H. L. Mencken

“ But even so long a list is not enough for the extremists. To it they add various miscellaneous new spellings: aker, anser, burlesk, buro, campain, catar, counterfit, delite, foren, forfit, frend, grotesk, iland, maskerade, morgage, picturesk, siv, sorgum, sovren, spritely, tuch, yu and yung. The reader will recognize some of these as surviving inventions of Webster. But though all such bizarre forms languish, the twelve spellings adopted by the National Education Association in 1898 are plainly making progress, especially tho and thru. ”

“ From time to time it issues impressive lists of newspapers and periodicals that have made them optional, but an inspection of these lists shows that very few publications of any importance have been converted and that most of the great universities still hesitate. ”

“ At least one American professor of English predicts that these forms will eventually prevail. Even fosfate and fotograf, he says, “are bound to be the spellings of the future.” [7] Meanwhile the advertisement writers and authors combine in an attempt to naturalize alright, a compound of all and right, made by analogy with already and almost. I find it in American manuscripts every day, and it not seldom gets into print. [8] So far no dictionary supports it, but it has already migrated to England and has the imprimatur of a noble lord. [9] Another vigorous newcomer is sox for socks. ”

“ But not when a wrong pronunciation will be suggested: bakt, fact (for faced) , etc. When ei is pronounced like ie in brief substitute ie: conciet, deciev, wierd. When a final ey is pronounced y drop the e: barly, chimny, donky, mony, vally. When final gh is pronounced f substitute f and drop the silent letter of the preceding digraph: enuf, laf, ruf, tuf. When gh is pronounced g drop the silent h: agast, gastly, gost, goul. When gm is final drop the silent g: apothem, diagram, flem. ”