Mont Follick

Montefiore Follick (31 December 1887 – 10 December 1958 ) was a British Labour Party politician, a campaigner for spelling reform, polyglot and advocate of decimal currency. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Loughborough from 1945 to 1955, having previously held the post of Professor of English at the University of Madrid in Spain. He had been adopted by the Loughborough Labour Party in 1936 as prospective parliamentary candidate but had a long wait because of the war years before being elected. In 1949 and again in 1952 he introduced private member's bills in the UK parliament for the reform of English spelling. He also bought the Loughborough Labour Party's current Building Unity House in 1947.

Follick was born in Cardiff and educated at the Sorbonne, Halle (Dr Phil) and Padua. His family was Jewish, and he was named after Sir Moses Montefiore. He served as secretary to the Aga Khan, Sir Robert Philp (Premier of Queensland) and Mulay Hafid (Sultan of Morocco). He stood unsuccessfully for the Parliamentary constituencies of Ashford (1929), East Surrey (1931) and Fulham West (1935) before his successful bid for Loughborough in 1945. The bequest was finally accepted by the University of Manchester, and a chair bearing Follick's name is still in existence.

His publications include The Adam’s Lottery, 1919; Influence of English, 1934; Facing Facts, 1935; Efforts of Chance, 1938; English Grammar for Foreigners, 11 editions; and The Twelve Republics, 1952.

Rules Follick's system is completely phonemic to the extent of using '-t' for traditional '-ed' when unvoiced (as in 'poazt'), and '-d' when voiced (as in 'ruumerd').

Sound-to-spelling correspondences +VowelsLexical setLettersProposed spellingsTraditional spellingsaazhiurazureetenteniintuuintoolotlotumutshmuchcommdhutheoapoaztpausedieshie fielingshe feelingeipeinpainaiwaildwildiudispiutdisputeuuintuuintouuruumerdrumourediehieheoiemploimentemploymentououveroverauhauhowiurazhiurazureaaMaarzMarsletterouverover +ConsonantsFortisLettersLenisLetterspbtdkgtsh (was ch)jfvthdh (was th)szshzh (was various)hmnng?wrl