Orthographic reform

A spelling reform is a deliberate, often officially sanctioned or mandated change to spelling rules of a language. Proposals for such reform are fairly common, and over the years many languages have undergone such reforms. Recent high-profile examples are the German orthography reform of 1996 and the on-off Portuguese spelling reform of 1990, which is still being ratified by the different countries.

There are a number of objectives which may drive such reforms: easing the task of children or immigrants becoming literate, making the language more useful for international communication, making etymology clearer, or for aesthetic or political reasons.

Opposition to reforms is often based upon concern that old literature will become inaccessible, the presumed suppression of regional accents, the requirement to learn the new spellings, making etymology less clear, or simple conservatism based on concern over unforeseen consequences. Reforms that concentrate on removing unnecessary difficulties ought to take account of such arguments. Reform efforts are further hampered by habit and, in many countries, a lack of a central authority to set new spelling standards.

Spelling reform may also be associated with wider discussion of what the official script should be, language planning and language reform.

In languages written with alphabetic or syllabary scripts, one might expect there to be a close match of the script or spelling with the spoken sound. However, even if they match at one time and place for some speakers, over time they often do not match well for the majority: one sound may be represented by various combinations of letters and one letter or group of letters pronounced in various ways. In cases where spelling takes account of grammatical features these too may become inconsistent.

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