Spelling reform

Natural languages often develop cumbersome manners of spelling words. Particular sounds may be represented by various letter combinations, while one letter may be pronounced in various ways. This is especially true of languages such as English that borrow heavily from other languages. Spelling reforms generally attempt to introduce a logical structure connecting the spelling and pronunciation of words.

Spelling reform of the Spanish language

Spanish orthography is such that every speaker can guess the pronunciation (adapted for accent) from the written form.

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While the same pronunciation could be misspelt in several ways — there are homophones, because of the language's silent h, vacilations between b and v, between ll and y, and between c and z (and between c, z, and s in Latin America and some parts of the Peninsula) — the orthography is far more coherent than, say, English orthography.

Related Topics:
Homophones - English orthography

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In spite of that, there have been several initiatives to reform the spelling: Andrés Bello succeeded in making his proposal official in several South American countries, but they later returned to the standard set by the Real Academia Española.

Related Topics:
Andrés Bello - Real Academia Española

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Another initiative, the O.RR.L.I., remained a curiosity.

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Juan Ramón Jiménez proposed changing -ge- and -gi to -je- and ji, but this is only applied in editions of his works or his wife's.

Related Topics:
Juan Ramón Jiménez - His wife

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Gabriel García Márquez raised the issue of reform during a congress at Zacatecas, but, with all his prestige, he got attention but nothing going.

Related Topics:
Gabriel García Márquez - Zacatecas

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The Academies however from time to time change several tidbits, such as allowing este instead of éste ("this one"), when there is no possible confusion.

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