Editing English-language spelling reform (section)

===19th century===
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| image1            = 1879 SpellingReform Bulletin Boston.png
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| caption1          = An 1879 bulletin by the US Spelling Reform Association, written mostly using reformed spellings (click to enlarge)
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| caption2          = An 1880 bulletin, written wholly in reformed spelling (click to enlarge)
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The second period started in the 19th century and appears to coincide with the development of phonetics as a science.<ref name=wijk/>{{rp|18}} In 1806, [[Noah Webster]] published his first dictionary, [[s:A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language|''A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language'']]. It included an essay on the oddities of modern orthography and his proposals for reform. Many of the spellings he used, such as ''color'' and ''center'', would become hallmarks of [[American English]]. In 1807, Webster began compiling an expanded dictionary. It was published in 1828 as ''[[An American Dictionary of the English Language]]''. Although it drew some protest, the reformed spellings were gradually adopted throughout the United States.<ref name=handbook/>{{rp|9}}

In 1837, [[Isaac Pitman]] published his system of [[Pitman shorthand|phonetic shorthand]], while in 1848 [[Alexander John Ellis]] published ''A Plea for Phonetic Spelling''. These were proposals for a new phonetic alphabet. Although unsuccessful, they drew widespread interest.

By the 1870s, the philological societies of Great Britain and the United States chose to consider the matter. After the "International Convention for the Amendment of English Orthography" that was held in [[Philadelphia]] in August 1876, societies were founded such as the English Spelling Reform Association and American Spelling Reform Association.<ref name="wijk">{{cite book |last=Wijk |first=Axel |author-link=Axel Wijk |title=Regularized Inglish |publisher=Almqvist & Wiksell |year=1959 |location=Stockholm}}</ref>{{rp|20}} That year, the American Philological Society adopted a list of eleven reformed spellings for immediate use. These were ''are→ar, give→giv, have→hav, live→liv, though→tho, through→thru, guard→gard, catalogue→catalog, (in)definite→(in)definit, wished→wisht''.<ref name=handbook/>{{rp|13}}<ref name="barnsdle.demon.co.uk">{{cite web |author=Cornell Kimball |url=http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/spell/histsp.html |title=History of Spelling Reform |website=Barnsdle.demon.co.uk |access-date=2010-06-19 |archive-date=2010-06-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100626091721/http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/spell/histsp.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> One major American newspaper that began using reformed spellings was the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'', whose editor and owner, Joseph Medill, sat on the Council of the Spelling Reform Association.<ref name="barnsdle.demon.co.uk"/> In 1883, the American Philological Society and [[American Philological Association]] worked together to produce 24 spelling reform rules, which were published that year. In 1898, the American [[National Education Association]] adopted its own list of 12 words to be used in all writings: ''tho, altho, thoro, thorofare, thru, thruout, catalog, decalog, demagog, pedagog, prolog, program''.<ref name=handbook/>{{rp|14}}