12 Miles Walker, The History of English Spelling 



Buy 



Drought 





Sleight 



12-5 buggen, biggen, 



(drouth) 



14-5 



slet, sleghte 



bigge 



1 1 drugath 



14-7 



sleght(e, slight, 



14-5 bygge(n, beggn 



13 drouhh]?e 





sleyete 



15 byche 



16-8 drougth 





sleyhte, sleiht 



Also 



Also 





sleyete, sleyght(e 



14-6 bye, by 



14 drohut 



14- 



sleight 



13-7 buye 



14-6 droghte 



*5 



slieght 



14 byi, biy 



14- drought 



16 



slaight 



14-5 be 



15 drowte 



20 



slyt 



15 byin, beye 



20 drout 







16-7 buie 









17- buy 









20 by 









The advantages of a reformed spelling may be briefly 

 enumerated as follows : — 



(1) Educational Advantages. 



(a) With a phonetic spelling children get over the initial 

 difficulty of representing sounds by signs very easily. They 

 can learn to spell correctly in a few months, instead of 

 struggling with spelling for the greater part of the school 

 years. This is proved by a series of experiments in 

 elementary schools, the results of which have been highly 

 successful. 



(b) Children are encouraged to read, and are not afraid 

 of tackling long and difficult unknown words. 



(c) So illogical is our present spelling that children in 

 applying unsuccessfully so-called rules of spelling lose 

 faith in the application of rules. This is one of the main 

 defects of our educational system. We teach so many 

 illogical things that a large proportion of the children give 

 up using their reasoning powers. When teaching some 

 subjects we encourage children to ask questions and raise 

 objections. But in spelling lessons the children take the 

 instruction with asubmissivenessthat dare not ask questions. 



(d) With phonetic spelling children easily learn to speak 

 well, because the proper sound of the words is invariably 

 indicated by the signs. The hesitation and difficulty in 

 reading aloud and speaking, caused by the old spelling, 

 inflict a deep psychical injury upon children (and see (/), 

 below). 



