Spelling Standards and Conventions
Whereas uniformity in the spelling of words is one of the features of a standard language in modern times, and official languages usually prescribe standard spelling, minority languages and regional languages often lack this trait. Furthermore, it is a relatively recent development in various major languages in national contexts, linked to the compiling of dictionaries, the founding of national academies and other institutions of language maintenance, including compulsory mass education.
In countries such as the US and UK without official spelling policies, many vestigial and foreign spelling conventions work simultaneously. In countries where there is a national language maintenance policy, such as France, the Netherlands, and Germany, reforms were driven to make spelling a better index of pronunciation. Spelling often evolves for simple reasons of alphabetic thrift, as when British English "catalogue" becomes American English "catalog".
Furthermore, English (in particular) has absorbed into common usage and dictionary acceptance huge numbers of words from foreign languages, particularly French. These may now have a spelling as in the original form or may be somewhat altered in the transition into English. In many respects, a general principle could be stated that retaining the original spelling is important since it reflects the origin of a word and hence adds an extra nuance to its meaning.
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Famous quotes containing the words spelling, standards and/or conventions:
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By the sea’s side hear the dark-vowelled birds.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“The technologist was the final guise of the white missionary, industrialization the last gospel of a dying race and living standards a substitute for a purpose in living.”
—Max Frisch (1911–1991)
“Art, it seems to me, should simplify. That, indeed, is very nearly the whole of the higher artistic process; finding what conventions of form and what detail one can do without and yet preserve the spirit of the whole—so that all that one has suppressed and cut away is there to the reader’s consciousness as much as if it were in type on the page.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)