The hazards of English spelling

A new study of English spelling practices demonstrates that the way we spell words is much more orderly and self-organizing than previously thought. The study “Self-organization in the spelling of English suffixes: The emergence of culture out of anarchy,” by Kristian Berg (University of Oldenburg) and Mark Aronoff (Stony Brook University) was published in the March, 2017 issue of the scholarly journal Language.