![]() ![]() Mine has not been returned to me in more than six months as it has gone from English teacher to History teacher and round and round. This book is more than 'spelling' as the history of the English language is so closely tied up in it. But it certainly makes for a fascinating and informative read. Whether teaching this history would make learning to spell easier, I don’t know. ![]() But Crystal’s analysis shows up rather more regularities than might be apparent on a first look. With all that going on, it’s not surprising that the spelling seems a mess. Then there were later scholars attempting to retrofit Latin spelling onto English. Then there were loan words from other languages. ![]() They each had their own ideas, and multiple different styles got frozen in. He takes an historical perspective, starting with Latin-speaking 6th century scholars attempting to fit some of the weirder consonants (thorn, eth, yogh, and more), and multiple vowels, of Old English into the too-small Latin alphabet. Here, Crystal explains why it is the way it is, and attempts to show that such an understanding can make the task of spelling more straightforward, if not exactly easy. English spelling has a reputation for being difficult and arbitrary. ![]()
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