Spellbound : untangling English spelling / Robbins Burling.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burling, Robbins, author.

Contributor:

Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Spellers.

English language--Orthography and spelling--Handbooks, manuals, etc.

English language.

English language--Orthography and spelling.

Genre:

Handbooks and manuals.

Physical Description:

ix, 174 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Sheffield, UK ; Bristol, CT : Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2016.

Summary:

Spellbound considers the history of English spelling and provides suggestions for modern-day reform of its irregularities. The first half of the book reviews the history of English spelling and the reasons for the many irregularities of our modern language. The author argues that the irregular spelling of English contributes seriously to the high rate of illiteracy in the English speaking world. He then reviews some of the many attempts to reform the spelling of other languages, some of which were successful and others not. During the first half of the twentieth century there was a flurry of interest in reforms for English but since then reform has been little more than the object of humor. Spellbound considers the reasons for this opposition to reform. The book then turns to current proposals for the reform of English spelling. It describes the criteria that should govern the choice among alternative reforms and considers in detail the relatively easily reformed consonants and the much more difficult vowels. Special attention is given to ways of designing a spelling that is equally suitable for the many and diverse dialects of spoken English. While the author recognizes that a unified spelling could not be perfect for any single dialect, he argues that it could be very much better than our present spelling for all dialects. Spellbound concludes by looking at possible ways by which reforms might be brought about today. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I

1 What Needs Fixing? 3

2 What Happened to English Spelling? 9

3 Reading, Spelling, and Illiteracy 21

4 Reforms for Other Languages 34

5 Failed Reforms for English 53

6 Is Reform Possible? 72

Part II

7 The Criteria for a Better Spelling for English 85

8 Consonants 99

9 Stressed Vowels 109

10 The Unstressed Schwa 130

11 How Might It Look? 137

12 English Spelling: Optimal or Absurd? 147.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 165-167) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

ISBN:

9781781791301

1781791309

9781781791318

1781791317

OCLC:

939860938

Publisher Number:

99965852349