Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling

by David Wolman

David Wolman explores seven hundred years of trial, error, and reform that have made the history of English spelling a jumbled and fascinating mess. In Righting the Mother Tongue, theauthor of A Left-Hand Turn Around the World brings us the tangled story of English Spelling, from Olde English to email. Utterly captivating, deliciously edifying, and extremely witty, Righting the Mother Tongue is a treat for the language lover—a book that belongs in every personal library, right next to Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, and the works of Bill Bryson and Simon Winchester.

Genres: Nonfiction, Language, History, Linguistics, Reference, Writing, British Literature

227 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 7, 2008

About the author

David Wolman is a Contributing Editor at OUTSIDE and a longtime contributor at WIRED. He has also written for publications such as the New York Times, New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, BusisnessWeek, and Nature. His work has twice been anthologized in the Best American Science and Nature Writing series, and his feature about Egyptian revolutionaries was nominated for a National Magazine Award. His latest book, Aloha Rodeo, will be published in May, 2019 (HarperCollins).
David is a former Oregon Arts Commission fellow, Fulbright journalism fellow (Japan), and a graduate of Stanford University's journalism program. His other books include The End of Money, A Left-Hand Turn Around the World, Righting the Mother Tongue, and Firsthand. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and two children.

Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @davidwolman.

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book necessarily starts in Olde Englande because that's where our modern English spellings don't start from, that comes next, but was the foundation of the language. It is therefore very jarring to have the author intersperse this history of orthography with modern American cultural references, 'they didn't drink the Kool-Aid', a long chapter on Spelling Bees (did any of the popular kids in school actually go in for that, or was it reserved for teacher's best little kiddies?) and slang, 'cool' for one. A history of spelling should become a reference book, it's certainly exhausive enough, but the effect of the writing is, despite the widespread use of English and its common roots, to parochialise it to the US and also, which is worse, to date the book immediately.

Two reviewers of this book call it a 'linguistic romp'. I like my linguistics to be serious, and my 'romps' (what a word, very tabloid, so National Enquirer or Daily Mirror) to be a great deal more entertaining than this. However, the book is informative and serious at times and if two such words could go together, tediously entertaining in part.

Recommended to fans and partipants of Spelling Bees who will find themselves utterly glorified The rest of us - a dictionary is vastly more interesting.

[Jason Pettus · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

I originally picked this up because of a hugely entertaining interview with the author I heard on public radio's "The World in Words;" and blessedly, the book turns out to be just as entertaining, a brisk yet informative look at the various attempts over the millennia to standardize what we know as the English language. Because that of course is an important thing to know about English, for those who don't; that unlike, say, France, there is no official governing board for standard English usage, deciding with legal authority what is "proper" use of the language and what isn't, which is the main reason that English is both one of the most difficult languages on the planet to learn and one of the most expressive. But Lord, as Wolman so eloquently describes, there sure have been a lot of people who have tried their damnedest to impose a sense of official order over the language: from Chaucer and his cohorts in the Middle Ages to Webster and the other proto-linguists of the Enlightenment, to the surprisingly high-profile series of reformers during the Victorian and Edwardian eras (including Theodore Roosevelt, Dale Carnegie and Mark Twain) who spent millions of dollars trying to reduce the language down to a level more akin to modern text-messenging, all the way to the modern crackpots who "picket" the National Spelling Bee each year in order to garner more awareness for their cause. As you can imagine, then, there are a whole series of fascinating side-lanes along this path to modern English, which Wolman puts to very good use in his book, making it not just a dry history but a modern travel guide as well, as he journeys from the birthplace of standardized English (southwest England, that is), to the birthplace of printed text (Germany), to the first global headquarters of printed English books (Antwerp, surprisingly enough), peppering his text throughout with looks at all the various bizarre exceptions found in English spelling and why those exceptions exist. (Why does 'rhubarb' have a silent H? Why is 'color' spelled with an extra U in England but not the US?) It's one of the better nonfiction reads I've come across in a long time, and it comes highly recommended today.

Out of 10: 9.4

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF at p72

I’ll come back to this one, but it’s been sitting untouched on my bedside table for 2+ months so I’m going to call it for now

[ilana · Rating 3 out of 5]

An engaging narrative of how English came to be! Wolman's writing felt very reminiscent of Bill Bryson's nonfiction with wit and liveliness. He wove his own narrative through the story, which I really enjoyed. I could tell this subject is not just something Wolman is interested in, it is something he deeply cares about!

[Sarah N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really excellent and oh, so fascinating! History and language are such intriguing subjects.

[Evanston Public Library]

Are you a good speller? I am, but my husband and son rely heavily on spell-check (and me) to keep them from making terrible errors. Their problem is common: they are using mere logic and phonetics to spell many words and that leads them astray. In David Wolman’s telling of the story of English spelling, we learn why it is that our wonderfully rich language has such byzantine spelling conventions (hint: it has something to do with the number of other languages that contributed their vocabulary to ours). In the course of tracing the somewhat tortured path to modern English, Wolman writes about world history, literature, pop-culture, and—no surprise—the digital world. Not exactly light topics, but this is no dreary orthography treatise (orthography is a fancy word for spelling, origin Greek, from ortho=correct, graph=writing). You’ll chuckle at the author’s humorous take on things as he delves into such areas as spelling bees, dictionary wars, spelling reformers (proponents of changes that would give us fu for few, frends for friends, ruf for rough, and so on), spell-check, and texting (r u a gd spllr?). When all is said and done, Wolman states, there is no holding back the tide of spelling simplification that the Internet is bringing, and encourages all the prescriptivists who bemoan the loss of standards to relax, take a cue from the descriptivists who hold that language is an evolving thing, and resistance is futile since change in the way people speak and spell is practically a force of nature (or, a fors uv nachur). (Barbara L., Reader’s Services)

[Mimo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm divided on this book. On the positive side, the topic of the history of the English language and its orthography (that's fancy for spelling) was really interesting. The author went to England and traced it, sharing such gems as why lower and uppercase letters are called that. As a librarian, I was also interested to learn that besides devising the classification system that I still use today, Melvil Dewey was a huge player in the simplified spelling movement, even going so far as to change the spelling of his name from Melville Dewey to Melvil Dui. The Dui didn't stick. Oh, and why Americans don't add an extra u in words like color.
On the other hand, part of me just wanted to shake the author and tell him to get over the fact that he wasn't a good speller. I can see his argument (sp? :)) that English is a very complicated language to spell. However, it would be confusing to have to learn all new spellings. Plus, even if Spanish and German are easier to spell, we don't have it so bad just take a look at Irish. I also would have liked for him to have spent more time on how email and texting might influence the lexicon in the long run.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing on my linguistic romp…this is a short, very readable introduction to the history of English orthography, specifically that of spelling. It spans the beginnings of the English language, talking about its myriad influences, to the printing press, to the very first dictionaries, to the call for reformation of the entire language by Webster himself, to the Spell Check, to the fight of the Simplified Spelling Society today.

The information in here is interesting, but I wanted more out of Wolman’s accounts about his travelling. In the beginning of the book he talked about his taking a road trip around the UK to visit the so-called landmarks in the history of English orthography, and I wished he’d written more about that. I thought his personal account of picketing outside the Scripps National Spelling Bee with the Simplified Spelling Society charming, but the rest of those travel accounts were forgettable. Unfortunately, overall his writing wasn’t as engaging or witty as I’d hoped from reviews.

[Brandi Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely terrific book. It might, possibly, be my new favorite linguistics book. I'm sorry, I meant, orthography book. But, you can't talk about orthography without talking about linguistics. From the beginning, the book drew me in with the approachable storytelling. This isn't an author who wants to impress you with how supremely intelligent he is. He is open and honest about his own struggles, which are some I can also relate to. The book is intelligent, but with the right amount of humor thrown in. Yes, it might be nerd humor, but it's still humor. He's also honest about the classist and racist roots of grammar and spelling 'rules'. While some of the information in the book is related to information I've read in other linguistics books, there is also a fresh take and information on how technology integrates with spelling. I really enjoyed this book from cover to cover, and it would be a great intro to anybody who isn't already a linguistics or English history nerd.

[Cat. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why are English words so WEIRD and varying in terms of spelling. The author traces the history of the language, but it much more concerned with why everyone gets so worked up about spelling, why there has to be a "right" way to spell things when we invented spelling in the first place as a tool.

This book completely changed the way I look at spelling problems other people have. I've always known Shakespeare "couldn't even spell his own name consistently", but maybe the point really is that he didn't CARE how it was spelled. The point is really to make us able to communicate without misunderstandings. Then people who need to control things got involved and started making rules and ... now we have spelling bees.

All of this is told in easy-to-read chapters that don't talk down to the reader, but also don't require a PhD. in linguistics to understand.

[Heather the Banjo Queen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the English language. I don't always use it "correctly", but maybe I don't have to all the time. Maybe I don't have to spell "correctly" every time, either. This book was a hoot...if you like English. It was a nice short history of spelling and how it came about. It's relatively new, starting around Chaucer's time. There are some who believe that we should switch to simplified spelling, and I'm sure you would be suprised at who is on that list. I know I was. It also dealt with how our language and the spelling thereof is always changing and growing. It is never static. I truly enjoyed the book. I don't know that I agree with his conclusion, but anything is possible.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Breezy entertaining story of efforts over the centuries to change English spelling. Sometimes the efforts succeed, at least partly, as when letters were added to many words (like the b in debt, the o in people) to make them look more like Latin. Mostly, however, English spelling has changed slowly. The book recapitulates much of the standard history of the language, but the author adds quite a bit at the end about spell checkers and Google. Entertaining, but if you know your history of English, it won't add a lot.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some interesting stuff...the history of spelling up to the modern day spelling reformists. My only problem with this book was the same problem I have with the Mary Roach books...I like the facts, but don't much care for the author's personal journey. Less personality, more interesting factoids.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author confronts the issue of "correct" spelling with some animosity. Who is to say what is really the correct way to spell words, huh? He goes into some detail about various spelling reform movements of the early 20th century (Melvil Dewey – who simplified the spelling of his given name, Melville –was one of the most indefatigable proponents), the impact of Noah Webster's first dictionary, and the argument that simplified spelling will make it easier for people to learn how to read and write English. Only a nod or two is made to the fact no one should forget: reformed spelling would make it all but impossible to read easily anything already printed with accepted "correct" spellings.
A somewhat disappointing book. I had expected a more serious, deeper approach to the history of spelling, with examples of words that have transmuted over the centuries. He does address the sensible argument that standard spelling tells us a lot about the historical development of the word, and its etymology (which should be a good memory boost to those trying to spell correctly.
I will remember Dewey's sincere but misguided efforts. I will remember the unpersuasive arguments about simplified spelling making learning English easier.

[Rebecca the Polyglot · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve had this book on my shelf forever, and I’m so glad I finally got around to reading it. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the history of spelling or in the development of the English language in general. Wolman takes us from monks copying manuscripts in Alfred’s Wessex to Dutch typesetters in 15th-century England to numerous waves of spelling reformers in the UK and the US. This book is full of fun gems - for instance, the fact that the H in words like “ghost” was added to English by Dutch typesetters, because GH was the conventional spelling of G in Dutch at that time.

The major framing device is Wolman’s physical journeys to sites central to the history of English spelling. I now have a list of museums to visit next time I’m in Europe! Wolman’s journalist background comes out as he interviews people throughout the US and Europe, and he also writes a story arc related to his personal struggles with spelling. I thought this enhanced the book, giving it an approachable feel, and also served to demonstrate just how much we all think (usually unconsciously) about spelling.

This isn’t an academic book, and sometimes I wanted to dive more into the nitty-gritty details of sound change or orthographic innovation. But I’m a professor of ancient languages, so I have specific interests! :) More importantly, this book could have benefited from more clear signposting of historical facts and events. The information is there, but it’s often buried in the midst of (enjoyable) anecdotes. Even just a historical summary at the end of each chapter could help a lot. I found myself rereading the earlier chapters a few times to get all the dates and names right in my mind. Sometimes it was hard to draw connections across chapters - for instance, I was confused how the various waves of British spelling reformers in the 15th and 16th centuries related to each other.

Overall, a fun and informative book that I would not hesitate to recommend!

[Terry · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love books about the history of the English language (Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue is a great one), but this one was a bit of a disappointment. It's about spelling, and while I learned a bit about the history of it and so on, there wasn't a whole lot that I found interesting about it. And the book itself is written in that tone of vaguely amused condescension that I really hate in journalism, especially when the book isn't written well enough to justify the attitude. There are always new things to learn, so if this is a strong interest of yours, go for it. But there are better books.

[Sharon Falduto]

Apparently, throughout history, there have been movements to make spelling in the English language more simplified, so it is easier to learn to read, for instance. Mr. Decimal System himself--who called himself Melvil Dui--was a proponent. People, however, are very resistant to change--though some things, like the proposed spelling "thru," has become more widespread, if not totally accepted. This was a fun little book.

[Jamie McQuiggan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really fascinating overview of how English came about, and why it's so weird, like a linguistics pop-sci book. It focuses on spelling a lot and why it's so unnecessarily hard/how it's used to judge class and IQ... They said English is the Mandarin of European languages, which feels about right. I'm thankful it's my first language after reading this.

Only bummer is that this book is getting old and I'd love to have learned about how AI, texting, and other more recent internet trends are impacting our language.

[Barbara Switzer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't finish this. It was okay at the beginning. However it soon became tedious; it did not live up to the title nor to my expectations.

[Glenn Fleishman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insight into how modern English was formed—through accident, geography, popular works, and sometimes royal decrees (and spending).

[Sara Goldenberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was cute and I liked it but it did go on !!!

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

(randomly selected)

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another entertaining and informative romp through the history of the English language. (I don’t seem to ever get bored with revisiting it, now do I?) Wolman offers a few more original insights into our mother tongue, even as he wanders down paths already trodden by his more eminent peers, like David Crystal. (Surprisingly, Crystal accompanied Wolman on many of Wolman’s excursions across the UK while researching this book, and as a near companion in this book.)

Outside of his detailed history of the spelling wars in our mother tongue on both sides of the Atlantic, here are some of the more interesting tidbits and observations that Wolman provides which I found delicious to ponder over:

1. The likelihood that English spelling would have been more consistent and simplified if Anglo-Saxon hadn’t been injected with French after the Norman Conquest. (But if you look at any random page of un-translated Chaucer, that would be a scary thought indeed.)

2. A Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum exists in London where the preeminent dictionary author lived and wrote in the 18th century. Which is yet another reason why I love London so much, and is yet another reason to go back.

3. Despite many fringe, pseudo-patriotic views contending on a pure, unadulterated golden age of English in early American history, “As many as 25 percent of the population of the US in 1790 didn’t speak English as a first language.” Which goes to show that the existence of other languages in our fair nation back during its founding decade didn’t endanger English one bit. (English-only proponents be damned. You’re wasting your time on fighting a battle that has already been won by our mother tongue. And which is winning converts every day worldwide, as English is the most spoken second language across the globe, and is in no danger whatsoever of being overtaken.)

4. Richard Feynman at his best, yet again: “If the professors of English will complain to me that students who come to the universities, after all these year of study, still cannot spell friend, I say to them that something’s the matter with the way you spell friend.” Touche, Professor!

Next to Crystal, Wolman may be in the lightweight category with his much slender volume and curriculum vitae. But add him to your to-read list if you have a love of the English language and its beautiful absurdity.

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting insights into why and how we spell continues my recent thread on English (and specifically American) language

The American Language-4th Editin
Websterisms: A Collection of Words and Definitions Set Forth by the Founding Father of American English

Wolman takes off from a position of a spelling-challenged student to tour the roots of English orthography (the study of spelling) in this light extended magazine piece. He starts at several ground-zero sites in England where English as a spoken and then written language evolved, moves on to sites in Belgium and Germany to trace the origins of the printing press and its impact on orthographic orthodoxy, makes a stop at Noah Webster's homestead in Connecticut to consider his history-making impact on English language from the American shores, and picks up a protest sign to picket the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC along with other spelling simplification advocates to assess the impact of this quixotic band on the broad mainstream of spelling.

It turns out that among professionals in the field, there are those who espouse descriptive approaches--document and describe the state of spelling without judgment--and those who take the prescriptive approach that there are correct ways of spelling that must be honored, and deviations, either sharp or slight, must be corrected back to--

--and there's the rub. Back to what, no one is sure. Unlike some languages, English has no arbiter, either commercial, professional, politically-appointed, or self-appointed, of correctness. Wolman talks about how the great English dictionaries (Samuel Johnson's, Noah Webster's, and the all-inclusive OED) silently serve this role, and concludes with some considerations of how Google searches, texting, and the Internet may change spelling.

And yes, I used the spell-checker on this review, accepting corrections to "quitoxic" (difficult foreign-loan word), "judgement" ("simplified" spelling confusion), and "Samual" (simple typo). I did not replace "texting" even though the spell checker flagged it, as I judge it to be correct in spelling and valid in usage.

[Kalle Wescott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just read this book by David Wolman.

The book was somewhat inconsistent in its approach but the subject matter was fascinating!

I learned that we lost 6 letters in Olde English. Here are three of them and the origins of ampersand.

The longest place name in the world is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturi-pukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu in New Zealand.

Shakespeare invented over 2000 new lexemes and invented many phrases that are standard parts of the modern English language! Here are 1700 of the words he invented, and here are some of his original phrases.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly interesting book on the history of English orthography, a discussion of of spelling reform, and some description of the cognitive side of reading and writing (which helps account for the difficulties some people have in these activities).

Chapter 5, which bridges the gap between the advent of printing and the publishing of Johnson’s dictionary, was the most illuminating section for me, as it gave some clarity to how printing houses and self-appointed tastemakers and language-shapers in the 16th and 17th centuries favored this or that construction/spelling and set it apart as most “correct.”

Honorable mention to chapters 10 and 11, which explore the creation of computerized spellcheckers and postulate how people's use of language on the Internet may shape English further.

Wolman is informative, entertaining, and does a good job balancing arguments for the prescriptivists and descriptivists.

A few more thoughts here: http://is.gd/7c9tD2

[Jerry Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up thinking it was a more general review of English than it turned out to be - that's my fault as the title makes it clear the author is examining how English spelling came about and it's various excentricities.

It succeeds in telling the story mainly from the point of view of the many protagonists who have tried to simplify it over the years, largely without success. There is also a nod to the more recent times where the internet and texting are having their inevitable effect!

The overall message is that the spelling is certainly bizarre but there are also reasons for it amid the strangeness. It certainly is odd to have a non phonetic language where words that look the same can be pronounced 4 or 5 different ways. Ultimately the language will continue to evolve despite attempts to change it purposely!

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I have always loved language and its peculiarities. This book deals with English spelling and it is insightful, fascinating, and a laph ryut. (I laughed out loud a lot.)
Both sides of the spelling wars attract devoted scholars, some of whom (thankfully) are also weirdos and wackadoos.
If this topic seems at all tempting to you, then you should read this book. And if it seems truly boring, then read it anyway - it is far more interesting than you might think.
Fittingly, the Kindle version has plenty of missing spaces, which make it a little harder to read, but ironically satisfying.

[Indigo Editing/Ink-Filled Page]

I'm sure, no positive, every editor in the conference did a double-take (or is that double take, or doubletake?)--scratch that--gravitated to this title. As people whose jobs are to tame the wild vines of dangling modifiers and evolving spelling rules, how could we not? Wolman, with an innocent look and a comfortably comic nature, promises to entertain us languagelubbers and maybe teach us a thing or two too (er, as well).

Originally posted on Seeing Indigo.

[Marjanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am such a geek. I really enjoyed this book. The author gives a brief spelling history of the English language. It was fascinating and fun to read. The best part is that it really made me think about my perceptions of spelling and, particularly, the impact of modern devices on spelling (i.e. spell-check and texting). I considered myself a 'bad speller' when I was younger, but don't have a lot of trouble with it now and actually get paid to write. Overall, this book was fun and made me think.