Changes in Spelling

The introduction of printing at the beginning of the New English period greatly contributed to the unification and fixation of English spelling. Begun by Caxton in the last quarter of the XV c. this process practically ended in the first half of XVIII century, after which the orthography altered but little.

In general, the spelling changes during the New English period were less radical than the ones of the Middle English period. Very many words in ModE are spellt in the same way as they were by Caxton, nearly five centuries ago.

In fact, most phonetic changes of the NE period did not reflect on spelling, which accounts a good deal for the present discrepancy between spoken and written English.

The phonetic change, which had the most disturbing effect upon the spelling of that period, was the loss of ME [ə] (written e).

In many cases the letter e disappeared as well as the sound, e.g. ME sone > NE son, ME nute > NE nut

In many other cases the letter remained, though the sound disappeared, e.g. name, write, love.

The letter e in a final position came to be regarded as a sign indicating the length of a preceding vowel, e.g. hat – hate, bit – bite.

It was added in such capacity to many a word which had never before had the letter, e.g.

ME stoon (< OE stān) > NE stone, ME mis (< OE mӯs) > NE mice, ME to (< OE tā) > NE toe.

The addition or retention of the so-called silent e was often quite superfluous or even misleading. Thus, the ME hous showed quite plainly that the vowel was long and the addition of e in NE house was unnecessary. The retention of e after v in such words as live, give, have is misleading as it conceals the difference in the vowels of live [liv] and alive [ə ΄;laiv], have [hæv] and behave [bi ΄;heiv], etc.

In the XVI c.new digraphs oa and ea were introduced to represent the long open [ǭ] and [ ], e.g.

ME rood > NE road, ME boot > NE boat, ME se > NE sea, ME deel > NE deal.

It was an improvement on ME spelling which had mostly made no difference in representing [ ] and [ǭ], [ ] and [ ].

Most double consonants preceding the final weak [ə] were simplified after the loss of the latter, e.g.

ME lette >NE let, ME stoppe > NE stop, ME dogge > NE dog, ME sunne > NE sun.

The combinations of ss, ff, ll, ck (kk) were, however, retained, e.g.

ME kisse > NE kiss, ME stuffe > NE stuff, ME pulle > NE pull, ME locke > NE lock.

Moreover, these combinations were transferred to other words with originally a single final letter, e.g.

ME glas > NE glass, ME staf > NE staff, ME small > NE small, ME sik > NE sick.

Medially, all consonants were usually doubled after a short vowel, just as a sign that the vowel was short, e.g.

ME super > NE supper, felow > NE fellow, ME sumer > NE summer, ME bery > NE berry, ME matere > NE matter.

The written forms of many a word, especially those borrowed from French, were altered to make their Latin or Greek origin more obvious to the eye. Thus, the letter b was inserted in ME dette (> debt), doute (> doubt), under the influence of Latin «debitum and dubitare». French «rhithme» changed to rhythm under the influence of Latin «rhythmus». The spelling school replaced scool to conform to Latin schola.

Not infrequently, the supposed connection with Latin was false. The s in island, e.g., is due to false association with Latin insula, whereas it is a native English word, ME īland < OE īʒland, īʒ denoting «island».