Suggested spelling reform in Educated Nigerian English (ENE): Who bells the cat?

Abstract

Written English is one area in which Nigerian linguists and grammarians do not accommodate variations of spelling for any sociolinguistic reason, even though they at times misspell or forget the spelling of some confusing words. Most people agree that English spelling system is problematic and therefore needs urgent reform, but who bells the cat? This article examines the English spelling system against the backdrop of Educated Nigerian English and the concept of nativization, stressing the need for reform or nativized spelling in Nigerian English. Questionnaires, library research, and the Internet were used to gather data for this study. The qualitative approach has been adopted in the main for the interpretation of data. The educated Nigerians studied admit that the English spelling system is in part so confusing that they misspell words at times. Therefore, they support the reform or nativization of English spelling. Consequently, this article presents and illustrates proposed reformed spelling by deleting redundant letters, unnecessary clusters of letters, dropping useless silent letters, regularizing digraph, and spelling compound words in one form only. These changes will enhance spelling skills, teaching, reading, and writing in English as a Second Language.