In 1920, the SSB published a Handbook of Simplified Spelling, which was written wholly in reformed spelling.
Part 1 is a brief outline of the history of English spelling and the attempts to reform it up until 1920. Part 2 presents the arguments in favor of reform and replies to the objections that are commonly made. Part 3 contains the SSB's proposed rules for simplified spelling and a list of the words that would be changed by them.
The handbook repeated and explained the SSB's plan of "gradual" rather than "sudden" reform. It noted that all past spelling changes had come into use gradually—"so gradually, in fact, that at all times (as today) ther hav been, and ar, many words speld in more than one way on equal authority of good usage". It also noted that most reformed spellings now in general use were originally the overt act of a lone writer, who was followed at first by a small minority. Thus, it encouraged people to "point the way" and "set the example" by using the reformed spellings whenever they can. The handbook used and set forth the following rules:
| Rule | Examples | |
|---|---|---|
| AE (Æ) and OE (Œ) pronounced /ɛ/ | use E | aesthetic→esthetic, foetus→fetus, alumnae (unchanged) |
| BT pronounced /t/ | use T | debt→det, doubt→dout |
| –CEED | use –CEDE | exceed→excede, proceed→procede |
| CH pronounced /k/ | drop silent H except before E, I, Y |
character→caracter, school→scool chemist, architect, monarchy (unchanged) |
| final double consonant | drop the last letter, but with –LL only after a short vowel, and with –SS only in monosyllables |
add→ad, bill→bil, bluff→bluf, doll→dol, egg→eg, glass→glas, loss→los But retain double consonant in all, roll, needless, a.s.f. |
| double consonant before silent –E | drop the last two letters | bagatelle→bagatel, bizarre→bizar, cigarette→cigaret, giraffe→giraf, gramme→gram |
| silent or misleading –E | drop the E | are→ar, give→giv, have→hav, were→wer, gone→gon, examine→examin, practise→practis, definite→definit, active→activ, involve→involv, serve→serv, achieve→achiev, leave→leav, freeze→freez, gauze→gauz, sleeve→sleev |
| EA pronounced /ɛ/ | use E | head→hed |
| EA pronounced /ɑ/ | use A | heart→hart |
| EAU and EAUX pronounced /əʊ/ | use O | bureau→buro |
| –ED pronounced /d/ | use –D, reduce any foregoing doubled consonant to a single letter |
answered→anserd, called→cald, carried→carrid, preferred→preferd, wronged→wrongd. |
| –ED pronounced /t/ | use –T, reduce any foregoing doubled consonant to a single letter, change CED/SCED to ST |
asked→askt, advanced→advanst. |
| EI pronounced /iː/ | use IE | conceit→conciet, deceive→deciev |
| –EY pronounced /iː/ | use –Y | chimney→chimny, money→mony |
| GH pronounced /f/ | use F, drop the silent letter in the foregoing digraph |
cough→cof, laugh→laf, enough→enuf |
| GH pronounced /ɡ/ | use G | aghast→agast, ghost→gost |
| –GM pronounced /m/ | use M | apothegm→apothem, paradigm→paradim |
| –GUE after a consonant, a short vowel or a digraph representing a long vowel or diphthong | drop silent –UE | catalogue→catalog, league→leag, prologue→prolog tongue→tung But not in rogue, vague, a.s.f. |
| –ISE and –YSE pronounced /aɪz/ | use –IZE | advertise→advertize, analyse→analize, rise→rize |
| –MB after a short vowel | use M | bomb→bom, crumb→crum But not after a long vowel as in comb, tomb, a.s.f. |
| –OE pronounced /oʊ/ | drop silent E, except in inflected forms |
foe→fo, hoe→ho foes, hoed (unchanged) |
| OEU pronounced /uː/ | use U | manoeuver→manuver |
| OUL pronounced /əʊl/ | use OL, except in "soul" |
boulder→bolder, mould→mold |
| –OUGH | use O/U/OCK/UP according to pronunciation | although→altho, borough→boro, doughnut→donut, thorough→thoro, through→thru, hough→hock, hiccough→hiccup. For plough write plow, but not bow for bough. |
| –OUR pronounced /ər/ | use –OR | colour→color, flavour→flavor |
| PH pronounced /f/ | use F | alphabet→alfabet, telephone→telefone |
| –RE after any consonant except C | use –ER | centre→center, metre→meter. But retain –RE in lucre, mediocre. |
| RH– pronounced /r/ | use R | rhetoric→retoric, rhubarb→rubarb |
| RRH pronounced /r/ | use R | hemorrhage→hemorage |
| silent S between I and L | drop silent S | island→iland |
| SC– pronounced /s/ | use S | scenery→senery, scissors→sissors |
| –SQUE pronounced /sk/ | use –SK | burlesque→burlesk |
| silent U before a vowel | drop silent U | guard→gard, guess→ges, guide→gide |
| Y between consonants | use I | analysis→analisis, type→tipe |
| YOU pronounced /jʌ/ | use YU | your→yur, young→yung |
The handbook also suggested the following spelling changes, which are not covered by the above rules: acre→aker, answer→anser, beleaguer→beleager, campaign→campain, counterfeit→counterfit, delight→delite, foreign→foren, forfeit→forfit, friend→frend, masquerade→maskerade, mortgage→morgage, receipt→receit, sieve→siv, sleight→slight, sovereign→sovren, sprightly→spritely, touch→tuch, yeoman→yoman.
Read more about this topic: Simplified Spelling Board
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