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Campaign launched to liberate 'speling'
'One reason for problems with literacy is the burden spelling places on children'
Posted: September 08, 2008
9:58 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

The president of the United Kingdom's Spelling Society is using this week's society dinner to call for a liberation of the spelling of English words, opining that children are being hindered in their education because they must memorize irregular spellings.

The plan is being proposed by John Wells, emeritus professor of phonetics at University College London, according to a report in the London Times.

"The teaching of literacy in schools is a major worry," he said. "It seems highly likely that one of the reasons Britain and other English-speaking countries have problems with literacy is because of our spelling and the burden it places on children."

An accompanying commentary by Libby Purves, in the same newspaper, however, challenged the idea. "Preposturos!" she wrote. "Words wud lose there meening."

"The prime purpose of language is to convey meaning: a lawyer's tort is neither taut nor taught, nor a restaurateur's torte; flour is not a flower, a hart has a heart. Bed and board is not the same as bed and bawd, even with hoarfrost on the windows," Purves wrote.

Wells, however, told the Times English has "just so many irregularities."

"It seems to be a great pity that English-speaking countries are holding back children in this way. There are lots of other things that are neglected in class because so much time is spent on spelling."

Likewise, Wells told the newspaper, the apostrophe is a waste of time.

"Instead of an apostrophe we could just leave it out (it's could become its) or leave a space (so we'll would become we ll). Have we really nothing better to do with our lives than fret about the apostrophe?" he wondered.

"Let's allow people greater freedom to spell logically," he said. "It's time to remove the fetish that says that correct spelling is a principal (principle?) mark of being educated," he said.

David Crystal, author of the "Txting: the Gr8 Db8, " told the newspaper such changes already are happening, created by those who use new abbreviations and spellings on the Internet.

On the Times' website, readers were thrilled:

"O gud. I cant wate 2 b ayble 2 spel lik this al the tyme.." said one reader. "Or not."

An anonymous reader identified as "Nad," said, "What next professor? Shall we abolish multiplication tables because some people struggle with their arithmetic? Or perhaps repeal the laws of gravity as an affront to liberty?"

"Must we always pander to the least intelligent and laziest?" asked another.

"Oh I'm sorry. I thought the whole point of school was to teach us things that are a bit tricky," said Kate, from Cardiff.