Cut Spelling

Cut Spelling is a system of English-language spelling reform which reduces redundant letters and makes substitutions to improve correspondence with the spoken word. It was designed by Christopher Upton and was for a time being populized by the Simplified Spelling Society. It was never, however the official proposal of the society which for a long time has avoided endorsing one particular proposal and the society has put much less emphasis on it recently.

Related Topics:
Spelling reform - Christopher Upton - Simplified Spelling Society

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Unlike some other proposed reforms, Cut Spelling does not attempt to make English spelling phonemic, but merely attempts to remove many of the unneeded difficulties of the current spelling. Cut Spelling differs from "traditional orthography" mainly in removing letters from words and makes relatively few substitutions of letters compared with other proposed reforms. According to its designers, this allows readers accustomed to traditional orthography to get used to Cut Spelling fairly quickly and easily, while still giving learners of the language a much-simplified and more systematic spelling system.

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Cut Spelling operates under three main substitution rules to transform traditional spellings into cut spellings:

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• Letters irrelevant to pronunciation. This rule deletes most silent letters, except when these letters (such as "magic e") help indicate the word's pronunciation. Silent letters can be the most difficult part of learning the current spelling, and omitting or writing the wrong silent letters are common errors. Examples: peace → pece, except → exept, plaque → plaq, blood → blod, pitch → pich.
• Cutting unstressed vowels. In unstressed syllables, English usually contains the vowel schwa {{IPA|/ə/}}, which has no standard spelling, but can be represented by any vowel letter. Writing the wrong letter in these syllables is common error (for example, the incorrect spelling seperate seems almost as common as the correct separate). Cut Spelling eliminates these vowel letters completely before approximants ({{IPA|/l/}} and {{IPA|/r/}}) and nasals ({{IPA|/m/}}, {{IPA|/n/}}, and {{IPA|/ŋ/}}). In addition, some vowel letters are dropped in suffixes, reducing the confusion between -able and -ible. Examples: symbol → symbl, victim → victm, lemon → lemn, glamour → glamr, permanent → permnnt, waited → waitd, churches → churchs, warmest → warmst, edible → edbl.
• Simplifying doubled consonants. This rule helps with another of the most common spelling errors: failing to double letters (accommodate and committee are often misspelled) or introducing erroneously doubled letters. Cut Spelling does not eliminate all doubled letters: in some words (especially two-syllable words) the doubled consonant letter is needed to differentiate from another differently pronounced word (e.g., holly and holy). Examples: innate → inate, spell → spel.

The Cut Spelling system also uses three substitution rules:

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• The digraphs gh and ph become f when pronounced {{IPA|/f/}}. Examples: draught → draft, sulphur → sulfr, photograph → fotograf.
• The letter g is changed to j when pronounced {{IPA|/dʒ/}} or {{IPA|/ʒ/}}. Examples: judge → juj, rouge → ruje.
• The combinations ig and igh are changed to y when pronounced {{IPA|/aɪ/}}. Examples: flight → flyt, sign → syn.
 
Cut Spelling: Example text ►