Does it Seem that Pronunciation Is Always Changing More Than Spelling

Good usage in English is based on a mastery of the meanings, pronunciations, and spellings of words and phrases. The field of English grammar is essential to the proper use of words and is very helpful in avoiding the abuse of English usage.

Why Does it Seem that Pronunciation Is Always Changing More Than Spelling?

First, standardization of English spelling is thought to be a result more to the invention of printing than to any other single cause. Prior to the introduction of printing into England by William Caxton in 1475, most people were not concerned with spelling. Reading and writing were activities carried on only by monks and other learned men. As long as people communicated solely by speech, spelling was no problem; but when printing came in, some standards had to be set up. Without some standards, chaos would have resulted because those who read would have been utterly confused by whimsically varied spelling. As larger and larger numbers of people began to read and to write, they saw and used the standardized spellings employed by scholars, "editors", and printers. These standards were loose and flexible, to be sure, but they represented a forward step in communication. This unification of the language, though partial and imperfect, had a profound effect on writing but not, of course, on speech.

Second, it is believed by some scholars that a major regulatory and controlling influence on the language came from early dictionary-makers. The first English dictionary in 1603 spelled and briefly defined a little more than two thousand words. Its compiler did what his predecessors had done when translating Latin words into English: he copied. Naturally, on numerous occasions, he imitated the spellings of his predecessors and this tended to freeze them.

This earliest dictionary was imitated, or expanded upon, by several other lexicographers. In 1755, Dr. Samuel Johnson published his famous dictionary, a serious, important work that has influenced all lexicographers ever since. His dictionary dominated, and tended to fix, English spelling and usage for more than a century.

In the United States, the great pioneer in making dictionaries was Noah Webster. His first work, which was published in 1806, advocated spelling head as hed and thumb as thum; but his efforts at spelling reform were generally rejected by the public. In other respects, however, his work was widely accepted; and in 1828, his well-known An American Dictionary of the English language began to exert its lasting influence on English in this country. Lexicographers since Webster have been somewhat more reliable than he is reporting actual usage but they, too, have had to report spelling as it is found in printed sources. Thus, spelling has become fixed and largely unchangeable, although it frequently does not represent actual pronunciation and often departs from common sense.

There are many influences working against the improvement of what many consider to be the preferred usage of English words and those same influences are receiving credit for increasing the use of malapropisms and miscommunications.