Pros And Cons Of Spellings

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LONDON — A professor of English at one of the world’s most venerable centers of learning has outraged language purists by challenging whether spelling matters. Simon Horobin of Magdalen College, Oxford was this week said to have prompted shocked gasps from an audience at the annual Hay-on-Wye literary festival in western England by suggesting that spellings of they’re, their and there could be standardized. Spelling pedants should also be more relaxed about changes in standards of written English that have seen the adoption of spellings such as “thru” and “lite.” Sound familiar? In March, Rendezvous reported on a grammar warthat had broken out over the decision of an English council to ban the apostrophe from its local street signs. Traditionalists have also lamented the growing use of SMS slang, which they fear is creeping into the classroom. …show more content…

Horobin’s intervention comes at a time when the British government is introducing changes to the national school curriculum to include a list of 162 words that all 11-year-olds would be expected to spell. He pointed out that the draft law announcing the reform managed to spell “bureaucracy” incorrectly. The Oxford academic and spelling blogger, whose latest book is “Does Spelling Matter?”, said he was not proposing a spelling free-for-all but was inviting people to accept that spellings change. “People like to artificially constrain language change,” he said this week. “For some reason we think spelling should be entirely fixed and never

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