The complexity of English spellings has been bothering people for nearly as long as English has been written down. They argue that inconsistent spellings make English unnecessarily hard to learn. The English Spelling Society, a UK organisation pushing for easier spellings, even argues that there's a link between difficult spelling and higher crime, with illiteracy pushing people into a life of illegality. While that argument might be a stretch, it's clear that non-traditional spelling does create a bad impression.
几乎从英语被写出来的那一刻起，英语拼写的复杂性就一直困扰着人们。有人认为，不一致的拼写给英语学习带来了毫无必要的难度。推动更简易拼写的英国机构——英文拼写协会甚至认为，麻烦的拼写与较高的犯罪率之间存在着关联，读写能力的欠缺促使人们在生活中做出违法之举。这种论断或许有点言过其实，不过显然，非常规的拼写的确会给人留下不好的印象。
Compared to the UK variants, US spellings are easier for non-native speakers to learn, being shorter and slightly more phonetic. These US spellings are a legacy of dictionary pioneer Noah Webster's movement for simplified spelling. This movement sought to cleanse English of double and silent letters, as well as other inefficiencies related to orthography （the system of writing and spelling words）.
与英式拼写相比，美式拼写更易于非母语人士学习，单词的长度较短，表音度略高。这些美式拼写是词典编纂先驱诺亚·韦伯斯特发起的简化拼写运动留下的遗产。这一运动试图清除英语中双写和不发音的字母，以及与正字法（书写及拼读单词的一套规则）相关的其他无效成分。
In the US, Webster wasn't the first or last to propose radical reform of English spellings. Fans of simplified spelling across the centuries have included prominent figures like Benjamin Franklin, who advocated for an “alfabet” without the letter“X”, and Theodore Roosevelt, who was mocked for attempting to adopt recommended changes like turning “phoenix” into “fenix”.
在美国，韦伯斯特不是第一个、也不是最后一个提议彻底改革英语拼写的人。几百年来，简化拼写的拥趸包括一些知名人士，如主张将字母x从alfabet（字母表alphabet的简化形式——本网注）中去除的本杰明·富兰克林，以及因试图采纳将phoenix变为fenix等建议而遭到嘲笑的西奥多·罗斯福。
But Webster was influential where most were largely ignored. His ideas led to the proliferation in the US of “labor” over “labour” and “center” over “centre”, even if not all his ideas have become the “fashon”. For one thing, English is such an irregular language that it's impossible to iron out all the kinks. No form of English is written out completely phonetically. Any new spelling rules would need plenty of exceptions.
不过在大多数简化拼写倡导者基本都遭到忽视的情况下，韦伯斯特却颇具影响力。他的观点让labor在美国的普及程度超过labour，center超过centre，尽管也不是说他所有的想法都成为fashon（流行fashion的简写形式——本网注）。原因之一是，英语是一门极不规则的语言，不可能消除所有纠结。没有哪种形式的英语完全按照发音来书写。任何新的拼写规则都要有大量的例外。
Overall, English's erratic spellings bear witness to the many words it has absorbed from other languages. Like the wealth of accents among English speakers, this feature both enriches the language and poses a challenge to standardised simplified spellings. Thus there's never been a critical mass of linguists or the general public supporting massive spelling reform.
总体而言，英语变化无常的拼写证明它从其他语言吸收了大量词语。就像讲英语的人有各式各样的口音一样，这一特征既丰富了英语，也给标准化的简化拼写带来了挑战。因此，支持大刀阔斧进行拼写改革的语言学家和公众始终不够多。
Webster's ideas are perhaps newly relevant, as the language of IT and the internet increasingly influences how English is written. Globally, Google returns more results for US spellings. In computing,“program”is generally accepted over “programme”. Shorter words are more versatile in text messages and social media posts, and search engine optimisation often favours US spellings.
随着信息技术和互联网所使用的语言越来越多地影响到英语的书写方式，韦伯斯特的观点或许再度有了重要意义。在全球范围内，美式拼写在谷歌上能搜出的结果更多。在计算机操作方面，program的总体认可度超过programme。长度较短的单词在短信和社交媒体帖文中更为通用，搜索引擎优化也往往偏爱美式拼写。
But the internet is also exposing people to a large variety of spellings. So “people are representing their spoken dialects more through spelling in spaces like Twitter and Instagram”, says Lauren Squires, a linguist at Ohio State University. She believes that “people are becoming more comfortable with spelling variation”, even though there's a strong and enduring idea that only one spelling can be correct.
但互联网也让人们接触到种类繁多的拼写。俄亥俄州立大学语言学家劳伦·斯夸尔斯说，因此“人们在推特网和Instagram等空间更多地通过拼写来表现他们的口语方言”。她认为“人们对拼写变体越来越泰然处之”，尽管有坚定不移、锲而不舍的观点认为正确的拼写只有一种。
While English is too irregular to simplify its spellings as much as some proponents would like, one aspect of written English possibly being cut down by online communication is punctuation.
英语拼写太没有规律可循，以至于无法简化到一些倡导者希望达到的程度，不过书面英语有一个要素可能正在被在线交流删减，那就是标点符号。
Full stops are now endangered in many brief instant messages, where the appearance of a full stop can give the impression of coldness or insincerity. This is partly related to line breaks in instant messages making full stops unnecessary.
如今在许多简短的即时消息中，句号处境危险，它的出现会给人冷淡或不诚恳的印象。这在一定程度上与即时消息中的换行让句号变得多余有关。
As well, apostrophes may just fade away in some parts of written English as an unnecessary and time-consuming artefact. In more informal texts, they might go the way of the Oxford comma: some people using them only where needed to avoid confusion （e.g. his sister's money vs. his sisters' money）.
同样，在有些书面英语中，撇号可能会被当作一种没有必要且耗费时间的人为产物逐渐消失。在较为非正式的文本中，撇号可能会跟牛津逗号（列举多个对象时，在最后的and前面加上逗号以减少歧义的用法——译者注）一样：有些人只在需要用撇号来避免混淆时才会用到它们（比如，“他姐姐的钱”与“他姐姐们的钱”）。（李凤芹译自英国广播公司网站6月14日文章）
