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Should English spelling be revised?

de robbkvasnak, 2012-aprilo-03

Mesaĝoj: 62

Lingvo: English

vejktoro (Montri la profilon) 2012-aprilo-04 04:08:26

acdibble:
I can tell you that I've never heard the word "reconnoiter" before in my life. "reconnaissance" is not our fault, blame that one on the French. In fact, most of the spelling/pronunciation problems can be blamed on the Normans. The Anglo-Saxons had a pretty sweet system worked out until they came and messed it all up.
True that. I can handle the odd silent 'gh'. They even make a bit of sense to me. It's the silly latin c's that are s's or after s's or doubled or not or whatever other preserved borrowing came along to bozel me up.

However, I can't see anybody getting away with any vowel convention. I mean, who gets to be the boss dialect? Where I'm from (in North America) 'oy' is pronounced 'ay' and 'ay' is pronounced as 'oy'... to point out one example of many. If I reformed the spelling the rest of the planet would be no better off, and if any of you tried to fix it, it would get us lot over here nowhere.

What about the English of Sri Lanka? Dallas vs. Boston? The Native population of Northern Alberta speak English from birth but they sure sound different from the crowd in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

What about 'r'?

And the British Isles are messed altogether.

( I'm okay if ya just wanna scratch 'c', 'though. I suppose we could use it alone for the tch sound like ĉ.
We can toss out 'x' and 'q' too.
Just use k,s,ks, and kw.
And I spose we could all agree to collapse tion - sion - cian to simply 'shun', just so it feels like we've done something )

Lynchie1975 (Montri la profilon) 2012-aprilo-04 04:12:36

I, myself, have always had little problem with spelling in English, but, to put it simply, yes it should be simplified because lots of people do have problems with spelling English words, and many resort to spelling phonetically to cope with the discrepancies in English spelling.

marcuscf (Montri la profilon) 2012-aprilo-04 04:21:34

Bomb, comb, tomb (they should be bom, come, toom; unfortunately, the spelling "come" is already taken by a very common word). Heart, beard, bear.

I think it is broken (broke?), and should be fixed.
And you don't need different standards (US×GB×etc.) to fix things like this.

For the rest of the world a better fix would be adopting Esperanto as the international language ridulo.gif tho English speakers would still struggle thru its c(h)aotic orthography...

By the way through, though and thought are annoying too. It's hard to tell the difference at first sight; a tiny r or t somewhere can change the whole word. The alternative spellings "thru" and "tho" are like a breath of fresh air compared to the traditional ones.

If English orthography cannot be phonetic, at least don't make it misleading (as in *omb, *ough*, island, gauge, choir, pretty, knife, etc.)

Sahaquiel (Montri la profilon) 2012-aprilo-04 04:28:31

Should English spelling be reformed?
PLEASE!! or... ¿Plis?

vejktoro (Montri la profilon) 2012-aprilo-04 04:37:13

marcuscf:Bomb, comb, tomb (they should be bom, come, toom; unfortunately, the spelling "come" is already taken by a very common word). Heart, beard, bear.
Hmm... Heart and Bear have the same vowel by many speakers around here.
'comb' ends without a breath of air and the lips stay closed a beat longer, while 'come' ends with a breath.

English has grown so big. Do I get to be the boss? or you?

Rock, Paper, Scissors?

vejktoro (Montri la profilon) 2012-aprilo-04 04:46:58

I imagine it has already been all sorted out for us in some other thread!

tommjames (Montri la profilon) 2012-aprilo-04 08:12:00

I voted no, not just because I think it would be a bad idea (though obviously not without some benefits), but because in my view it's practically impossible to begin with.

What do people think of these obstacles?

amelia12 (Montri la profilon) 2012-aprilo-04 08:56:49

I think the language spelt the way it is is just fine. After all, other languages may have easier spelling systems, they are difficult in other ways, grammar and such, that is, if the main reason for a spelling reform is for people learning English as a foreign language.

People from other countries when it comes to verb conjugation actually have it quite easy- third person with s on the end, all other forms without, ie I say, you say, he/she says, we/they/you say. Other languages vary much more than this.

Then the case system in languages such as German, Polish, Russian, that adjective and verb endings can change depending on the word following it: Which takes us onto gender, which makes English much easier than most languages because they is only one gender of nouns, instead of two or three, which there isn´t always a pattern for.

I also think the whole thing would be quite problematic. Suddenly thousands of dictionaries and textbooks are now out of date. Quite apart from that, I like how the language looks.

sudanglo (Montri la profilon) 2012-aprilo-04 09:18:44

Yes, Americans should adopt English spelling - eg reconnoitre not reconnoiter

EldanarLambetur (Montri la profilon) 2012-aprilo-04 09:49:26

I love Esperanto more than I do English, but one thing I really do like about English, especially British English, is its quirky spelling! Id hate to see it go. I realise that makes it harder for learners, but that's what Esperanto is for lango.gif I'd rather English was made so impossibly hard that even the natives wanted to pick up Esperanto for international communication! ridego.gif

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