Spelling reform

1. SoundSpel SoundSpel (TM)
2. Cut Spelling
3. Freespeling
4. Stage 1
5. New Spelling 90
6. Saispel (TM)
7. Nuspelynh

Successes in spelling complication

Successes in spelling simplification

Noah Webster, when developing his dictionary in the early 19th century, advocated spelling reform and used many simplified spellings in his dictionary. The most commonly seen, which separate American English from British English in this area, are, from the 1821 edition:

The 1806 edition uses some alternate spellings which did not gain acceptance:

Spelling reform managed to make some progress in the early 20th century. Most notably, beginning in 1934, the Chicago Tribune adopted many simplified spellings for words, which they didn't entirely abandon until 1975. Some simplified spellings of the 20th century have become widely accepted:

Others were only accepted in certain regions:

Others survive as variant spellings:

Finally, some never gained acceptance:

French spelling reform

In 1990, a substantial reform ordered by the French prime minister changed the spelling of about 2000 words as well as some grammar rules. With much delay, the new recommended orthography received official support in France, Belgium and Quebec in 2004, but it has not been widely adopted. Some major French-language dictionaries have incorporated some of the changes.

German spelling reform of 1996

Main article: German spelling reform of 1996.

Even though German spelling has already been much more consistent than English or French spelling, German speaking countries signed an agreement for spelling reforms in 1996, planned to be gradually introduced until 2005.

The so-called Rechtschreibreform is still subject to dispute, and polls consistently show a majority against the new rules. In Summer of 2004, several newspapers and magazines returned to the old rules.

It was not the first reform of the German spelling. There was an earlier reform in 1901. In 1944 another was due to be introduced, but ultimately came to nothing because of the war situation.

Portuguese spelling reform

In the early 20th century, Brazil and Portugal started talks on spelling reform to end the pseudo-etymological writing system. Because of delays, Portugal adopted the reform alone in 1911, resulting in a split between the orthographies of the two countries. In 1924, the Portuguese and Brazilian academies settled on an International Agreement. In 1931, a preliminary agreement adopted the new ortography in Brazil. But there remained many differences, leading to the new orthographic agreement of 1945, which would have removed the remaining differences; however, Brazil never adopted it. In 1971, some differences were removed. In 1986, Brazil invited the other six Portuguese-speaking countries (Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and São Tomé and Príncipe) to a meeting in Rio de Janeiro to address the remaining problems, but the results were not adopted. In 1990, these seven countries entered into a new agreement, to take effect in 1994. For various reasons, ratification was delayed in the nations' parliaments. But slowly, Portugal, Brazil and Cape Verde ratified the agreement; an alteration was made in 1998 in Cape Verde, which does not set a specific date to implement the agreement.

In 2004, the seven nations and East Timor, assembled in the CPLP, agreed that the agreement should enter into practice immediately in the countries that had ratified it, and to accept both orthographies. This led to the acceleration of the ratification process in East Timor and Guinea-Bissau. The old orthographies, however, continue to predominate in the respective countries until three countries rectify ithe alteration to the agreement. As of January 2005, only Brazil has fulfilled the requirements. In the other and, Portugal is facing elections delaying the use of the new spelling reform.

All this is moot in Brazil, where apart from some enthusiasts the reform is being thoroughly ignored, as most people do not see any problem with the current orthography and many linguists argue it would enforce uniformity where Brazilian usage is actually more regular or reflects local pronounciation.

Russian spelling reforms

Over the time, there were a number of changes in spelling. They were mostly related with elimination of letters of the Cyrillic alphabet rendered obsolete by changes in phonetics.

When Peter I introduced his "civil script" in 1708, based on more western-looking letter shapes, spelling was simplified as well.

The most recent major reform of Russian spelling was carried out shortly after the Russian revolution. The Russian orthography was simplified by eliminating four obsolete letters and the archaic usage of the letter yer (hard sign) at the ends of words.

Spelling reform of the Spanish language

In spite of that, there have been several initiatives to reform the spelling: Andrés Bello succeded in making his proposal official in several South American countries, but they later returned to the standard set by the Real Academia Española.
Another initiative, the O.RR.L.I, remained a curiosity.
Juan Ramón Jiménez proposed changing -ge- and -gi to -je- and ji, but this is only applied in editions of his works or his wife's.
Gabriel García Márquez raised the issue of reform during a congress at Zacatecas, but, with all his prestige, he got attention but nothing going.
The Academies however from time to time change several tidbits, such as allowing este instead of éste ("this one"), when there is no possible confusion.

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