A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling

A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling is a short humorous text, sent as a letter to The Economist, possibly written by M.J. Sheilds (but often attributed to Mark Twain) on English spelling reform. Beginning with standard English, it adopts the reforms it suggests.

The text is as follows:

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter “c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or “s,” and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which “c" would be retained would be the “ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the “g/j" anomali wonse and for all.

Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez “c,” "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez -- tu riplais “ch,” “sh,” and "th" rispektivli.

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

In standard English, it would read:

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter C would be dropped to be replaced either by K or S, and likewise X would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only case in which C would be retained would be the ch formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform W spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same consonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replacing it with I and year 4 might fix the “g/j" anomaly once and for all.

Generally, then, the improvement would continue year by year with Year 5 doing away with useless double consonants, and Years 6-12 or so modifying vowels and the remaining voiced and unvoiced consonants. By Year 15 or so, it would finally be possible to make use of the redundant letters C, Y and X — by now just a memory in the minds of old dodderers — to replace ch, sh and th respectively.

Finally, then, after some 20 years of orthographic reform, we would have a logical, coherent spelling in use throughout the English-speaking world.