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Abstract：This article narrates two important figures who made great contributions in orthography in late16th century, John Hart and Richard Mulcaster.
Key words: orthography, contributors, John Hart, Richard Mulcaster
As English in the Elizabethan time remained erratic and unstable, and the new Protestant island wanted to defend its national independence by a way of fixing an independent language, In addition, the previous work based on Roman alphabet which was inherited from Latin could not fit into English properly. Then many advocates desire to reform and stabilize the English orthography was naturally aroused. Among these contributors, John Hart and Richard Mulcaster are two significant figures in the late 16th century.
The life of John Hart is mysterious, very little can be discovered about his background. In contrast to his life, Hart’s work is well known. He wrote three studies all of which relate to the reform of English spelling. Orthography is his most substantial work, in which he gave reason why he embarked on the reforming of orthography and came up with his own design proposal. And he described the English pronunciation, criticized the inability of contemporary of orthography to represent the phonetic system of the language adequately.
Hart was an innovator seeking to replace the existing system with a specially designed alternative. His beautifully laid-out teaching materials, his phonetic analysis, his orthographical system, his design of his letter-shapes all revealed his idealistic pursue for perfection. Unfortunately, because of his excessive concern on the new orthography and neglect of the consistency of the tradition, his reformed spelling system didn’t receive due attention and was not accepted by the society. However, there is no doubt that Hart had a admirable start on the reforming of the consistency of spelling and phonetic system of early English language teaching.
Compared to John Hart, Richard Mulcaster was a conservative trying to regular and stabilize the spelling system with the minimum dislocation. He was a serious and idealistic man, a far-sighted educationist, in 1581 he published a book which deals with general educational issues, and in 1582 his more substantial work ‘Elementarie ’emerged which intended to be the first section of a large scale work on the basic curriculum. It was written as a pedagogical guide, and was an attempt to make English language and culture more respected and accessible. Mulcaster hoped that English would be recognized by scholars for its richness and vitality. He dedicated to replace the traditional medieval structure of the trivium and of the quadrivium which didn’t satisfied nor agreed with the demand of the developing society with a new system founded on vernacular literacy. Mulcaster presented three great undertakings, a grammar, a dictionary and most important all, a consistent orthography to prepare the language for its role in the education of the future. He himself compiled a lengthy word list which he called Table to provide a reference of regular spellings in accordance with his system of rules and conventions. The most substantial of Mulcaster’s recommendations were that monosyllabic words with short vowels should not double the final consonant, and secondly, that the silent final-e should be used to indicate long vowels when they are not already marked in some other way, furthermore, that consonant doubling should be required in inflected forms. His three principles of custom, reason and sound which form a conservative argument for gradual standardization of orthography successfully stood out and found on practical alternative in the path of radical spelling in the late sixteen century.
Bibliography：
Hart, J. 1570. A Methode or comfortable beginning for all unlearned，whereby they may bee taught to read English，in a very short time，with pleasure. London: Henrie Denham.
Mulcaster,R. 1582. The first part of the elementarie，which entreatech chefelie of the right writing of our English tung. London: T. Vautrollier.
作者简介：苟锐（1988.10— ），女，四川巴中人，四川外语学院研究生部2010级英语语言文学专业硕士研究生，研究方向：英语教学理论与实践。
Key words: orthography, contributors, John Hart, Richard Mulcaster
As English in the Elizabethan time remained erratic and unstable, and the new Protestant island wanted to defend its national independence by a way of fixing an independent language, In addition, the previous work based on Roman alphabet which was inherited from Latin could not fit into English properly. Then many advocates desire to reform and stabilize the English orthography was naturally aroused. Among these contributors, John Hart and Richard Mulcaster are two significant figures in the late 16th century.
The life of John Hart is mysterious, very little can be discovered about his background. In contrast to his life, Hart’s work is well known. He wrote three studies all of which relate to the reform of English spelling. Orthography is his most substantial work, in which he gave reason why he embarked on the reforming of orthography and came up with his own design proposal. And he described the English pronunciation, criticized the inability of contemporary of orthography to represent the phonetic system of the language adequately.
Hart was an innovator seeking to replace the existing system with a specially designed alternative. His beautifully laid-out teaching materials, his phonetic analysis, his orthographical system, his design of his letter-shapes all revealed his idealistic pursue for perfection. Unfortunately, because of his excessive concern on the new orthography and neglect of the consistency of the tradition, his reformed spelling system didn’t receive due attention and was not accepted by the society. However, there is no doubt that Hart had a admirable start on the reforming of the consistency of spelling and phonetic system of early English language teaching.
Compared to John Hart, Richard Mulcaster was a conservative trying to regular and stabilize the spelling system with the minimum dislocation. He was a serious and idealistic man, a far-sighted educationist, in 1581 he published a book which deals with general educational issues, and in 1582 his more substantial work ‘Elementarie ’emerged which intended to be the first section of a large scale work on the basic curriculum. It was written as a pedagogical guide, and was an attempt to make English language and culture more respected and accessible. Mulcaster hoped that English would be recognized by scholars for its richness and vitality. He dedicated to replace the traditional medieval structure of the trivium and of the quadrivium which didn’t satisfied nor agreed with the demand of the developing society with a new system founded on vernacular literacy. Mulcaster presented three great undertakings, a grammar, a dictionary and most important all, a consistent orthography to prepare the language for its role in the education of the future. He himself compiled a lengthy word list which he called Table to provide a reference of regular spellings in accordance with his system of rules and conventions. The most substantial of Mulcaster’s recommendations were that monosyllabic words with short vowels should not double the final consonant, and secondly, that the silent final-e should be used to indicate long vowels when they are not already marked in some other way, furthermore, that consonant doubling should be required in inflected forms. His three principles of custom, reason and sound which form a conservative argument for gradual standardization of orthography successfully stood out and found on practical alternative in the path of radical spelling in the late sixteen century.
Bibliography：
Hart, J. 1570. A Methode or comfortable beginning for all unlearned，whereby they may bee taught to read English，in a very short time，with pleasure. London: Henrie Denham.
Mulcaster,R. 1582. The first part of the elementarie，which entreatech chefelie of the right writing of our English tung. London: T. Vautrollier.
作者简介：苟锐（1988.10— ），女，四川巴中人，四川外语学院研究生部2010级英语语言文学专业硕士研究生，研究方向：英语教学理论与实践。