Arguments against reform – 3

Below are seven commonly raised objections to reform and my replies to them.

1. Leave our language alone. It has a long and distinguished history and represents a rich cultural heritage.
...  This fails to distinguish between language and spelling. Many people who can use the English language well have difficulty spelling it. Even quite young children don’t have much trouble using the word ‘thought’, but its spelling defeats many for a long time. Only English spelling needs improving. Language change is beyond the control of any individual or group; but improving the spelling, and making learning to read and write easier, would help to give more people better command of the English language too.

2. If spelling were such a problem, it would have evolved into something easier naturally over the years.
...  Many worthwhile changes (abolition of slavery, voting reforms, ending apartheid) have only come about because people kept campaigning for them, often against severe opposition.

3. Some English spellings may be irregular, but they tell you where the words come from, or how words are related (e.g. reign, interregnum; sign, signature). If more people learned French and Latin, fewer people would have spelling problems.
...  People with reading and writing difficulties have trouble enough learning English. Getting them to learn other languages, to enable them to cope better with English, is unrealistic and also unreliable. My grammar-school-educated, Latin-trained husband has always been a poorer speller than I am, having no Latin.
...  Anyone with a passionate interest in the origin of words can ascertain this from any good dictionary. Or they can learn German and French, the two languages from which most English words originate.
...  It is just as easy to trace the origins of sensibly spelt English words (mustard, beef, milk, butter) as of ones which continue to be spelt according to foreign rules (court, group), ancient German patterns (daughter, laughter) or scribal aberrations (mother, brother).

4. English spelling is more regular than it may superficially seem.
...  This is the claim which led me to investigate exactly how irregular English spelling was. By meticulously analysing the 6800 most used English words, I found out that at least 3695 (or 4 out of 7) had some unpredictably spelt letters, with 2039 of them having letters with variable sounds which pose reading difficulties too. The English writing system is much less regular than is generally realised, and far more inconsistent than any other European orthography.

5. Reading and writing standards have deteriorated because of modern teaching methods introduced in the 1960’s and 70’s.
...  Literacy standards were just as bad earlier. In the 1960’s and 70’s teachers were encouraged to try new approaches only because too many children had regularly been found to leave primary school without the literacy skills needed for secondary education. Recently, they have been advised to return to the earlier methods, but this has not led to any significant improvements either, despite much additional expenditure.

6. Spelling reform would incur huge costs. All books would need to be reprinted.
...  Compared to the costs which the inconsistencies of English spelling incur each year, a one-off modernisation would cost very little.
...  There would be no need to reprint all books. Most of what we read is less than 10 years old. The bulk of books could remain as they are until new editions were needed. Only school books would need to be reprinted, in a rolling programme, starting with the youngest children. Textbooks wear out and need regular replacing or updating anyway.

7. You will never get world-wide agreement on how to reform English spelling. It is spoken in too many different countries.
...  If either the UK or the US decided to reform their spelling, the benefits to learners would quickly become obvious, and the rest would follow. That’s why Portugal recently decided to adopt the spelling changes which only Brazil introduced at first. If the UK, the home of modern English, modernised its spelling, all others would soon do the same. The German-speaking countries have managed to adopt identical reforms several times.
Given the will, it is usually possible to find a way. The biggest obstacle to a reform of English spelling remains lack of awareness of the problems, and the costs, which its irregularities cause.