Editing English-language spelling reform (section)

==Historical and contemporary advocates of reform==
{{more citations needed|section|date=August 2022}}
Many respected and influential people have been active supporters of spelling reform. This list of English-language spelling reform advocates who are [[Wikipedia:Notability (people)|notable]] for other reasons is split up into those who advocated for specific reforms and were successful, those who were not (yet), and those who instead supported the principle of reform more generally.

=== Successful reform proposers ===

* [[Samuel Johnson]], poet, wit, essayist, biographer, critic and eccentric, broadly credited with the standardization of English spelling in his [https://web.archive.org/web/20060901063613/http://newark.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/preface.html ''Dictionary of the English Language'' (1755)].
* [[Noah Webster]], author of the first important American dictionary, believed that Americans should adopt simpler spellings where available and recommended it in his [[s:A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language|''A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language'']] [[s:A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language|(1806)]].

=== Unsuccessful reform proposers ===

* [[Orrm]], 12th century Augustine canon monk and eponymous author of the ''[[Ormulum]]'', in which he stated that, since he dislikes that people are mispronouncing English, he will spell words exactly as they are pronounced, and describes a system whereby vowel length and value are indicated unambiguously. He distinguished short vowels from long by doubling the following consonants, or, where this is not feasible, by marking the short vowels with a superimposed [[breve]] accent.
* [[Charles Butler (beekeeper)|Charles Butler]], British naturalist and author of the first natural history of bees: ''Đe Feminin' Monarķi'', 1634. He proposed that "men should write altogeđer according to đe sound now generally received", and espoused a system in which the h in digraphs was replaced with [[Bar (diacritic)|bars]].
* [[John Wilkins]], English Anglican bishop and natural philosopher, published ''An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language'', 1668, in which he proposed that {{Angle brackets|father}} should be spelt {{Angle brackets|fadher}}, among other things.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Failed Attempts to Reform English Spelling |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/spelling-suggestions-that-didnt-stick |access-date=2025-05-24 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}</ref>
* [[Benjamin Franklin]], American innovator and revolutionary, added letters to the Roman alphabet for [[Benjamin Franklin's phonetic alphabet|his own personal solution]] to the problem of English spelling in 1768.
* [[Robert Bridges]], British [[Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom|Poet Laureate]] from 1913 to 1930, devised a phonetic alphabet for English, as well as removing useless [[Silent e|silent 'e's]].<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite journal |date=16 October 1913 |title=Robert Bridges' literary alphabet |url=https://archive.org/details/independent76newy/page/131/mode/1up |journal=The Independent |volume=76 |pages=131}}</ref>
* [[Robert R. McCormick]] (1880–1955), publisher of the [[Chicago Tribune|''Chicago Tribune'']], employed reformed spelling in his newspaper. The ''Tribune'' used simplified versions of some words, such as "altho" for "although".
* [[Mont Follick]], [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] (UK) Member of Parliament, [[Multilingualism|polyglot]] and author who preceded [[James Pitman|Pitman]] in drawing the English spelling reform issue to the attention of [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] in 1949 and 1952. Favored replacing w and y with u and i.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}
* [[Isaac Asimov]], author, wrote several essays on language reform in which he proposed respelling all word-final [[Lexical set|{{Sc2|GOOSE}}]] as {{Angle brackets|oo}}, {{Angle brackets|night}} as {{Angle brackets|nite}} as well as reforming grammar.<ref name=":2" />
* [[Doug Everingham]], former Australian Labor politician and health minister in the [[Whitlam]] government, was a proponent of [[SR1]], which he used in ministerial correspondence.
* [[Valerie Yule]], clinical child psychologist and fellow of the [[Galton Institute]], was vice-president of The English Spelling Society and created [[Interspel]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}
* [[Anatoly Liberman]], professor in the Department of [[German language|German]], [[Scandinavia|Scandinavian]] and [[Dutch language|Dutch]] at the [[University of Minnesota]], has advocated for spelling reforms in his weekly column on word origins at the [[Oxford University Press]] blog.<ref>{{cite web |date=7 May 2014 |title=Casting a last spell: After Skeat and Bradley |url=http://blog.oup.com/2014/05/spelling-reform-after-skeat-and-bradley/ |access-date=9 August 2014 |website=The Oxford Etymologist |publisher=OUP}}</ref> He has expressed a desire to remove the letters 'c', 'q', and 'x', where possible.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Liberman |first=Anatoly |date=2022-07-06 |title=Spelling Reform and after |url=https://blog.oup.com/2022/07/spelling-reform-and-after/ |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=OUPblog |language=en}}</ref> Current president of the [[English Spelling Society]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Officers |url=http://spellingsociety.org/officers |access-date=16 October 2015 |website=The English Spelling Society}}</ref>
* [[John C. Wells]], former professor of [[phonetics]] at [[University College London]], is a former president of The [[English Spelling Society]] and advocated for [[SoundSpel|New Spelling]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

=== Reform advocates ===

* [[Thomas Smith (diplomat)|Thomas Smith]], a secretary of state to [[Queen Elizabeth I]], who published his proposal ''De recta et emendata linguæ angliæ scriptione'', 1568, which advocates for spelling reform while not detailing its own system.<ref name="wijk" />{{rp|17}}
* [[Charles Darwin]] was also a vice-president{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} and founding member of the English Spelling Reform Association,<ref name=":3" /> and his involvement in the subject was continued by [[Charles Galton Darwin|his physicist grandson of the same name]].
* [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]] was a vice-president{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} and founding member of the [[English Spelling Reform Association]], the precursor to the [[Spelling Society|(Simplified) Spelling Society]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Some of the Main Efforts to Reform English Spelling from 1875 to 2000 |url=https://www.spellingsociety.org/uploaded_misc/efforts-misc.pdf |access-date=2025-03-30 |website=The English Spelling Society}}</ref>
* [[Isaac Pitman]], creator of [[Pitman shorthand]], was also a founding member of the English Spelling Reform Association.<ref name=":3" />
* [[Alexander John Ellis]], philologist, was also a founding member of the English Spelling Reform Association.<ref name=":3" />
* [[Max Müller]], philologist, published works advocating for spelling reform.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Müller |first=Friedrich Max |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0vD9AL5jePQC |title=Max Müller on Spelling ... |date=1894 |publisher=I. Pitman & sons |language=en}}</ref>
* [[John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury]], close friend of Charles Darwin, also involved in the Spelling Reform Association.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mencken |first=H. L. |url=https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/the-american-language-2nd-ed/page-243-2/ |title=The American Language |date=1921 |pages=243}}</ref>
* [[Andrew Carnegie]], celebrated philanthropist, donated to spelling reform societies on the US and Britain, and funded the [[Simplified Spelling Board]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Simplified Spelling Society Minutes |url=https://spellingsociety.org/uploaded_newsletters/earlyminutes-newsletter.pdf |website=The English Spelling Society}}</ref>
* [[James Murray (lexicographer)|James Murray]], editor of the OED, was also a founding member of the English Spelling Reform Association.<ref name=":3" />
* [[Theodore Roosevelt]] commissioned a committee, the [[Columbia Spelling Board]], to research and recommend simpler spellings and tried to require the U.S. government to adopt them;<ref name="NYT1906">{{cite news |date=1906-12-13 |title=House Bars Spelling in President's Style |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/12/13/101853127.pdf |access-date=2007-12-17 |work=New York Times}}</ref> however, his approach, to assume popular support by [[Executive order (United States)|executive order]],<ref name="NYT1906" /> rather than to garner it, was a likely factor in the limited change of the time.<ref>{{cite web |author=John J. Reilly |title=Theodore Roosevelt and Spelling Reform |url=http://www.johnreilly.info/alt20.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070707171609/http://www.johnreilly.info/alt20.htm |archive-date=2007-07-07 |access-date=2007-07-07}} Based on H.W. Brand's, T.R.: The Last Romantic, pp. 555-558</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Daniel R. MacGilvray |year=1986 |title=A Short History of GPO |url=http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/history/macgilvray.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070608191329/http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/history/macgilvray.html |archive-date=2007-06-08 |access-date=2007-07-07}}</ref>
* [[Mark Twain]], author and humorist, was a founding member of the [[Simplified Spelling Board]].<ref name="NYT19060306">[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F02E5D6103EE733A25751C1A9659C946797D6CF&scp=1 "Carnegie Assaults The Spelling Book; To Pay the Cost of Reforming English Orthography. Campaign About To Begin Board Named, with Headquarters Here – Local Societies Throughout the Country."], ''[[The New York Times]]'', March 12, 1906. Accessed August 28, 2008.</ref>
* [[Melvil Dewey]], inventor of the [[Dewey Decimal Classification|Dewey Decimal System]], wrote published works in simplified spellings and even simplified his own name from ''Melville'' to ''Melvil''.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1876 |title=The Spelling Reform Association |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44765879 |journal=New England Journal of Education |volume=4 |issue=10 |pages=115 |issn=2578-4145 |jstor=44765879}}</ref>
* [[Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell]] was a vice-president of the Simplified Spelling Society.<ref>{{Cite web |title=THE PIONEER OF SIMPLIFIED SPELLING |url=https://www.spellingsociety.org/uploaded_newsletters/1918pioneer-newsletter-1420047469.pdf |website=The English Spelling Society}}</ref>
* [[George Bernard Shaw]], [[playwright]], willed part of his estate to fund the creation of what would become the [[Shavian alphabet]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}
* [[Israel Gollancz]], philologist, was a founding member of the Simplified Spelling Society.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Simplified Spelling Society. Newsletter July 1983 |url=https://www.spellingsociety.org/uploaded_newsletters/news3-newsletter.pdf |website=The English Spelling Society}}</ref>
* [[H. G. Wells]], science fiction writer, became a one-time vice president of the Simplified Spelling Society after granting permission to publish one of his short stories in reformed spelling, presumably ''[[The Star (Wells short story)|The Star]]'', given its continued use by the society.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Notes on the Pamphlets of The Spelling Society |url=https://www.spellingsociety.org/uploaded_pamphlets/pnotes-pamphlet.pdf |website=The English Spelling Society}}</ref>
* [[Upton Sinclair]], author, wrote a letter to Theodore Roosevelt advocating for spelling reform.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sinclair |first=Upton |date=1976 |title=Upton Sinclair Cites Need For Spelling Reform In Letter To President Kennedy |url=https://www.spellingsociety.org/uploaded_books/a2arguments.pdf}}</ref>
* [[Daniel Jones (phonetician)|Daniel Jones]], phonetician and professor of [[phonetics]] at [[University College London]], was a president of the Simplified Spelling Society.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Simplified Spelling Society Presidents, and Officers and Committee Members, between 1908 and 1987 |url=https://www.spellingsociety.org/uploaded_newsletters/officers-newsletter.pdf |access-date= |website=The English Spelling Society}}</ref>
* [[Charles Galton Darwin]], grandson of [[Charles Darwin]], physicist and director of Britain's [[National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom)|National Physical Laboratory]] ([[National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom)|NPL]]) in [[Second World War|World War II]], was a wartime vice-president of the [[Simplified Spelling Society]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Simplified Spelling Society Officers and Committee Members |url=http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/pamflets/officers.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080720143726/http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/pamflets/officers.php |archive-date=20 July 2008 |access-date=27 May 2009 |publisher=The Spelling Society |df=dmy-all}}</ref>
* [[James Pitman]], grandson of [[Isaac Pitman]], publisher and [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] [[Member of Parliament]], invented the [[Initial Teaching Alphabet]], which is not technically a spelling reform.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}
* [[Ronald Reagan]] supported reform in his youth, and retained some simplified spellings even when in office, such as "bellys", "mysterys", "nite", "burocrat", "burocracy".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morris |first=Edmund |title=Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan |date=1999 |publisher=[[Modern Library]] |isbn=978-0-375-75645-0}}</ref>
* [[Richard Feynman]], physicist, gave a talk entitled 'This Unscientific Age' in which he advocated for spelling reform, among other things.<ref name=":2">{{cite journal |last=Reilly |first=John J. |date=1999 |title=Richard Feynman & Isaac Asimov on Spelling Reform. |url=http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j25/feynman.php |url-status=dead |journal=Journal of the Simplified Spelling Society |pages=31–32 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050923213512/http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j25/feynman.php |archive-date=2005-09-23}}</ref>
* [[Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh]], one-time patron of the [[Simplified Spelling Society]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Simplified Spelling Society News Sheet 5 |url=https://spellingsociety.org/uploaded_newsletters/ns5-newsletter.pdf |website=English Spelling Society}}</ref> stated that spelling reform should start outside of the UK, and that the lack of progress originates in the discord amongst reformers. However, his abandonment of the cause was coincident with literacy being no longer an issue for his own children, and his less than lukewarm involvement may have ended as a result of the society's rejection of attempts to 'pull strings' behind the scenes.{{Dubious discuss|date=March 2025}}{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}