The article argues that English spelling inconsistencies were heavily driven by the printing press appearing in a period of overall spelling turmoil in English, due to the displacement of written English from ~1066 to 1300s.
As (basically) a native english speaker, does anyone know of how this works analogously in other European languages?
How consistent was French or German spelling around 1450?
The article's argument doesn't seem right. French and German had comparable spelling consistency within dialects before printing, although they had much more divergent dialects than English. The difference between them and English is that English went through a massive series of sound changes after the orthography was set, whereas German didn't. French did, but the sound changes were mostly deletions, leaving a relatively regular spelling.
As (basically) a native english speaker, does anyone know of how this works analogously in other European languages?
How consistent was French or German spelling around 1450?