SPAG!

Spag, spag, on you. (8)

Sorry guys, I had to. Anyway, I'm going to make this post as wonderful and useful as possible in 3, 2, 1...

SPELLING

Right guys, think back to a time where you read something written by Shakespeare and thought 'haha, he spelt that wrong. Dumbass." I'm sure we've all looked at a word and thought, hang on that can't be right. The thing is, it can be.

As fully fledged, oh so wonderful A2 linguists, I'm sure we're all aware of the fact that LANGUAGE CHANGES and that spelling is a huge part of that change. After the invention of the printing press in the 1440s, English spelling began to become fixed. This took place gradually through printing houses, whereby the master printer would choose the spellings "that most pleased his fancy".  These spellings then became the "house style".

 Many of the earliest printing houses that printed English were staffed by Hollanders, who changed many spellings to match their Dutch orthography. Examples include the silent h in ghost (to match Dutch gheest, which later became geest), aghast, ghastly and gherkin. The silent h in other words—such as ghospel, ghossip and ghizzard—was later removed.


There have been two periods when spelling reform of the English language has attracted particular interest.

1. 16th and 17th centuries

A number of publications outlining proposals for reform were published. Some of these proposals were Booke at Large for the Amendment of English Orthographie in 1580 by William Bullokar and English Grammar in 1634 by Charles Butler.

These proposals generally did not attract serious consideration because they were too radical or were based on an insufficient understanding of the phonology of English. However, more conservative proposals were more successful. James Howell in his Grammar of 1662 recommended minor changes to spelling, such as changing logique to logic, warre to war, sinne to sin, toune to town and true to tru. Many of these spellings are now in general use.

There was also a huge influence in spelling change when Greek and Latin scholars linked their native language with English. They did this by adding silent letters to make the real or imagined links more obvious. For example, det became debt, dout became doubt,sissors became scissors and sithe and so forth.

2. 19th and 20th Centuries onwards

In the 1870s,  the American Philological Society adopted a list of eleven reformed spellings for immediate use. These were: are→ar, give→giv, have→hav, live→liv, though→tho, through→thru, guard→gard, catalogue→catalog, (in)definite→(in)definit, wished→wisht.

PUNCTUATION

Quotation marks and Punctuation

In Grandma’s day, a period used with quotation marks followed logic: Example: Myrtle said the word “darn”. The period went outside the quote because only the last word was in quotation marks, not the entire sentence. Example: Myrtle said, “I would never say that.” The period went inside the quotation mark because the entire sentence is a quote.

Today, in both American and Brirish English usage, the period always goes inside the quotation mark.
Example: Myrtle said the word “darn.”
This does not follow logic, but it makes life easier for those of us who have enough to think about besides punctuation.

As time has gone on, we have shortened some words and dropped the former plural form.
Example: The words memo and memos used to be memorandum and memoranda.
With the word data, we no longer see the singular datum used at all. Data is now normally used in both the singular and plural form.
Example: The data are being tabulated. The data is useful to the scientists.
Yet other words still retain their original spelling and plural form.
Example: curriculum (singular) and curricula (plural).

In “the old days,” you may have been scolded for starting a sentence with but, and, or because. But you wouldn’t have deserved that scolding. Just make sure that if you start sentences with these words, you follow them with independent clauses.

Good Examples:
But she would never say such a thing!
Because of this bee sting, my arm is swollen.

Bad Examples:
And washed the car.
Because she asked.

Social networking has also made a huge impact on the uses of punctuation. For example, *Aterisks* are used to 1. stage directions eg. *whispers*; *kills self*
or 2. Faux American teen emphasis on words eg. That’s *so* not the point; you *totally* missed out. They are often used where italics would normally be used, but are somehow *much* more expressive.

<> HTML tags, also known as the greater than, less than signs can also be used to show stage directions like asterisks, but are often used to show one's appreciation for something e.g. CATS! >

Let's not forget the wonderful H#SH, which is now a popular way to catogarize things on the popular social networking site Twitter.

Grammar

Titles that end in question marks or exclamation points

The title of a work that ends in a question mark or exclamation point should now be followed by a comma if the grammar of the sentence would normally call for one or, in source citations or in an index, if a comma would normally follow the title.

Plural form for words in quotation marks

The plural of a word or phrase in quotation marks is now formed without an apostrophe—that is, with the addition of s or eswithin the quotation marks.

Names ending with an unpronounced “s”

In a return to the practice in the 14th edition, names that, like Descartes, end in an unpronounced s form the possessive like other names—with an apostrophe s.

Names ending with an “eez” sound

Names like Xerxes or Euripides now form the possessive in the usual way—with an apostrophe s. (When these forms are spoken, however, the additional s is generally not pronounced.)

Color compounds

In the manner of most other such compounds, compound adjectives formed with color words are now hyphenated when they precede a noun. They remain open when they follow the noun.

Headline-style capitalization

For titles capitalized headline-style, we now prefer capitalizing the second element in hyphenated spelled-out numbers (e.g., Twenty-Five). And, in general, Chicago no longer recommends making exceptions for short or unstressed words or to avoid the occasional awkward appearance.