Cut Spelling

Cut Spelling

Cut Spelling is a system of English-language spelling reform which reduces redundant letters and makes substitutions to improve correspondence with the spoken word. It was designed by Christopher Upward and was for a time being popularized by the Simplified Spelling Society. The resulting words are 8–15% shorter than standard spellings. The name Cut Spelling was coined by psychologist Valerie Yule.[1]

Unlike some other proposed reforms, Cut Spelling does not attempt to make English spelling phonemic, but merely attempts to remove many of the unneeded difficulties of the current spelling. Cut Spelling differs from "traditional orthography" mainly in removing letters from words and makes relatively few substitutions of letters compared with other proposed reforms. According to its designers, this allows readers accustomed to traditional orthography to get used to Cut Spelling fairly quickly and easily, while still giving learners of the language a much-simplified and more systematic spelling system.

Contents

Rules

Cut Spelling operates under three main substitution rules to transform traditional spellings into cut spellings:

  1. Letters irrelevant to pronunciation. This rule deletes most silent letters, except when these letters (such as "magic e") help indicate pronunciation. Omitting or including the wrong silent letters are common errors. Examples: peacepece, exceptexept, plaqueplaq, bloodblod, pitchpich.
  2. Cutting unstressed vowels. English unstressed syllables are usually pronounced with the vowel schwa /ə/, which has no standard spelling, but can be represented by any vowel letter. Writing the wrong letter in these syllables is a common error (for example, the incorrect spelling seperate seems almost as common as the correct separate). Cut Spelling eliminates these vowel letters completely before approximants (/l/ and /r/) and nasals (/m/, /n/, and /ŋ/). In addition, some vowel letters are dropped in suffixes, reducing the confusion between -able and -ible. Examples: symbolsymbl, victimvictm, lemonlemn, glamour/glamorglamr, permanentpermnnt, waitedwaitd, churcheschurchs, warmestwarmst, edibleedbl.
  3. Simplifying doubled consonants. This rule helps with another of the most common spelling errors: failing to double letters (accommodate and committee are often misspelled) or introducing erroneously doubled letters. Cut Spelling does not eliminate all doubled letters: in some words (especially two-syllable words) the doubled consonant letter is needed to differentiate from another differently pronounced word (e.g., holly and holy). Examples: innateinate, spellspel.

Substitution rules

The Cut Spelling system also uses three substitution rules:

  1. The digraphs gh and ph become f when pronounced /f/. Examples: draughtdraft, sulphursulfr, photographfotograf.
  2. The letter g is changed to j when pronounced /dʒ/ or /ʒ/. Examples: judgejuj, rougeruje.
  3. The combinations ig and igh are changed to y when pronounced /aɪ/. Examples: flightflyt, signsyn.

The Cut Spelling Handbook also lists optional additional rules such as replacing ch with k when it makes the /k/ sound, respelling as y unusual patterns that make the /aɪ/ diphthong, as well as replacing –tion, –cian, –sion, –ssion, etc. with –shn.

Examples

"Wen readrs first se Cut Spelng, as in this sentnce, they ofn hesitate slytly, but then quikly becom acustmd to th shortnd words and soon find text in Cut Spelng as esy to read as Traditionl Orthografy, but it is th riter ho really apreciates th advantajs of Cut Spelng, as many of th most trublsm uncertntis hav been elimnated."

Th Space Race was th competition between th United States and th Soviet Union, rufly from 1957 to 1975. It involvd th efrts by each of these nations to explor outr space with satlites, to be th 1st to send there a human being and to send mand and unmand missions on th Moon with a safe return of th humans to Erth.

Tho its roots lie in erly roket tecnolojy and in th intrnationl tensions foloing World War II, th Space Race efectivly began with th soviet launch of Sputnik 1 on 4 october 1957. Th term orijnated as an analojy to th arms race. Th Space Race became an importnt part of th cultrl and tecnolojicl rivalry between th USSR and th U.S. during th Cold War. Space tecnolojy became a particulrly importnt arena in this conflict, both because of its militry aplications and du to th sycolojicl benefit of rasing morale.

Rokets hav intrestd sientists and amatrs for at least 2,100 years, and Blak Chinese soldirs used them as wepns as erly as th 11th century. Russian sientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky theorized in th 1880s on multi-staje, liquid fuel rokets which myt reach space, but only in 1926 did th americn Robert Goddard desyn a practicl liquid-fuel roket.

Note The examples above assume US pronunciation, for example, by abbreviating "projectile" to "projectl".

See also

References

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Spelling reform — For spelling reform in English, see English language spelling reform. Contents 1 Arguments for reform 2 By language 2.1 English …   Wikipedia

  • Spelling Applebee's — Infobox Television episode Title=Spelling Applebee s Series=Drawn Together Season=3 Episode=3 Airdate= October 19 2006 Writer= Jordan Young Caption = Hero creates a huge car wreck for Clara s excitement. Director= Frank Marino Production = 303… …   Wikipedia

  • Cut-throat Records — Label design as used on first release (CUT 1) Listen in Safety logo from 1980, and CD mounted in jewel case Cut throat Records (also known as Cut throat Productions) is a record label created and run by …   Wikipedia

  • English language spelling reform — For hundreds of years, many groups and individuals have advocated spelling reform for English. Spelling reformers seek to make English spelling more consistent and more phonetic, so that spellings match pronunciations and follow the alphabetic… …   Wikipedia

  • English spelling reform — is the collective term for various campaigns and efforts to change the spelling of the English language to make it simpler and more rationally consistent. There exists a small scale movement among amateur and professional linguists, but one with… …   Wikipedia

  • List of English spelling reform proposals — There have been many proposals for English spelling reform:Proposals for English spelling regularity that conform to the basic Roman alphabetCommon features: *They do not introduce any new letters or symbols, thus facilitating ease of transition… …   Wikipedia

  • American and British English spelling differences — Spelling differences redirects here. For other uses, see Category:Language comparison. For guidelines on dialects and spelling in the English language version of Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style#National varieties of English. Differences… …   Wikipedia

  • Commonly misspelled words — Also see: Wikipedia:Lists of common misspellings. The term commonly misspelled words [1] (or rarely, common misspelled words ) refers to the practice of often misspelling some common words, in general writing. A selected list of common words is… …   Wikipedia

  • List of reforms of the English language — Over the years, many people have called for English language reform. There are a number of reform types that have been proposed.ubsetsSubsets are restricted grammars and wordlists of the English language. English subsets include: *Basic English… …   Wikipedia

  • cutey — cut|ey [ kjuti ] another spelling of cutie …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”