Click here to listen to the BBC broadcast, ‘Should we relax English spelling rules?’
In this BBC World Update story, Professor John Wells of University College, London, proposes simplifying the English language in many ways: dropping letters that confuse meaning or pronunciation (like the silent e at the end of give), adding letters to ease pronunciation (like adding an extra v to the word river, making it rivver), and choosing one standard spelling for the notorious “words often confused” (like there, their, and they’re), to name a few.
Other suggestions include another of the confusing sets:
“Get rid of the two types of its (it’s and its) as it is hardly likely to confuse your meaning. If removing the apostrophe is a problem, then leave a space: We’ll becomes we ll”
The latter possibility — we ll — looks just plain weird to me. But I guess anything I use consistently will seem normal eventually. Our language is constantly growing and changing. And, as my husband reminds me when I whine about wrinkles and graying hair on occasion, the alternative is death.
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