Franklin’s Sources 16th-and 17th-Century English Orthoepists

To my knowledge, no systematic study of Franklin’s sources for his Reformed Mode of Spelling (RMS) has ever been undertaken. Chapter 13 marks the first attempt to examine the works of early sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English orthoepists that Franklin consulted during his long stay in London. As a printer and keen observer—and lover—of the English language, it is evident that Franklin could have conceived many of the principles of his RMS independently. Nevertheless, the numerous parallels between his work and that of his predecessors strongly suggest that these similarities were not accidental. This chapter is therefore devoted to examining his possible sources.Although it is impossible to determine the full extent of their influence, there is little doubt that several aspects of Franklin’s system were inspired by earlier orthoepists, foremost among these being the “father of English orthoepy”, Sir Thomas Smith (1568), whose name appears in Franklin’s papers. Many of the earliest orthoepists shared Franklin’s concept of “one sound for one character”, as well as the structure and mode of presentation (such as articulatory phonetic descriptions for each character), and the pedagogical and altruistic motivations underpinning the proposal of a new orthographic system.This chapter provides additional evidence supporting the idea that Franklin did not base his model on his own colonial “American” accent, a variety that was not yet recognized as distinct by contemporary English speakers and which resembled rustic English dialects in outlying districts around London. Rather, his model was “polite” London English usage of his time. In this regard, for the first time, Polly Stevenson’s critical role in its conception is identified (cf. Chapter 25 in particular).