Please note: This website has no control over the ads placed here by Google AdSense. Caveat emptor.

Simpler Spelling
Word of the Day

Wensday, November 25, 2009: "falanx/es" and "falanjees"  for "phalanx" and "phalanges"

PH is an indefensibly absurd way to write the F-sound, so has got to go. The rest of the singular pretty much has to stay as it is, because there are two pronunciations, one with a long-A in the first syllable (the preferred pronunciation in the United States) and the other with a short-A (the preferred pronunciation in Britain). The single-L after the first-A leaves the issue unclear, and both sides can justify their preference.

For the plural, once we get rid of the make-believe Greek PH (which isn't Greek at all, since it's not written in the Greek alphabet), there remains very little reason to retain the silly plural "phalanges" (used mainly for the sense of fingers or toes, not for a military array or a group). But if we do retain it, it should be spelled phonetically, with a J for the J-sound (after all, the singular doesn't have a G, so why should the plural?) and two E's to show that "phalanges" doesn't rhyme with the last two syllables of "oranges": "falanx", "falanxes", "falanjees".

Click here for earlier days' discussions, in chronological order, most recent first.
Click here for earlier days' discussions, in alphabetical order.
Click here for a list of possible future words.
Click here for the principles that govern the selection of words for this project.
Click here for a list of words rejected for this project because of those principles.
Click here for links to other websites concerned with spelling.

Please bookmark this page and stop by each day. Tell your friends. Tell your teachers. Tell the world!

This website proposes modest spelling changes to make English easier to read and write. Each day (usually by early evening Eastern Time) we list one word (and, sometimes, its derivatives) that could usefully be respelled as would make English easier for kids and non-native speakers to learn, and for all of us to use, every day. If ordinary people, in their emails and personal communications, note-taking, etc., were to adopt these little changes each day, over time we would achieve significant simplification of English spelling, because publishers and educators would have to follow the people's lead. (Proposed reforms apply to all derivatives of the word reformed, not just to the base word.)

Tho it would be neater to change all words of a pattern at the same time (e.g., all -OUS endings to -US), that is implied in the change of individual words of that pattern. But traditional English spelling isn't consistent, which is why it is so hard to master. Some words that sound the same are spelled differently (there, their, they're); some words that are spelled the same are pronounced differently (refuse as verb and noun). To impose complete consistency on English without radical reform is impossible. Short of radical reform, then, we can either reform some words or surrender to spelling chaos and do nothing.

English spelling didn't become crazy all at once, but one word at a time. Old English was phonetic, and such variations in spelling as occurred reflected variations in pronunciation. New words have come into the language one by one, with their own individual spelling, sometimes quite unreasonable. In like fashion, we can change some unreasonable spellings to reasonable, one word at a time, inefficient tho that approach may be. See below for radical reform that does address all the issues at once.

SSWD is a project of L. Craig Schoonmaker, Newark, New Jersey, United States, creator of Fanetik: Reformed (Phonetic) Spelling - at Least for Teaching. Phonetic pronunciations on this site are rendered in Augméntad Fanétik, which employs accents for syllabic stress. For information about other ways to change irrational spellings, search the Internet for spelling reform.

Comments? Suggestions? If you have suggestions as to words to reform, please check first if they have already been used or have already been placed on the list of words to be addressed in the future or words that have been considered but rejected. Please also check the principles that control whether a word will or will not be offered. Once you have done that, or for any other purpose, please write to Fanetiks@aol.com. Because, for reasons I do not understand, some people have written under temporary email addresses that are abandoned before I can reply, I will not make personal replies to anyone who (a) does not request reactions and (b) does not provide a valid return email address (which will be checked, before I write any substantive reply, by a test email). And if you'd like credit on this page for any suggestion you make that is used, please provide a name and location (city, state/country) for that credit. Absent a personal name, credit will be given to an abbreviated form of the email address, without the at-sign or domain information (e.g., if the email address is "mjmartin@gmail.com", credit might be made to "mjmart...").