Anyone who has ever written in English will, every now and then, struggle with its spelling. Our system is so erratic that choir and liar rhyme, daughter and laughter don’t, and you and ewe can’t agree on a single letter. So why do we still use it? If our spelling is so inconsistent, why haven’t we tried to fix it?
In the comic annals of linguistic history, legions of rebel wordsmiths have died on the hill of spelling reform, risking their reputations to simplify English spelling. In his book Enough is Enuf, author Gabe Henry takes readers on a hilarious journey through the history of the English language, focusing on Mark Twain, Eliza Burnz, Noah Webster, Upton Sinclair, Emma Dearborn, Theodore Roosevelt, Benjamin Franklin, and the countless other “simplified spellers” who, for a time in their lives, became fanatic about writing kof instead of cough, tung for tongue, and fyzics for physics (and tried futilely to get everyone around them to do it too).
Edison Public Library cardholders curious about why some English words are spelled weird are invited to join Henry as he humorously traces the “simplified spelling movement” during a virtual program taking place on Wednesday, September 17, at 2:00pm. Register now to join the conversation and to submit questions for the author. |
