LIST OF AMENDED SPELLINGS 
RECOMMENDED BY THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON AND THE 
AMERICAN PHILOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION 
The American Philological Association, giving voice to the general 
opinion of the most eminent scholars in English philology, as reflected 
in previous discussions in that body and elsewhere and expressed in 
the annual reports of a special committee, adopted and published, in 
1876, a declaration in favor of a reform in English spelling. That 
declaration, as printed in the List of Amended Spellings subsequently 
recommended by the Asjsoeiation, is as follows : 
1. The true and sole office of alfabetic writing is faithfully and intelligibly to repre- 
sent spoken speech. So-calld "historical " orthografy is only a concession to the weak- 
ness of prejudice. 
2. The ideal of an alfabet is that every sound should hnr its own unvarying sign, and 
every sign its own unvarying sound, 
3. An alfabet intended for use by a vast community need not attempt an exhaustlv 
analysis of the elements of utterance and a representation of the nicest varieties of artic- 
ulation; it may wel leav room for the unavoidabi play of individual and local pronun- 
ciation. 
4. An ideal alfabet would seek to adopt for its characters tonus which should suggest 
the sounds signihed, and of which the resemblances should in sum mesure represent the 
similarities of the sounds. But fur general practical use there is no advantage in a sys- 
tem which aims to depict in detail the fysical processes of utterance. 
5. No language has ever had, or is likely to hav, a perfect alfabet ; and in changing 
and amending the mode of writing of a language alredy long writn regard must neces- 
sarily be had to what is practically possibl quite as much as to what is inherently de- 
sirabl. 
6. To prepare the way for such a change, the first step is to break down, by the com- 
bined influence of enlightend soolars and of practical educators, the immense and stub- 
bom prejudice which regards the establisht modes of spelling almost as constituting 
the language, as having a sacred character, as in themselvs preferabl to others. All 
agitation and all deflntt proposals of reform ar to be welcumd so far as they work in 
this direction. 
7. An alterd orthografy wil be unavoidably offensiv to those who ar first calld upon to 
uze it ; but any sensibl and consistent new system wil rapidly win the harty preference 
of the mass of writers. 
8. The Boman alfabet is so widely and firmly establisht in use among the leading civ- 
ilized nations that it cannot be displaced ; in adapting it to improved use for English, 
the efforts of scolars should be directed towards its use with uniformity, and in con- 
formity with other nations. 
In pursuance of this declaration, further action was taken by the As- 
sociation from year to year; and, a similar declaration having been 
made by the Philological Society of London, the two bodies agreed, in 
1883, upon certain rules (the Twenty-four Rules) for the correction of the 
orthography of certain words and classes of words. Subsequently an 
alphabetical list of the principal words covered by the rules was made. 
"The corrections are in the interest of etymological and historical truth, 
and are to be confined to words which the changes do not much disguise 
from the general reader." The rules are printed in the " Proceedings'' 
of the American Philological Association for 1883. The list was printed 
in the " Transactions" for 1886, and later in the periodical "Spelling," 
in October, 1887, from which it is here reprinted, with some slight cor- 
rections. 
The list is printed here as a record of an important movement which 
promises to be of special interest to lexicographers in the near future, 
and as a recognition, in addition to the remarks made in the Preface 
(p. ix), of the desirableness of correcting the anomalies and redundan- 
cies of English spelling in the directions indicated. It is the main of- 
fice of a dictionary to record actual usage, not to recommend better 
usage ; but in cases of unsettled usage it must adopt, and thus by in- 
ference recommend, one form as against the rest ; and, in view of the 
fact t'.iat the amended spellings in question have been recommended 
by the highest philological authorities in the English-.'speaking world, 
and that they have been to a considerable extent already adopted, in 
whole or in part, by many respectable newspapers and other periodi- 
cals, and by a large number of persons in private use, besides those 
who take part in tlie agitation for spelling reform, tliey can hardly be 
ignored in a dictionary which records without wincing the varying or- 
thogra])hy of times just past, and of earlier generations. The reformed 
orthography of the j)resent, made with scientific intent and with a 
regard for historic and phonetic truth, is more worthy of notice, if a 
dictionary could discriminate as to worthiness between two sets of 
facts, than the oftentimes capricious and ignorant orthography of 
the past. 
It need not be said in this dictionary that the objections brought on 
etymological and literary and other grounds against the correction of 
English spelling are the unthinking expressions of ignorance and preju- 
dice. All English etymologists are in favor of the correction of Eng- 
lish spelling, both on etj-mologieal grounds and on the higher ground 
of the great service it will render to national education and interna- 
tional intercourse. It may safely be said that no competent scholar 
who has really examined the question has come, or could come, to a dif- 
ferent conclusion ; and it may be confidently predicted that future Eng- 
lish dictionaries will be able to recognize to the full, as this dictionary 
has been able in its own usage to recognize iu part, the right of the 
English vocabulary to be rightly spelled. 
It is to be noted that many of the coiTeeted spellings in the following 
list are merely reversions to a simpler mode of spelling formerly com- 
mon ; indeed, such is largely the intent of the list. Examples are eii- 
ifiti, i/ciiitin, icil, shiil, and the like, and especially verbal forms like 
(iropt, kist, mist, tost, etc. — a mode of spelling iu use for more than a 
thousand years (compare Anglo-Saxon cystc, English kist ; Anglo-Saxon 
iiiisfe, English mist, etc), and still familiar in the usage of the best 
modern poets, as Tennyson and Lowell (leapt, mist, tost are in Lowell's 
last poem, "My Brook," December, 1890). All considerations, histori- 
cal, literary, and economical, are in favor of such coiTected forms. 
W. D. WHITNEY. 
In the following list, as in the Twenty-four Rules, many amendabl words hav been ± ea. 
omitted for reasons such as these : 1. The changed word would not be easily recognized, 
as nee for knee.. 2. Letters ar left in strange positions, as in edff for edr/e, cagq for casque. 3. o. 
3. ITie word is of frequent use. Final g = j, v, q, z, and syllabic I and n, ar strange to 
our print but abundant in our speech. Many of them ar in the list; hav,/re^z, migl, 4, ou, 
eatn, etc. ; but iz tor is, ov for of, and many other words, as wel as the final z = » of in- 
flections, ar omitted. 4. The wrong sound is suggested, as in vag for vague, acer for 5. u, ue. 
aere. 5. A valuabl distinction is lost ; caggue from cask, dost from drtM. 
Unu2ual words having a familiar change of ending, as -le to -l, and sinipl derivativs 6. 
and inflections, ar often omitted. Words doutful in pronunciation or etymology, and 
words undecided by the Associations, however amendabl, ar omitted. Inflections ar 7. d. 
printed in italics. 
The so-calld Twenty-four Rules ar many of them lists of words. The rules proper ar 8. «\\, ph. 
as follows ; 
Tks Eulks. 9. s. 
1, e.— Drop silent e when funetically useless (writing -er for -r«\ as In Km (liv), ginglr 
(singi), eaten (eatnX rained (raind), etc., theatre (theater), etc, 10. t. 
-Drop a from ea having the sound ote, as in /i^fl(Acr(f ether), leather {Wihev), 
etc. 
- For o having the sound of u in but write w in atmve (abuv), tongue (tung), 
and the like. 
-Drop o from ou having the sound of u in but in trouble (trubl), ro^tgh (ruf), 
and the like ; for -our unaccented write -or, as in honimr (honor), etc. 
-Drop silent u after g before a, and in nativ English words, and drop final 
ve : guard (gard), guess (gess), catalog-ue (catalog), league (leag), etc. 
Dubl consonants may be simplified when fonetieally useless : 6(ii/i/r(lmilif) 
(not liaU, etc.), battle (batl), umtteii (writn), traveller (traveler), etc. 
- Change d and ed final to ( when so pronounced, as in looked (lookt), etc., 
unless the e affects the preceding sound, as in chafed, etc. 
-Cliange gh and ph to / when so sounded : enough (enuf), laughter (latter), 
phonetic (fonetic), etc. 
- t'hunge « to z when so sounded, especially in distlnctiv words and in -tee : 
abuse, verb (abuze), adrertise (advertize), etc. 
- Drop ( in tch : catch (each), pitch (pich), etc. 
