The English Spelling Society is an international organisation, based in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. It was founded in 1908 as the Simplified Spelling Society. It primarily aims to raise awareness of problems caused by English spelling's irregularity and to improve

literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

and reduce learning costs, including through the use of

spelling reform A spelling reform is a deliberate, often authoritatively sanctioned or mandated change to spelling rules. Proposals for such reform are fairly common, and over the years, many languages have undergone such reforms. Recent high-profile examples ar ...

. The Society publishes leaflets, newsletters, journals, books, and bulletins. Its spokespeople feature regularly on TV, radio, and in print.

Structure

The Society is based in the

, but has a worldwide membership, including

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, the

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It is governed by a committee elected at its Annual General Meeting. The Society maintains links with the American Literacy Council, which has similar objectives.

Aims

The English Spelling Society primarily aims to make known the problems caused by English spelling's irregularity in an effort to improve

and reduce learning costs, including through the use of

. It also wishes to raise awareness of the

alphabetic principle According to the alphabetic principle, letters and combinations of letters are the symbols used to represent the speech sounds of a language based on systematic and predictable relationships between written letters, symbols, and spoken words. The ...

and its "corruption during the long history of written English" and to prepare a graded set of proposals for a more regular English orthography. The Society believes that both recent research and the continuing governmental concern about literacy rates in the

English-speaking world Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the '' Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest languag ...

strengthen its position. In particular, it points to evidence that

Anglophone Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...

children have a harder time learning to

read Read Read may refer to: * Reading, human cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning * Read (automobile), an American car manufactured from 1913 to 1915 * Read (biology), an inferred sequence of base pairs of ...

and

write Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

than do

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

children. It also quotes evidence that

dyslexia Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...

is less of a problem in Italy and linguistically similar countries which have more

phonemic In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...

writing systems than English. Finally, it points to a recent study by the KPMG Foundation that estimates the total costs to the

public purse Government spending or expenditure includes all government consumption, investment, and transfer payments. In national income accounting, the acquisition by governments of goods and services for current use, to directly satisfy the individual o ...

till age 37 arising from failure to read in the primary school years at £1.73 billion to £2.05 billion a year.

Specific reform systems

As of September 2021, the Society has not endorsed any specific alternative English spelling system. However, through its "Personal View" series, it provides a forum for authors of alternative systems to publish their work and submit them to peer review. The forum includes resources for Simple-Fonetik and

SoundSpel SoundSpel is a regular and mostly phonemic English-language spelling reform proposal. It uses a 26-letter alphabet that is fully compatible with QWERTY keyboards. Though SoundSpel was originally based on American English, it can represent dial ...

, among others. Its listed proposals vary in their recommendations from regularising only a few words to making English almost completely phonemically written. In the November 1983 edition of the Society's

newsletter A newsletter is a printed or electronic report containing news concerning the activities of a business or an organization that is sent to its members, customers, employees or other subscribers. Newsletters generally contain one main topic of int ...

, it printed a five-part reform proposal called "Stage 1". One of these was Harry Lindgren's

SR1 The Sr1 is a class of electric locomotives built for VR of Finland. These 25 kV locomotives were built in the Soviet Union at the Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Factory between 1973 and 1985. Two additional locomotives of this class were b ...

proposal."The Society's 1984 Proposals"
. ''Journal of the Simplified Spelling Society'' (February 1988). In April 1984, SR1 was adopted as the Society's house style at its

yearly meeting Yearly Meeting is a term used by members of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, to refer to an organization composed of constituent meetings or churches within a geographical area. The constituent meetings are called Monthly Meetings in ...

. The Society said that the newsletter's proposed reforms could be used either together or individually (as a

step-by-step Step by Step may refer to: Film and television * Step by Step (1946 film), ''Step by Step'' (1946 film), an American film directed by Phil Rosen * Step by Step (2002 film), ''Step by Step'' (2002 film), a Belgian film directed by Philippe Blasba ...

change). In April 2021, Stephen Linstead's Traditional Spelling Revised (TSR) was approved by the International English Spelling Congress as the best alternative to

English Orthography English orthography is the writing system used to represent spoken English, allowing readers to connect the graphemes to sound and to meaning. It includes English's norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalisation, word breaks, emphasis, and p ...

. The Society, sponsor of the Congress, is affording TSR a degree of support and publicity.

Spelling bee protests

Protesters from the Society have regularly taken good-humoured action against

orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

English spelling and its promotion (e.g. by demonstrating, most conspicuously in the form of 'BeeMan,' at the annual

Scripps National Spelling Bee The Scripps National Spelling Bee (formerly the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee and commonly called the National Spelling Bee) is an annual spelling bee held in the United States. The bee is run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scri ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

).The English Spelling Society. "Bee Man demonstrates at Grand Hyatt". https://archive.today/20150126011142/http://spellingsociety.co.uk/news/media2006/spellingbee2006.php, accessed 20 Sep 2021.

Books

* ''Jolly Dictionary'' - Sue Lloyd and Sara Wernham * ''Future of Fonics'' - Isobel Raven * ''Spelling for the 21st century'' - Sanford S. Silverman * ''Spelling Dearest (The Down and Dirty, Nitty-Gritty History of English Spelling)'' - Niall McLeod Waldman * ''The Book of Spells & Misspells'' - Valerie Yule * ''Lets End Our Literacy Crisis'' - Bob C. Cleckler

References

External links

Spelling Society Home pageAmerican Literacy Council
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100626091721/http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/spell/histsp.html , date=2010-06-26

English spelling reform Educational organisations based in the United Kingdom 1908 establishments in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1908