ABSTRACT
In the nineteenth century, the English language led the world in communications and research. In an age when almost everything else was being reformed, the eminent British academics, linguists and writers who campaigned for spelling reform were optimistic. They were sure they could reform their writing system, whose unnecessary difficulties and exceptions to a logical system were, and still are, a barrier to literacy for so many children, the disadvantaged, ‘dyslexics’ and foreigners, and cost so much in money and time to teach (see e.g. Upward 1996).
