One of the biggest complaints that I get as an English Language teacher: why is UK English spelling so hard?
English spelling is a cause of frustration, and often a barrier for writing. I like to encourage my students that – one day in the working world – they’ll have so many tools to help them, that they need to treat spelling at school as a pattern-learning process. What do you think?
The English spelling has faced evolution. It has been influenced by other languages, cultures and historical events (most recently consider the new words – coining – following Covid-19).
Old English:
Let’s start with Old English (also referred to as ‘Anglo-Saxon English’), which had a relatively consistent spelling system. (You can sometimes recognise the influence of the early Germanic languages because of the fairly ‘monosyllabic’, punchy-sounding lexis – words like ‘night’ and ‘Father’ and ‘son’).
Viking invasions in the 9th and 10th centuries brought Old Norse spellings into the language. After this, the Norman Conquest (1066) introduced French and Latin spellings to the language. Latin spellings in particular can often be identified nowadays through the polysyllabic nature of the lexis. Middle English, therefore, was marked by the French and Latin changes adding to the tapestry of Old English.
