VISIBLE LANGUAGE The Journal for Research on the Visual Media if Language Expression Volume X, Number 4, Autumn 1976 /SSN 0022-2224 295-308 Digraphia in Advertising: The Public as Guinea Pig James R. J aquith 309-322 Internalization of English Orthographic Patterns Robert H. Secrist 323-338 The Phonological R elevance of Spelling Pronunciation Andrew Kerek 339-350 Methods and Theories of Learning to Spell Tested by Studies of Deaf Children Arthur I. Gates and Esther H. Chase 351-365 Notes on the History of English Spelling Richard L. V enezky 366-376 Excerpt from The American Spelling Book Noah Webster 377-379 Abstracts of Articles in French, German, and Spanish 380 The Authors 381-384 Index to Volume X Cover: Detail of New England Country School by Winslow Homer. Reproduced with the permission of the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Massachusetts. VISIBLE LANGUAGE, VolumeX, Number4, Autumn 1976. Published quarterly (Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn) by Visible Language, Box 1972 CMA, Cleveland, OH 44106. Copyright 1976 by Visible Language. Second-class postage paid at Cleveland, Ohio. Merald E. Wrolstad, Ph.D., Editor and Publisher P. 0. Box 1972 CMA, Cleveland, OH 44106 USA ADVISORY BOARD Colin Banks, Banks and Miles, London Roland Barthes, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris Fernand Baudin, Bonlez par Grez-Doiceau, Belgium Szymon Bojko, Warsaw Pieter Brattinga, Form Mediation International, Amsterdam Edward M. Catich, Saint Ambrose College Murray Eden, MIT I. J . Gelb, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago Ephraim Gleichenhaus, ICTA Representative, New York Kenneth S. Goodman, University of Arizona Randall P. Harrison, Michigan State University Ernest H och, ICOGRADA R epresentative, Reading University Albert Kapr, Hochschule fur Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig Alexander Lawson, Rochester Institute for Technology C. L. Leyman, Tigard School District, Oregon Aaron Marcus, Princeton University Dominic Massaro, University of Wisconsin R. Hunter Middleton, Chicago Alexander Nesbitt, Newport, R.I. G. W. Ovink, Tetterode-Nederland, Amsterdam P. David Pearson, University of Minnesota Charles Peignot, Paris Sharon H . Poggenpohl, Institute of Design, Chicago Marvin A. Powell, Jr., Northern Illinois University Philippe Schuwer, Librairie Hachette, Paris Mary Ellen Salt, Indiana University Jack W. Stauffacher, The Greenwood Press, San Francisco Robert St. Clair, University of Louisville William C. Stokoe, Jr., Gallaudet College, Washington Miles A. Tinker, Emeritus Professor, University of Minnesota George L. Trager, Taos, New Mexico Richard Venezky, University of Delaware Stanley F. Wanat, California State University at Fullerton W. C. Watt, University of California, Irvine Dirk Wendt, Christian-Albrechts-UniversiUit, Kiel Michael Wood, Aberdeen, Scotland Bror Zachrisson, Grafiska lnstitutet, Stockholm Hermann Zapf, Damstadt, Germany General Information VISIBLE L ANGUAGE is concerned with research and ideas that help define the unique role and properties of written language. It is a basic premise of the Journal that writing/reading form a distinct system of language expression which must be defined and developed on its own terms. Published quarterly since 1967, Visible Language has no formal organizational affiliation. Address All communication· with Visible Language- both editorial and business correspondence- should be addressed to: Visible Language cfo The Cleveland Museum of Art Cleveland, O H 44106 USA T elephone 216/421-7340 Subscription Rates 011e rear Two rears Thru rears Individual $13.00 $23.00 $30.00 Insti tutional 18.50 33.00 45.00 All orders must be prepaid. 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Advertising copy should be received two monthJ prior to quarterly publication on I January, l April, l July, and I October. Advertisers should contact Visible Languag~ at the address given above. 292 Visible Language X 4 Autumn 1976 An Introduction to This Special Issue Comenius, writing in the middle of the seventeenth century, called spelling "that most trouble~ome torture of wits." The American educational riformer]. M . Rice wrote at the end of the nineteenth century on " The futility of the spelling grind." And Leonard Bloomfield, in calling for a complete riform of English spelling in 1933, claimed that "The difficulty of our spelling greatly delays elementary education and wastes even much time of adults." But in 1977 we spell as did Bloomfield and Rice, and pretty much the same as did a literate Englishman at the time of Comenius. Spelling is still taught in our elementary schools, albeit not wit4 the furvor and fanaticism that Rice witnessed in the 1890's, and the same features that led a 1930's spelling riformer to exclaim" that of languages of culture English has the most antiquated, inconsistent, and illogical spelling" continue to interest linguists, psychologists, and educators. What one group finds as illogical and unconscionable in English spelling, others find as valuable data for the history of the English language, the nature ofsou nd change, the habits of trade-name makers, and the informa­ tion processing abilities of children and adults. The papers presented here portray this richness of interest in English spelling from several uncommon viewpoints. T wo of the papers concern psychological aspects of spelling ability. In one (Gates and Chase), the spelling abilities of deaf children are compared to those of normal/zearing children matched for mental age and for reading ability. T he results of this study seem as unexpected today as they did 51 years ago when the study was first published. The second psychological paper ( Secrist) represents one of the few studies in print of the specific phoneme-grapheme patterns which Literates use. Most spelling riformers have assumed that phonemic spellings would facilitate reading and spelling while non-phonemic spellings would impede these processes. Until now, however, Little empirical evidence has been applied to this argument. Related to this Latter paper is the Kerek study of spelling pronunciations, 293 Introduction a topic which since Jespersen has been Largely ignored by Linguists. Kerek's data suggest that spelling pronunciation, as an extra Linguistic factor, should be considered in arry Linguistic description of English. In contrast to spelling pronunciations, Jacquith examines variant spellings, and in particular those of trade names Like Kleenex and Whey- Fers, and demonstrates that what appear on the surface to deviate markedly from traditional spellings in fact are generated by a set of highly predictable rules which are based on English orthography. Why we spell both cinder and coal with an initial c, and related orthographic issues, are explored by Venez.ky in three vignettes on the history of English spelling. And finally, a section from a spelling book that is almost totally unknown today, but which sold over 24 million copies in the United States between 1783 and 1842, is reprinted. This textbook, riferred to in its day as the "blue-back speller" due to its cover and binding, was Noah Webster's first contribution to American Linguistics and provided for him both the financial resources and the Lexicographic basis for first his Compendious Dictionary of the English La nguage ( 1806) and then the American D ictionary of the English Language ( 1828). Richard L. Venez.ky 294 Visible Language : X 4 Autumn 1976 Diagraphia in Advertising: The Public as Guinea Pig J ames R.