Excerpt from Proposals for a Simplified Spelling of the English Language
The di?resis is already in use, and may be retained; but it is a question whether even that might not be dispensed with.
(iii) To avoid, as far as possible, combinations of letters which are not already in use or more or less familiar. The exceptions which we have found to be unavoidable are the digraphs zh (see p. 20) and uu (see p. 40).
(iv) To make each symbol (letter or digraph) self-contained, so that its value should not depend on any other letter; as when, in the current spelling, a doubled consonant shortens, or a final e (following a consonant) lengthens, a preceding vowel. To this rule, however, we admit certain exceptions for the sake of economy.
(v) To economize in the use of letters wherever it seemed possible without ambiguity or inconsistency. As will be hereafter pointed out, the common argument that simplification would effect an immense economy of material (in paper, printing, ink, etc., etc.) does not hold good in its full extent unless a new alphabet be adopted which provides a single symbol for each sound. So long as digraphs have to be employed, the economy cannot be very great.
(vi) To depart as little as possible from the current spelling, appropriating to each sound (so far as possible) the symbol already most commonly used to represent it. We have thus been able to retain unaltered an immense number of words, arid, in a still larger number, to suggest only a slight alteration. This 'principle of least disturbance' needs no apology. It is important in two aspects: not only to make the change as easy as possible for a generation which has learnt the old spelling, but to enable the new generations to read old books with the least possible trouble. The difficulty would, in fact, be trifling.
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