Spelling reform

Richard   Monday, October 27, 2003, 03:30 GMT
Also, truespel, spells it yeah as ''ye''
SagaSon   Monday, October 27, 2003, 03:40 GMT
All those reforms are very ugly.
All you need is to regularize the current ortography.
Jim   Monday, October 27, 2003, 03:58 GMT
Still, I have a complaint or two to level at Truespel too. For example, while they manage to distinguish the "a" in "father" from the "au" in "author" there is no mention of the "o" in "copper". According to them "Truespel is a simple pronunciation guide spelling for American English." it therefore neglects the rest of us.

For some the "eah" in "yeah" is [e..] it rhymes with the non-rhotic pronunciation of "bear". In the Aussie accent it can come out as more of a long vowel than a diphthtong, like the "e" in "yet" but long as opposed to short. The spelling "ye" won't do for us.

This is one of the problems with phonemic spelling: everyone speaks differently. Perhaps it's the greatest problem.
Clark   Monday, October 27, 2003, 04:14 GMT
Like I said before, adopt a different language for the written standard, and then have English as a spoken langage ONLY.
Jim   Monday, October 27, 2003, 04:22 GMT
Clark,

Always the one with the fascinating and radical ideas but are you serious? Speak one language and write another ... would anyone actually do that? And if you're caught writing English before the 500 years are up, you'll be hanged.
Clark   Monday, October 27, 2003, 05:00 GMT
Well, Arabic-speakers do this. Chinese-speakers sort of do this. The people of England when the Normans were in power did this (mind you, most people were illiterate, in any language, at that time).

As for me being serious; well, not really. But I do think that this would totally solve the problem of spelling reform. I mean, English-speaking governments could set a mandate that any writing, ANY WRITING, be in the Esperanto language. And the mandate to go along with the other would state that the English language must be used only as an oral language. Anyone wishing to write the English language can do so if they please, but it will not be recognised in the schools, government, private and public business, etc...

Would this ever happen? Probably not. But think about it; will a spelling reform ever take place for the English language in the next 500 years? I doubt it; unless there is a significant change in the usage of the language. For example, if South Africans start to soud all of their "ch's" (as in church) like the "sh" in "ship," then the South African government or what-have-you, might officially change South African spelling to go along with the spoken South African vernacular.

"I went to shursh to crunsh some ships with my model ship." = "I went to church to crunch some chips with my model ship."
Richard   Monday, October 27, 2003, 14:58 GMT
That last sentence sounds really crazy.
Richard   Monday, October 27, 2003, 18:15 GMT
I just looked up ''yeah'' in my dictionary, and it listed the pronunciation ''ye''.
Richard   Monday, October 27, 2003, 21:19 GMT
at the beginning of their spelling reform it said,

Welcome to a new way of writing English, a way where no one will have a hard time knowing how any of the words are pronounced.

In reformed spelling it said

Welkum too u noo wae uv rieting Inglish. u wae wer noewun wil hav u hard tiem noeing hou enee uv thu wurdz ar prunounst.

Yep, they spell finger ''fingur'' and singer ''singur'', they don't add the extra ''g'' in finger. they don't spell it ''finggur''.
Richard   Monday, October 27, 2003, 21:20 GMT
This spelling reform spelled ''once'' ''wuns''. Truespel spelled it ''wunts''.
Richard   Monday, October 27, 2003, 21:29 GMT
If they reformed English spelling, they could make two spelling reforms, one for American English and one for British English, for example, Aluminum and Either. American-uloominum syllables, u-loom-i-num and eethur. British- alumineeum syllables, al-u-min-ee-um and iethur.
bluemonkey   Monday, October 27, 2003, 22:04 GMT
could we not just teach americans to speak properly?
mjd   Monday, October 27, 2003, 22:06 GMT
I speak just fine, bluemonkey. I certainly don't need your help.
bluemonkey   Monday, October 27, 2003, 22:06 GMT
i dont mean totally change their accents, but the way in which they say words like tuesday, tune, either...

to me these sound rather retarded.
Richard   Monday, October 27, 2003, 22:12 GMT
How can you say, we don't speak right, and that Britains are the correct ones. There's an American Accent and a British Accent.