[projectaon] Re: serial comma
- From: "Jonathan Blake" <blake.jon@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: projectaon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2008 11:02:02 -0700
On Fri, Apr 4, 2008 at 10:16 AM, David Davis <feline1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Spellings (or dare I say "orthography") in English are often etymological.
> In the US, as well as refusing to pay us taxes ;) they seem to have decided
> to
> "correct" some of these spellings some some kind of rationalised/reformed
> phonetic spelling.
The value of preserving etymology in spelling is debatable, especially
when you're trying to learn how to spell this ungodly, lovely
language. :)
You're talking about spelling reform which was big for a while in
America. President Roosevelt even ordered the adoption of some
standardized spellings by the Government Printing Press in 1906.
http://www.bartleby.com/185/35.html
One effort at reform tried to give us such spellings as "ar catalog
definit gard giv hav infinit liv tho thru wisht". You only really see
"thru" as a nonstandard variant anymore. Other reformed spellings that
are actually standardized now are "program" and "catalog".
Another spelling reform trivia: the Red Sox and the Black Sox
(baseball teams) got their names when spelling reform was prevalent
hence the unusual spelling of "socks".
--
Jon
~~~~~~
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