Spelling and Grammar is Ancestor Worship

The fetishization of "correct" English -- which is to say, white, wealthy English -- is in direct opposition to everything that makes English such a glorious drunkard's debauch of a language. English came to us from the inventive malapropism and linguistic entrepreneurship of its speakers: from Shakespeare, who coined words wholesale; to the working-class streets with their heterodox cursing and rhyming slangs. To demand the immobilization of this restless, incontinent language is a form of b...

 Spelling Reform Requires Competition of Spelling Options

The first condition of rational progress in spelling reform is that persons who know, or who think they know, how words should be speld, should recover some- thing of their former freedom to spel in accordance with individual judgment. Only in that way can there be a wholesome rivalry of forms with ultimate survival of the best. The Board does not expect any one to adopt a spelling that, to him, suggests a pronunciation at variance with his usage. Those whose temper moves them to ...