The GRAFIKL ALFUBET and the Spelling Reform Movement

When people refer to 'dead' languages, they often mean old dead languages: Latin, Greek, and Egyptian hieroglyphs. But much more recent examples abound. One of the most interesting of these stillborn linguistic efforts was UNIFON, a 'universal' phonetic font that never quite took off, but still retains a fervent, cult-like following.

UNIFON was created in the 1950's for the airline industry by John Malone, a Chicago economist working for the Bendix Corporation. With a 40-character alphabet and a "one symbol/one sound" rule, UNIFON eliminated all complex pronunciation rules, significantly improving English learning and retention.

Unfortunately for Malone, while he was still working on the project, a tragic air crash created an language policy crisis in commercial aviation. English was adopted worldwide as the universal language of flight, and Malone's contract was cancelled.

Undaunted, the inventor took his new alphabet home and taught his young son to read in a single afternoon. Realizing the power of his invention, Malone then worked for years to sell it to the education system. He met with some success, and UNIFON was used for more than a decade in several schools the Indianapolis and Chicago area.

John Culkin, a disciple of Marshall Mcluhan, was a significant proponent of UNIFON, and evangelized it until his death in 1994. Culkin pointed out that "...we have more than 200 spellings for the 40 basic sounds of spoken English. This is five times the number required; it produces an efficiency rating of 20 percent for our written code. A piano with that degree of effectiveness would have 440 keys."

Thanks largely to Culkin's efforts, you can find stories, jokes, and other material written in UNIFON on the Web, and of course you can download the font itself. Like the DVORAK keyboard layout, UNIFON won't go away, and it won't die; it simply lingers in perpetual, if silent, superiority.

UNIFON is actually just part of a larger global movement you've never heard of: the Spelling Reform Movement. It's comprised of linguists and language buffs who want to clean up the confusing morass of English spelling. Years of invention, cultural collision, and geographic spread have left English spelling rule in a sorry state.

Today, as a result, only 17% of native English speakers can spell the following six words correctly: height, necessary, accommodation, separate, sincerely, business.

The spelling reformers blame the language, not the speakers, and sites like freespelling.com are trying to accelerate uniform spelling rules by having people create simpler spellings, then vote on and disseminate them. Leading candidates include such words as "THRU", "FOTOGRAF", "NOTICABLE", and "WENSDAY".

Of course, the irony for the Spelling Reform Movement is that Instant Messaging and Email may be doing the job for them. OR IZ IT 2 ERLY 2 TELL?

Discuss

posted by Andrew Zolli at 11:00:17 PM | permalink

Activists Carry Really Small Placards Against Nanotech

anti-nanotech cartoon from ETC Group

With the recent publication of Michael Chrichton's nanotech thriller Prey, and equally scary developments like the Army's funding of the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies at MIT, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that a new, anti-nanotechnology lobby has begun to sprout up. (Or should that be... "assemble"?)

Some, like the Canadian ETC Group, have a history of environmental activism in other areas; to them, nanoparticles are another potential asbestos fiasco. (ETC is the source of the above cartoon, and many more.)

Other organizations, like the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology, argue that nanoreplicators could be developed within a decade or two -- and should be put in the hands of an international organization to protect humanity from their abuse. And as recently as January, Britain's Better Regulation Task Force urged the UK government "to demonstrate it has clear policies in place to ensure the safety of individuals, animals and the environment", in the face of developments in the field.

Given the current scientific state of affairs, much of this activism is almost laughably premature -- like writing letters to congress over the implications of I, Robot. Yet keenly aware of how the biotech food battles put agribusiness on the defensive, the nanotechnology industry is starting to respond to this preemptive activism, first by talking up the issue amongst themselves^{requires reg} and starting to extol nanotech's many prospective virtues, to the public and members of congress alike.

Discuss

posted by Andrew Zolli at 9:17:07 PM | permalink