Spelling reform in English: a constant failure? Or a secret success? Waves upon waves of optimists have tried to make English spelling reflect its sound and escape its etymological origins, but have never seen their vision fully realised. Author Gabe Henry has chronicled the attempts, and he joins us on this episode.
Gabe is the author of Enough Is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Easier to Spell, available from Dey Street Books.
Timestamps
Cold open: 0:00
Intros: 1:44
News: 9:50
Related or Not: 32:21
Interview with Gabe Henry: 49:23
Words of the Week: 1:33:41
Comment: 1:50:50
The Reads: 1:53:57
Outtakes: 2:03:28
Listen to this episode
Video
Patreon supporters
Thanks to all our patrons! Here are our patrons at the Supporter level.
This time we are ordering the names by the elements. If your name contains any atomic symbol, your score goes up by that element’s atomic number.
- Andy from Logophilius (574)
- Sonic Snejhog (419)
- Faux Frenchie (409)
- Ariaflame (346)
- Linguistic Chaos (333)
- Laura (316)
- Meredith (287)
- Andy B (247)
- gramaryen (247)
- Kristofer (235)
- Kathy (234)
- PharaohKatt (234)
- Luis (232)
- Amir (225)
- Margareth (215)
- James (210)
- Wolfdog (209)
- Nasrin (207)
- Rachel (186)
- Rach (184)
- Whitney (184)
- Ignacio (174)
- Mignon (170)
- Keith (163)
- Canny Archer (161)
- Termy (159)
- Ayesha (155)
- Tadhg /taɪg/ (154)
- Kevin (151)
- Chris W (150)
- LordMortis (141)
- Felicity (136)
- Amy (134)
- Nigel (120)
- Nikoli (118)
- Jack (114)
- Larry (114)
- Rodger (108)
- Manú (99)
- Stan (96)
- Rene (92)
- Molly Dee (89)
- Fiona (88)
- Daniel is here, for reference (88)
- O Tim (83)
- Hedvig is here, for reference (79)
- Chris L (76)
- Sydney (72)
- Alyssa (68)
- Steele (68)
- Diego (61)
- Lyssa (55)
- Tony (54)
- Elías (49)
- Colleen (48)
- J0HNTR0Y (47)
- Joanna (26)
- Aldo (21)
- sæ̃m (16)
- Ben is here, for reference (16)
- Helen (10)
And our newest patrons:
- At the Listener level: Joey and Etymonline
- At the Friend level: Brendan
- And our newest free members: Andreas, Colin, Asher, 桓棟 邱, Bart, and Amber
Become a Patreon supporter yourself and get access to bonus episodes and more!
Become a Patron!Show notes
A computational analysis of lexical elaboration across languages
https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/qmgn8_v2
[PDF] Geoff Pullum, 1991: The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax and Other Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language
https://cslc.nd.edu/assets/141348/pullum_eskimo_vocabhoax.pdf
The complicated question of how we determine who has an accent
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/02/250213143925.htm
Kathryn Campbell-Kibler, 2025: Place-Based Accentedness Ratings Do Not Predict Sensitivity to Regional Features
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/josl.12691
A human gene makes mice squeak differently — did it contribute to language?
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00518-0
A humanized NOVA1 splicing factor alters mouse vocal communications
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-56579-2
Scientists identify gene that helped humans develop complex speech
https://theworld.org/segments/2025/02/18/scientists-identify-gene-that-helped-humans-develop-complex-speech
Skeat’s commentary on adding the L in vault
Enough Is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Easier to Spell, by Gabe Henry
https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780063360235/enough-is-enuf/
English Eggs?
https://ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/english-eggs/
Your ‘Innie’ Will Want to Read This (🎁)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/style/severance-innie-outie-work-life-balance.html?unlocked_article_code=1.A08.4abi.e17RgqOe7po9&smid=url-share
#TemuTrump on Twitter
https://twitter.com/hashtag/TemuTrump?src=hashtag_click
Trump calls Zelensky a ‘dictator’ as he hits back at ‘disinformation’ criticism
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c62e2158mkpt
Move Over, Americano: The ’Canadiano’ Has Arrived
https://www.baristamagazine.com/move-over-americano-the-canadiano-has-arrived/
Transcript
Coming soon.