Cut Spelling
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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 Upward and was for a time being popularized 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. One of its benefits is that the resulting words are 8–15% shorter than standard spellings.
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.
Cut Spelling operates under three main substitution rules to transform traditional spellings into cut spellings:
- 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. English unstressed syllables are usually pronounced with the vowel schwa /ə/, which has no standard spelling, but can be represented by any vowel letter. Writing the wrong letter in these syllables is a 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 (/l/ and /r/) and nasals (/m/, /n/, and /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:
- The digraphs gh and ph become f when pronounced /f/. Examples: draught → draft, sulphur → sulfr, photograph → fotograf.
- The letter g is changed to j when pronounced /dʒ/ or /ʒ/. Examples: judge → juj, rouge → ruje.
- The combinations ig and igh are changed to y when pronounced /aɪ/. Examples: flight → flyt, sign → syn.
The Cut Spelling Handbook also lists, in Chapter 6, optional additional rules such as replacing ch with k when it makes the /k/ sound, respelling as y unusual patterns that make the /aI/ diphthong, as well as replacing tion, cian, sion, ssion, etc. with shn.
[edit] Example texts
Wen readrs first se Cut Spelng, as in this sentnce, they ofn hesitate slytly, but then quikly becom acustmd to th shortnd words and soon find text in Cut Spelng as esy to read as Traditionl Orthografy, but it is th riter ho realy apreciates th advantajs of Cut Spelng, as many of th most trublsm uncertntis hav been elimnated.
Th Space Race was th competition between th United States and th Soviet Union, rufly from 1957 to 1975. It involvd th efrts by each of these nations to explor outr space with satlites, to be th 1st to send there a human being and to send mand and unmand missions on th Moon with a safe return of th humans to Erth.
Tho its roots lie in erly roket tecnolojy and in th intrnationl tensions foloing World War II, th Space Race efectivly began with th soviet launch of Sputnik 1 on 4 october 1957. Th term orijnated as an analojy to th arms race. Th Space Race became an importnt part of th cultrl and tecnolojicl rivalry between th USSR and th U.S. during th Cold War. Space tecnolojy became a particulrly importnt arena in this conflict, both because of its militry aplications and du to th sycolojicl benefit of rasing morale.
Rokets hav intrestd sientists and amatrs for at least 2,100 years, and Blak Chinese soldirs used them as wepns as erly as th 11th century. Russian sientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky theorized in th 1880s on multi-staje, liquid fuel rokets which myt reach space, but only in 1926 did th americn Robert Goddard desyn a practicl liquid-fuel roket.
Goddard performd his work on roketry in obscurity, as th sientific comunity, th public, and even Th New York Times scofd at him. It took World War II to catapult roketry into notoriety. This proved a harbnjr for th futur, as any "space race" wud becom inextricbly linkd to militry ambitions of th cuntris involvd, despite its mostly sientific caractr and peceful retric.
In th mid-1920s, jermn sientists had begun experimntng with rokets which used liquid propelnts capabl of reachng relatively hy altitudes and distnces. In 1932, th Reichswehr, predecesr of th Wehrmacht, took an interest in roketry for long-ranje artilry fire. Wernher von Braun, an aspiring roket sientist, joind th efort and developd such wepns for use in World War II by Nazi Jermny.
Th jermn A-4 Roket, launchd in 1942, became th 1st such projectl to reach space. In 1943, Jermny began production of its succesr, th V-2 roket, with a ranje of 300 km (185 miles) and carrying a 1000 kg (2200 lb) warhed. Th Wehrmacht fired thousnds of V-2s at Allyd nations, causing massiv damaj and loss of life. Th damaj, howevr, was not as gret as a simlrly weitd conventionl bom because th V-2 warhed lakd a good detnation device. Because of the hy speed of th V-2, th warhed tendd to explode aftr it had burid itself sevrl feet in th ground, reducing th potential damaj.
At th end of th war, competing soviet, British, and U.S. militry and sientific crews raced to captur tecnolojy and traind persnel from th jermn roket program instlation at Peenemünde. Th USSR and Britn had some success, but th United States benefitd most, taking a larj numbr of jermn roket sientists – many of them membrs of th Nazi Party, including von Braun – from Jermny to th United States as part of Opration Paperclip. Ther sientists adaptd th rokets intendd for use against Britn to othr uses.
Aftr th war, sientists used rokets to study hy-altitude conditions (via radio-telemetry of tempratur and pressur of th atmosfere), cosmic rays, and othr topics. This continued undr von Braun and his coleges, ho became part of th U.S. sientific complex.
Particl fysicists plum th depths for roman led
Nuclear fysics and roman archeology just dont mix, or so u wud think. But reserchrs at th Nationl Institute of Nuclear Fysics in Padua, Itly, and a team of archeolojists hav found a comn goal: to rase 1,500 ingots of led from a roman freitr wich sank of th coast of Sardinia mor than 2,000 years ago.
Th fysicists...want th led for experimnts that ar of criticl importnce in particl fysics and cosmolojy. Donatella Salvi, an archeolojist workng with th italian authority for artistic and historicl heritaj, wants to no mor about th mediteranean led trade in th 9th century BC.
Th ship was discovrd two years ago near an iland cald Mal di Ventre, so-named because of th hy wind that plages th area. It was modifyd to carry led and is th only one of its typ nown.
Th fisicists want th led for a practicl reasn. Led is th best material for shieldng delicat istrumnts detect minute amounts of radiation, for exampl from th unusual kinds of radioactivity asociated with dubl beta decay, or from th rare interaction of neutrinos—th gost-like particls that ar emitd from
We may nowadays be chary about using th word 'jenius', but we stil hav a good idea wat is ment by it. For exampl, ther ar gret numbrs of very giftd musicians ho ar admired but not cald jeniuses. But ther ar othrs, manifestly prodijus, performng ofn at extrordinrly erly ajes, a variety of feats so complex that th musicl laymn cud hardly imajn, even with th most desprat labor, acomplishng any one of them, wile even musicians ar astonishd: and we then reach for th good, handy, vage Enlytnmnt word and cal them jeniuses. Th list includes Mozart and Mendelsn; and, despite al th limitng jujmnts, it includes Benjamn Britn.
