Spell It Out: The Curious, Enthralling and Extraordinary Story of English Spelling
Crystal makes a compelling case that spelling can be an adventure. This whirlwind review of the history of English spelling contains helpful tips for average readers and teachers, with small gems of discovery every few pages. The development of our language was influenced by everything from efficiency to fashion, such as the sixteenth-century love of Latin spelling. His brisk approach takes about as many chapters as there are English sounds—a bit more than 26—which are the root of several spelling variations. Writers’ knotty and convoluted efforts to bring order to this hodgepodge are often doomed, as the myriad exceptions to “i before e” demonstrate. Although his book is not exactly a love letter to the vagaries of English, linguist Crystal (The Story of English in 100 Words, 2012) maintains an affectionate tone of indulgence, similar to how a doting relative would treat a wayward nephew. For as Crystal shows, spelling is a cultural legacy as human—and therefore as prone to mischief—as anything else we create. --Bridget Thoreson