The History of English Spelling (The Language Library) Book

The book envisaged by Upward aimed to provide a comprehensive description of English spelling past and present with chapters covering the development of the alphabet the spelling of Old English and its effect on the spelling of Modern English the contributions to English spelling of Latin French Greek and other languages and the sound-symbol relationship in current English spelling. Other chapters were to cover the sociological psychological and educational aspects of the complexity and unpredictability of modern English spelling with finally a look at how English spelling might develop in the future. ODES ["Origins and Development of English Spelling" original title of project] has essentially the same aims as the book envisaged by Upward. Although it will be considerably shorter than Upward's intended book it will within the limitations of space retain as much as possible of the wealth of examples collected by Upward which was an important feature of his work.At the time of Upward's death four chapters of the proposed work had been completed: an introductory chapter and three chapters covering respectively the development of the English alphabet and the elements of Old English and of Latin and French that have contributed to present-day English spelling. A fifth chapter on the Greek contribution to English was almost complete. These chapters include a great deal of original research by Upward. These five chapters plus Upward's outlines of the later chapters form the basis of the book for which this is a proposal which has been given the working title of "The Origins and Development of English Spelling". A detailed analysis of the proposed contents follows in Section 4 below.Read More