List of language reforms of English


For centuries, many people have called for language reforms of English, which vary in approach from the radical to the conservative.
Phonetic alphabets limited to English do not belong here. See :Category:Phonetic alphabets.

Spelling reforms

Spelling reforms are attempts to regularize English spelling either by reducing the number of irregularities or by making it completely phonemic. This may be done using the existing basic English alphabet more uniformly, by adding diacritics, by adding new letters, by removing letters in the script or writing, by removing letters and replacing it by new ones or by replacing it entirely. Such proposals include:
Name of workDate completedCreatorAlphabet
Ormulumc. 1150–1180OrrmExtended
Gospel according to Saint Matthew1550John ChekeDiacriticized
The Opening of the Unreasonable Writing of Our Inglish Toung1551John HartExtended
De recta & emendata lingvæ Anglicæ scriptione, dialogus 1568Thomas SmithDiacriticized
Booke at Large for the Amendment of English Orthographie1580William BullokarExtended
Logonomia Anglica1619Alexander GillExtended
The English Grammar1633Charles ButlerExtended
A New English Grammar1662James HowellBasic
Benjamin Franklin's phonetic alphabet1768Benjamin FranklinExtended
A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language1806Noah WebsterBasic
A Plea for Phonetic Spelling1848Alexander John EllisExtended
Deseret alphabet1847–1854Board of regents of the University of DeseretReplaced
SoundSpel 1910–1986VariousBasic, Extended
Robert Bridges' Literary Alphabet1913Robert Bridges, David Abercrombie and Stanley MorisonExtended
Handbook of Simplified Spelling1920Simplified Spelling BoardBasic
The Global Alphabet1944Robert L. OwenReplaced
Unifon1950sJohn MaloneExtended
Regularized Inglish1959Axel WijkBasic
Shavian alphabet 1960 Ronald Kingsley ReadReplaced
Spelling Reform 1 1969Harry LindgrenBasic
Interspel1986Valerie YuleExtended
Cut Spelling1992Christopher UpwardSqueezed
SaypYu 2012Jaber George JabbourAltered
Simpel-Fonetik method of writing2012Allan KiiskExtended
Traditional Spelling Revised 2021Stephen LinsteadDiacriticized

Subsets

Subsets are reforms that use a restricted wordlist and grammar. English subsets include:

Vocabulary reforms

Vocabulary reforms seek to reform English by changing or restricting its words without changing its grammar.