Spelling reforms [was RE: punchcard svg file available]

[Rich Alderson]

From: Dave G4UGM
Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2015 12:06 PM

>> From: Liam Proven
>> Sent: 10 September 2015 16:17

>> On 10 September 2015 at 15:42, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote:

>>> He also said that the colored pencils that I manually did graphs with
>>> were "COLOUR PENCILS".

>> Sounds legit to me. But then in the old world we still spell the proper,
>> old-fashioned-way. ;¬)

> I believe that historically "color" or "colour" was acceptable in English.

Correct.  "Colour" reflects Norman French, "color" reflects Latin.

> It was the Victorians that pushed the current "English" spellings in an
> attempt to "Latinise" or "Latinize" or even "Posh Up" English and Webster
> who pushed the simplified spellings that the USA uses today....

However, it was far earlier than the Victorians.  Noah Webster (1758-1843)
only overlaps the Victorian era by 6 years; he was reacting against the
aristocratic spelling norms of the 17th and 18th centuries, when Latin and
Greek were held to be more important than English in the learning of the
latter language.  His spelling book was originally published in 1783.

                                                                Rich


Rich Alderson
Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer
Living Computer Museum
2245 1st Avenue S
Seattle, WA 98134

mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org

http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/