Before you read, discuss the following questions with your partner.

1) Can you read and understand your language of 1000 years ago? Is it important to be able to do so?

2) Has your language become simpler over the years?

3) Is your language phonetic, i.e. is it pronounced as it is written? Are there many differences between your written and spoken language? What about English?

4) English spelling is considered to be difficult. Could you think of the factors which influenced English spelling?

2. Read the text below and write out the major stages in the development of English spelling and factors which influenced its change.

Who says English spelling is difficult? A computer analysis of 17,000 English words has shown that 84% were spelt according to a regular pattern and that only 3% were so unpredictable that they would have to be learned totally by rote. Yet a professor at Cambridge University once declared that: 'I hold firmly to the belief... that no-one can tell how to pronounce an English word unless he has at some time or other heard it.'

Believe it or not English spelling was at one time virtually phonetic: even the 'k' in 'know' was pronounced. At that time, the Old English period, words which now look as if they should rhyme (but don't), for instance, bough, cough, enough, thorough and though, actually all had a different spelling and it was therefore natural that they should be pronounced differently.

It's really the French's (the Dutch's, too, but more about them later) fault that English spelling is so absurd, for in 1066 the Normans invaded England and brought with them their own language, Norman French. For the two centuries after this disastrous invasion poor old English was hardly ever written, because the language of the court, of law and of administration was French - the Normans held all the positions of power. About 40% of the words in the Oxford English Dictionary derive from French, the problem is that the English have always been hopeless at learning languages and they consequently mispronounced the majority of words which were introduced by the Normans into the English language. The Normans were also responsible for the capital ‘I’ as in 'I am', and for introducing extra letters into existent words, such as the 'u' in tongue and guess.

The Dutch were also masters at introducing extra letters, but for economic not patriotic reasons. In 1465 printing was introduced into England, by a certain William Caxton, whose printing machines were manned by Dutch technicians. At that time printers were paid by the letter and as these technicians were a cunning bunch they knew that all they had to do to get more money was to make words longer; it is they in fact who are responsible for some of the 'oughs' which they added indiscriminately. They also had the excuse of not being able to understand English handwriting, so when in doubt they just added a few letters here and there. Until the 16th century line justification was achieved by abbreviating and contracting words, and also by adding extra letters (usually an 'e') to words, rather than extra space.

During the same period, with Latin and Greek becoming of renewed importance due to the Renaissance, many strange spellings were introduced because the people employed to copy the books became confused between English, French and Latin - there were no spelling rules or guides to help them. Then someone had the bright idea of producing a dictionary, yet this was little more than a list of 'hard words'. After all, it was reasoned, why should a dictionary include the words everyone already knew?

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