grafite pornografy
amfibian
epifany haemofiliac
(or profesy (noun
amfitheatre (or epitaf
'hemofiliac') + verb)
'amfitheater') eufemism
headfones profet
amfora
eufony hemisfere
safire
apostrofe
euforia hieroglyf
(+othr sarcofagus
asfalt
falanx
'-glyf' words) saxofone
atrofied
fallic holografic
schizofrenia
autograf
fantasm homofone
seismograf
bibliofile (+othr fantom
hyfen
semafore
'-file' words) farmacy
lexicografer seraf
bibliografy farynx
lithograf sifon
biografy
feasant lymf
sfere
blasfemy
filanthropist megafone
sofisticated
cacofony
filately metafor
sofomore
calif
filharmonic metafysical
stafylococcus/
calligrafy filodendron
metamorfosis staf
camfor
flegm (or 'flem') microfone
stratosfere
catastrofe flox
morfeme sulfur(#)
chlorofyll (or foenix (or
morfine sycofant
'chlorofyl')
'fenix') morfology
syfilis
choreografy foneme
naftha symfony
claustrofobia fonetic
nefew(*) telefoto
fobia (+ many fonics
neofyte telegraf
compounds) fonograf
nymf
triumf
decifer, cifer foney (or 'fony')
oceanografy trofy
demografic fosfate
oesofagus (or tyfoid
diafragm (or fosforus
'esofagus') tyfoon
'diafram') fotogenic
orfan
typografy
diftheria
fotosynthesis orthografy
zefyr
difthong
fylum
The spellings 'Cellofane/cellofane', 'Faraoh/faraoh',
or the 'Sfinx/sfinx' might or might not be included on a reform plan, as
the first is technically a brand name and the other two ar usually proper
nouns. Schools of thaut differ on whether names should be included in a
spelling reform.
(*) altho some speakers pronounce the 'ph'
in 'nephew' as [v], the [f]
pronunciation is more common
and is used here
(#) 'sulfur' is alreddy the standard spelling
in the U.S.
Source: Chris Upward
Spell
All Short [e] as 'e' from Harry Lindgren's
SR1
'ea'-->'e'
hed bred
swet fether
brekfast pesant
ahed led
sweter lether
clense phesant*
redy red
thret wether
clenliness plesant
alredy dred
threten hether delt
plesure
stedy medow
breth
dremt mesure
insted spred
brest lept
tresure
ded thred
hevy abrest
ment
deth tred
heven trecherous
jelous
bredth
leven trechery helth
zelous
endevor def
welth zelot
wepon stelth
relm
'ei'/'eo'/'ie'-->'e'
hefer jepardy
lesure(#) lepard
frend
'ae'/'oe'-->'e'
esthetic estrogen
pedagogy estrus
pedophile* hemorrhage
hemorrhoid
'a'/'ai'/'a'+consonant+'e'/'ue'/'u'-->'e'
eny sed
et
meny ses
gess
agen gest
agenst bery
Plus Compounds and Derivativs Not Shown Here
*if combined with the 'ph'-->'f' change, then
'pheasant' is further
simplified to 'fesant', and 'paedophile'
simplified to 'pedofile'.
(#) it can either be (a) that the spelling
'lesure' is adopted only
in Commonwealth countries while
'leisure' remains the American
form; or (b) that the spelling
'lesure' represents two
pronunciations, both short and
long 'e' (as we hav in 'lever'),
and that 'lesure' be adopted
for American use as well
Source:
Harry Lindgren, "Spelling Reform
A New Approach" (1969), Alpha Books,
Sydney,
pages 122-129
Remove
Silent Final '-e' That Suggests
Misleading Pronunciation
(e.g. the '-e' on 'have' indicating a
false rhyme with 'wave'/'cave'/'save';
'gone' conflicting with 'tone'/'bone'/'shone')
giv
activ
effectiv passiv
forgiv
adjectiv exclusiv
perceptiv
hav
aggressiv expensiv
perspectiv
liv (verb)
alternativ explosiv
possessiv
outliv
collectiv expressiv
preservativ
reliv
comparativ festiv
primitiv
competitiv imaginativ
productiv
ar
conservativ impressiv
progressiv
gon
constructiv incentiv
protectiv
wer
cooperativ intensiv
receptiv
ax*
creativ laxativ
relativ
annex (for
cursiv lucrativ
responsiv
the noun
deceptiv massiv
sedativ
also)*
defensiv motiv
selectiv
delux
offensiv narrativ
subjectiv
caraf
descriptiv nativ
supportiv
caviar*
destructiv negativ
talkativ
furor*
detectiv positiv
+ many
digestiv objectiv
dozen more
distinctiv oliv
accurat
advocat (noun)
determin composit
adequat
alternat (adj, noun) disciplin
definit
affectionat appropriat (adj)
doctrin infinit
certificat approximat
(adj) engin
exquisit
chocolat
articulat (adj) examin
favo(u)rit
climat
associat (noun, adj) famin
granit
considerat delegat (noun)
feminin hypocrit
corporat
deliberat (adj) masculin
opposit
delicat
duplicat (noun, adj) genuin
perquisit
desolat
elaborat (adj)
imagin preterit*
desperat
estimat (noun)
intestin requisit
doctorat
graduat (noun, adj) jasmin
fortunat
intimat (adj, noun) medicin
immediat
moderat (adj, noun) urin
inanimat
separat (adj, noun)
intricat
syndicat (noun) promis
legitimat
practis (verb + noun)
literat
minut [or 'minit'] treatis
illiterat
premis(#)
passionat
carcas(#)
compassionat
purchas
pirat
purpos
proportionat
senat
subordinat
temperat
ultimat
+ others
Not changed, tho, because some speakers use
long vowel in these words:
'more', 'store', and other
'-ore' words
'fertile', 'versatile',
and other '-ile' words
'candidate', 'private',
'hurricane', 'octave'
'gelatine'(#), 'glycerine'(#),
'margarine', 'thiamine'
'antihistamine', 'histamine',
'aniline', 'endocrine'
*'caviar', 'annex' for the noun as well as
the verb, 'furor', and
'preterit' ar the standard spellings
for those words in American
English; and 'ax' seems to now
be the preferred spelling in many
American publications.
Further, to 'furore', some speakers still
pronounce it with three syllables
including the final 'e' so that it
rhymes with 'a foray' or 'a moray',
but most speakers now pronounce
'furore' with two syllables to
rhyme with 'juror'.
(#)'carcass', 'gelatin', and 'glycerin' ar
the standard spellings for
those words in American English;
'premiss' is a variant spelling in
all dialects of English for 'premise'
especially for the meaning of
'postulation of an argument'.
The spellings above that ar changed ar of the
pattern:
[short or unstressed vowel]
+ [single consonant] + [silent 'e']
where the 'e' goes against the usual English
pattern of indicating long
and short vowels.
Technically, the 'a' in 'are' and in the '-are'
of 'caviare' is not
short, and the first 'e' in 'were' is neither
'short' nor necessarily
unstressed, but those three words ar included
in this change as their
spellings ar misleading in the same vein as
the rest of these.
Respell
'ough'
Only
Where Spelling Reduces to '-o', '-u'(Plus
Compounds)
(e.g.
change 'though' which becomes 'tho', but don't change 'rough' or 'brought')
tho thoro
boro furlo thru
altho thoroly
thruout
thorofare
breakthru
thorobred
thorogoing
thoroness
REFERENCES
Sources for Misleading Final '-e' and 'ough'-->'-o',
'-u' Spellings:
American Literacy Council, List of "Streemlined
Spellings"
Stanley Gibbs, "The Society's 1984 Proposals",
Journal of the
Simplified Spelling
Society 1988 No. 2, page 32
Gilbert Rae, "Dropping Useless E", Simplified
Spelling Society
Newsletter, Spring
1986, page 26
Christopher Upward, "Cut Spelling: a handbook
to the simplification of
written English by
the omission of redundant letters" (1996, 2nd
Edition), Simplified
Spelling Society, Birmingham, pages 69-73,
82, 181, 207-212
Christopher Upward, "Regularity & Irregularity
in English Spelling"
[pamflet No. 15]
(1997), Simplified Spelling Society, Birmingham,
pages 5, 8
Other Categories of Removing Silent Final '-e'
A related class of words ar those with a silent
final '-e' which doesn'tviolate any long/short vowel rule, but which is
otherwise completely redundant. The long/short issue is null here
as the '-e' is preceded by either two consonants, or by a vowel pair
(which in all but three special cases ar long vowels). These don't
fall under the definition given for the "misleading 'e' " changes shown
above, but ar listed here
for interest in case one wants to add them
to a reform plan:
carv, curv, nerv, serv, conserv, deserv, observ,
preserv, reserv, starv, swerv, verv, evolv, involv, revolv,
shelv, solv, dissolv, resolv, delv, twelv, valv, adz, bronz,
leav, cleav, heav, sheav, weav, sleev, peev, achiev, believ, griev,
reliev, retriev, conceiv, deceiv, perceiv, receiv, cantaloup, hygien,
caffein, codein, cocain, novocain, migrain, morain, ptomain, romain,
breez, freez, sneez, squeez, tweez, wheez, braiz, gauz, seiz, ooz,
snooz
A 'special case' ar these three words:
porpois, tortois, siev
Other 'related' classes of words ar those ending
in '-le', '-lle',
'-sse', and a few other "double consonant
+ e" patterns such as '-ppe',
then those with final '-ette' and '-gue'.
'Apple', 'little', 'steeple',
the '-able' and '-ible' words such as 'dependable'
and 'visible',
'gazelle', 'vaudeville', 'finesse', 'crevasse',
'lacrosse', 'steppe',
'grippe', 'gaffe', and 'giraffe' ar some of
the spellings where final
'-e' could be removed under a later category.
Words ending '-ette' and '-gue' -- and possibly
also those ending
'-lle', '-ppe', and '-ffe' -- ar cases where
another letter might be
removed along with the 'e'. In fact,
one class of '-ette'-->'-et'
simplifications -- those for the musical combo
terms 'quartet',
'quintet', 'octet', etc. -- ar now the standard
spellings. The
spellings 'banneret', 'epaulet', and 'omelet'
further ar standard in
one major dialect, American English, and the
remaining '-et'
shortenings ar listed in most dictionaries
as alternativ spellings. Then, the
'-gue'-->'-g' simplification of 'catalog'
is now the standard spelling
in American English, and the other '-logue/-gogue'-->'-log/-gog'
simplifications ar alreddy dictionary-accepted
variant spellings
in most English-speaking countries.
Again, none of these fall into the category
in the main part of this
sheet. However, they ar mentioned here
in addendum in case one wants
to use them in a future category. |
