Factoid 003: Roosevelt's American Spellings

[fantastic_jackie]

Not short at all like my other ones, but this is just too cool and funny to pass up.

Beware: Below is an English Language & American History geek out. You have been so warned. ;)

Ever wonder why there are differences in spelling between US and UK English? Well, I didn’t learn the why yet, (aside from being different countries, of course), but I did discover an episode in 1906 involving Theodore Roosevelt and an organization called the Simplified Spelling Board.

Today is the former President’s birthday, and he was mentioned in my 2009 calendar of Forgotten English. As POTUS in 1906, he issued an Executive Order for the Government Printing Office to adopt 300 reformed spellings as issued by the Simplified Spelling Board. Furthermore, he directed that the report be copied and distributed throughout the government and implemented.

The SSB, also founded in 1906, was on a mission to reform spelling, which was, apparently in that time, not too crazy an idea. Spelling in English throughout history has changed and encompassed several variants, and their good intentions mission was to standardize the language.

Well, it didn’t go over well. Roosevelt was ridiculed for it by not only Congress, but the general public and the Press.

“Nuthing escapes Mr. Rucevelt. No subject is tu hi fr him to takl, nor tu lo for him to notis,” was the quote of one publication regarding the issue. Even the New York Times said they would treat any of the reformed spellings issued from the government as misspellings, and would correct them!

Congress, outraged over his attempt to pass this via executive fiat without even consulting any approval from them, as well as incensed at the lack of authority in the Constitution for the POTUS to oversee such things, went as far as to pass a joint resolution that expressed their disapproval of the Order.

Even the Supreme Court stated that they, too, would refuse to use the reformed spellings.

And so it was that President Roosevelt had to retract his Executive Order. It was never officially enacted, though many of the spellings were already commonplace and did eventually come to be the standards in American English anyway.

Some of the spellings were…

Old Spelling	New Spelling
Centre	Center
Cheque	Check
Clew	Clue
Colour	Color
Oesophagus	Esophagus
Aesthetic	Esthetic
Phantasy	Fantasy
Gaol	Jail
Licence	License
Partisan	Partizan
Practice	Practise, v. & n.
Through, thro', thro	Thru
Waggon	Wagon
Woe	Wo

More here: http://www.johnreilly.info/trlist.htm

I just have one question: What kind of control freak did he have to be to place such attention as POTUS on English spellings?? LOL

Comments

[akemi-rei.livejournal.com]

I hated these differences when I first moved here! I knew some of them, but I used to fail English papers because of my "awful spelling" (when I was just spelling the UK way, which as a Canadian is the staple to me).

It still seems to me that most of the "new" spellings are lazy, though. I will admit many are more phonetically correct to American accents, but still. Thru will never be accepted by me, it's through! THOUGH!It's only 3 more letters u_u; come on nowwww

[patriot-jackie.livejournal.com]

I have to confess that my first experience as being a beta for a fanfic author was a girl from Canada, and I ripped apart her fics for spelling errors. The third chapter she sent me, I was so frustrated, I told her to use spell checker first before sending it to me! Needless to say I felt like a jerk when she told me that her spell checker was functioning properly. LOL

Many of the spellings proposed here weren’t ever adopted, even over time, though. – Particularly the SSB’s determination to do away with the ‘ed’ ending and replace it with ‘t’ instead. (ie, Blest, Comprest, Deprest, etc) – Thru doesn’t register as a typo on Word, but it is still slang. Or poetic. I would expect a nice big red mark on my paper if I thought I could get away with using that spelling on any piece of homework! lol

[mrstater.livejournal.com]

I'm going to revert to the Queen's English since our spellings are apparently violations of the Constitution. Too. funny.

[patriot-jackie.livejournal.com]

LOL Did you know that Pennsylvania is mispelled on the Liberty Bell? I didn't know that until Ter came back from her trip and told me!

[mrstater.livejournal.com]

LOL Seriously? How is it spelled?

ETA: "Also inscribed on the Bell is the quotation, "By Order of the Assembly of the Province of Pensylvania for the State House in Philada." Note that the spelling of "Pennsylvania" was not at that time universally adopted. In fact, in the original Constitution, the name of the state is also spelled "Pensylvania." If you get a chance to visit the second floor of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, take a moment to look at the original maps on the wall. They, too, have the state name spelled "Pensylvania" (and the Atlantic Ocean called by the name of that day, "The Western Ocean")." http://www.ushistory.org/libertybell/

[patriot-jackie.livejournal.com]

Yeah. lol

Apparently back in the day, if you could read and write, it was cool if things were just spelled phonetically. Spelling didn't count as much, I guess. What my friends in grade school would have given for that... So much better than cheating off me! ('cause I turned them in! lol)

[mrstater.livejournal.com]

Non-standardized spelling is the very best. Of the four (or six?) surviving Shakespeare signatures, he never spells his name the same way twice. It cracked me up reading Morte D'arthur and how many ways Thomas Mallory spelled his name -- or how spellings of character names would change within a paragraph. It seems so counter-intuitive to me not to spell the same word the same way every time! Did these people just operate on whims? "I think I feel like Taytor this time..."

[patriot-jackie.livejournal.com]

Maybe they thought of it as emphasis or something, like our internet-speak today. I'm thinking Lolcats. heh heh I do think it would be fun to mess with peoples' heads now-a-days, though...

"I can't believe you mispelled my name."
"What? But you spelled your name..."
"Naw, dude! Today it's ______!" LOL

[epyon26754.livejournal.com]

here's mark twain's take on the issuse

A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling
by Mark Twain

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all. Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli. Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

[patriot-jackie.livejournal.com]

LOL XD Amazing.