Frenly Noshun

A cock-simple way of simplifying spelling was proposed last week in the London Times. Arising out of a discussion of Basic English (TIME, Aug. 16; Sept. 20), a letter-to-the-editor purported to quote the great Elizabethan, pipe-smoking Sir Walter Raleigh, who spelled his name three different ways (Ralegh, Rauleygh, Rauley) but never Raleigh. "Sir Walter's" simple suggestion: spell any way you like.

The quotation (supposedly from a letter to one Mrs. F. Gotch in 1598, but obviously modern):

"I have growen wery of spelynge wordes allwaies in one waye and now affect diversite. The chief vertew of my reform is that it makes the spelynge express the moode of the wryter. For instance, if yew are fealin frenly, ye kin spel frenly-like. Butte if yew wyshe to indicate that, thogh nott of hyghe bloode, yew are compleately atte one with the aristokrasy, yew canne double alle youre consonnantts, prollonge mosstte of yourre vowelles and adde a fynalle 'e' wherevverre itte iss requirred. Thysse gyvves a sennsse of leissuure ande quiette dygnittie."*

*The Times letter was signed Isaac Bickerstaff, the pseudonym under which Jonathan Swift once hoaxed his public.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.