man; Walter William Skeat, professor of Anglo-Saxon, Cambridge, and author of the English Etymological Dictionary; Henry Sweet, the eminent filologist and editor of Old and Middle English texts; and Alfred Tennyson on its list of vice-presidents, which included three former presidents of the Philological Society.
The Philological Society, in 1880, recommended many changes in the spelling of English words, which wer printed in a pamflet entitled "Partial corrections of English spellings aproovd by the Philological Society". The American Philological Association took joint action with the Philological Society on the amendment of English spelling in 1883, on the basis of which 24 joint rules wer printed in the Proceedings of the American Philological Association for that year.
N. E. A. Adopts 1-2 Words
This movement, begun with so much enthusiasm both in England and in America, was carrid on in the United States by the Spelling Reform Association for more than 30 years. The National Education Association, in 1898, gave its approval to the movement and adopted the simplified spellings known as the Twelv Words (catalog, decalog, demagog, pedagog, prolog, program, tho, altho, thoro, thorofare, thru, thruout), and has used them in its publications ever since. (In 1916 the Association adopted the rule for simplifying -ed to -t, when so pronounst, in past tenses of verbs. See page 26.)
Unfortunately, while the Spelling Reform Association had in its ranks the best scolarship in the country, it had in its tresury only such funds as the scolars themselvs could contribute—not enuf to carry on an effectiv campain.
