Zamenhof and Spelling Reform

Surprisingly lukewarm on
phonetic spelling

First, I should note that the spelling reform movement referenced in the title was for the English language, not Esperanto. A spelling reform in Esperanto would be a vocabulary reform, since all the words are phonetic. If you know how to pronounce Esperanto and you see an unfamiliar word, you will know how to pronounce it, even if its meaning is wholly obscure. (Specialized terminology would be a good example of this. Anything you might call a “whatchamacallit,” someone else has a real name for.)

Zamenhof had been asked to give his opinion of the Simplified Spelling movement, which at the beginning of the twentieth century had some really high powered support. Wikipedia notes that the funding for the Simplified Spelling Board came from Andrew Carnegie, and supporters included the president of Columbia University, Mark Twain, and even Melvil Dewey. But the most prominent supporter was the Theodore Roosevelt, who put the power of the presidency behind it.

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