‘Simpler speling will redoos jooveniel delinqensy

Press, 1 February 1983, Page 7

‘Simpler speling will redoos jooveniel delinqensy

NZPA New York An American says he has at last produced a “speling that children, adults and forin stoodents can lurn qikly. without laborius memoriezing." He says it is needed to reduce illiteracy. English spelling has never been easy, vexing students as well as scholars, and its unpredictability has promoted a long line of crusaders. including Benjamin Franklin. George Bernard Shaw, and Andrew Carnegie, to promote reforms. Now a New York printing pioneer, aged 77. hopes his attempt at a more .systematic approach to spelling will be more successful. Edward Rondthaler, who helped invent photo-typeset-ting. has devised a phonetic method of spelling he calls Soundspel. Just a glance at a pamphlet composed in the w r ay Mr Rondthaler sees our written future is enough to make many literates clutch their Webster's dictionaries tightly. “If simpler speling can do sumthing to help th dropout problem it’s bound to redoos jooveniel delinqensy, criem-in-th-streets, hard cor unemployment, and poverty,” he writes. Mr Rondthaler says spelling reform is needed primarily to deal with illiteracy in the United States. “I think we have to do something . . . teachers are making no headway. We are losing ground,” he said. With the idea that “language should be a reflection of speech.” Mr Rondthaler first devised Soundspel in the 19705. . Earlier reformers have tried to alter or add new letters to accommodate all of the different sounds of spoken English. But Mr

Rondthaler's system sticks with the 26 letters of the alphabet, because, he said, any new letter’s bizarre appearance only increases resistance to a change that has few serious champions. "Spelling reformers are in a great state of disarray — there are a lot of screwballs in it." Recognising opposition from those who would have to start-, spelling from scratch, he says his plan could be implemented with the flick of a switch. “It can : be dun without' adult re-skooling etc . . . becauz computer majic will do th tuf part for us," he said. Mr Rondthaler and Edward Lias, a member of the faculty at Ocean County College in Toms River, New Jersey, with the help of professors at Brown University on Rhode Island, complied a Soundspel dictionary of about 45.000 most frequently used words in American English. Using this dictionary as the database, Mr Rondthaler and Mr Lias then programmed a computer to transliterate from standard spelling to-Soundspel. Mr Rondthaler said he foresees implementing the reform gradually over a period of years, conducting public opinion polls on acceptance of various changes. The first change, he said, would be the use of the letter “e" for all words with the short “e” sound, such as meny. frend. sed. agen. and brekfast. Next, perhaps, would come the consonant change of “k" for “ch” in words like kemistry and skool or "ee” for the long vowel in cleen and seet. Earlier reforms, such as Benjamin Franklin’s “scheme for a new alphabet and a reformed way of spell-

ing." have not been warmly received. George Bernard Shaw also developed and published an ill-fated new spelling system. Limited success was achieved in 1906 when a body known as the Simplified Spelling Board, funded by industrialist Andrew Carnegie and backed by President Theodore Roosevelt, sought the co-operation of newspapers and schools in gaining acceptance for changes in the spelling of twelve words. The board was able to gain acceptance for the modification of programme to program but could not turn prologue into prolog. Its efforts were discontinued when financial support came to a halt with Mr Carnegie's death. The “Chicago Tribune" implemented several spelling reforms between 1934 and 1949. They included substituting the letter “f” for "ph” in words like sofisticate and filosofer. But the newspaper relented somewhat in 1955 and returned entirely to traditional spelling in 1975 due to lack of popular support. Other moves have been made in Britain — most notably the development by Sir Isaac Pitman of a new alphabet combining many of the currently used letters into a foreign looking collection of symbols. Mr Rondthaler’s campaign for public acceptance of Soundspel moves at a pace that could be described as a slow burn. Now semi-retired. Mr Roundthaler writes on behalf

of the reform and writes regularly to those who share his hopes. The next big step is finding a “recognised" publishing firm that will make his dictionary available to the general public. “A dictionary would unearth some young zealots. They could see the end of it," he said.