What, might you ask, would be a cause worth protesting at a spelling bee? Well, there’s bound to be some media, so maybe…abortion? healthcare? gun rights? gigantic oil spills?
None of those are correct. At the 2010 National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C, a total of four peaceful protesters are advocating that spellings of words need to be “simplified”. At a spelling bee.
Anyway, you might be wondering what words are “too difficult” for people, according to the protesters. One example would be the word “enough” – they feel the spelling should instead be “enuff”. Also, “fruit” would become “froot” (yes, like Froot Loops), and “slow” would become “slo”.
The reasoning they give for this is that it would open English up to be more accessible to people who are trying to learn it. That’s a respectable theory, I suppose, and I do recognize it’s the nature of language to change with time, but, aren’t words spelled as they are due to roots from history? Many words we use are derived from Latin, Greek, Roman, and other origins.
In short, advocating such odd word changes is silly – sure, it becomes more phonetic, but you screw up the entire field of etymology in the process! Also, as I’ve mentioned before, don’t those changes look more than a little tacky?
Let 2010 National Spelling Bee Protesters’ Propositions Die
Photo Credits: Here
People have already done that to English; it is called Chatspeak.
What frightens me is that the woman leading the protest is 81 years old and a former school principal.
In a bee costume.