Spanish Spelling (interesting text)

Guest   Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:36 am GMT
The Spanish language has a relatively simple grammar, syntax, and sound structure. There are only around twenty phonemes and much vocabulary has a simple CVCV construction (consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel). A 1951 report to UNESCO described its spelling as 'an almost ideal' writing system of symbol matching sound. Language change has resulted in a tendency to voice previously voiceless consonants, but Christian (1982: 359) asserts that such mismatches are 'insignificant' by comparison with English problems.

Spanish 'morphophonemic' spelling (representing units of meaning as well as sound-symbol correspondences) is noted for its ease of learning, although Spanish scholars such as Mosterín (1982) still publish books proposing minor reforms and school teachers still see room for improvement. Such reformers want to adjust some residual pseudo-etymology and graphemes which have become obsolete, some minor spelling problems in consonant clusters, some confusions in syllables, some phonemes with more than one grapheme, and the one single silent letter, and some think there are too few or too many consonants or vowels.

Historically, the Spanish Language Academy was founded in 1714 to settle matters of language and spelling after Renaissance scholars had produced confusions with misplaced Latinisations. The Academy's reforms of 1844, promulgated by royal decree, were based on criteria of pronunciation, etymology, popular usage, and conventional differentiation. The Academy remains the official intercontinental arbiter, and is regarded with 'respect and distrust' (Urdaneta, 1982, writing from Latin America ).

Its fortunate combination of language and regular writing system makes Spanish easy to learn. Judith Goyen (1989) thought that the important role given to phonics methods in six successful and popular Spanish reading programs was because they suited the regularity of the spelling. Christian (1982) considered that the level of discourse and content in what children can be given to read in Spanish was well ahead of that in American schools, because the writing system matches the sound system, which means that 'speakers of Spanish can master reading and writing very quickly and can begin to acquire information from the printed page more easily and from an earlier age.' as was also concluded from a 1967 Columbia University study in Puerto Rico.

Christian claimed that in his experience 'more than a thousand' Hispanic-American students showed a significantly higher level of competence in acquiring information from the printed page, than their Anglo peers reading in English'. He also claimed that a high proportion of Spanish-Americans who have had as little as six weeks tuition, perhaps taught by their fathers to read a newspaper before they were six, can read Spanish literary classics for entertainment. Surveys have found a high proportion of high-school students who read in Spanish without formal tuition and of their own volition. Carroll & Chall (1975) remarked as if it was a truism that children in bilingual schools learned to read faster in Spanish than in English, but did not state whether their eventual reading was also more efficient.

source: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/wspanref.htm
Guest   Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:12 pm GMT
Sin comentarios?
Guest   Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:53 pm GMT
Who's Christian?
Guest   Mon Mar 31, 2008 5:45 pm GMT
Dunno, it must be someone's last name.
Adolfo   Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:12 pm GMT
Apparently, non phonetic spelling provokes considerably more difficulties to dyslexic people. According to some researchs , there are much less people suffering dyslexia in Italy (Italian uses a very phonetic spelling as well) than in US. And what is more interesting, the easiests to decode writing systems are those based on ideograms.
Guest   Tue Apr 01, 2008 6:44 am GMT
Who's Christian?>>

The Holy Father of All Men, the Lord Almighty in Heaven who wachest over us in calm and in tempest.
Guest   Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:36 am GMT
It's Christ not Christian.
Guest   Tue Apr 01, 2008 1:09 pm GMT
So, who's this Christian?
Guest   Tue Apr 01, 2008 1:11 pm GMT
"According to some researchs , there are much less people suffering dyslexia in Italy (Italian uses a very phonetic spelling as well) than in US. And what is more interesting, the easiests to decode writing systems are those based on ideograms."

This all is true, but I am not quite sure that a phonetic spelling really is beneficial. To anyone who has studied some Greek and Latin, the perfectly phonetic Italian spelling looks strangegly counter-intuitive ("idrogeno" is outlandish compared to "hydrogen"). Same for Spanish.

English and French, with their etymological spelling and the nonsensical inconsistency of their pronunciation rules, are nevertheless the most influential languages. Despite, or because of that?
Adolfo   Tue Apr 01, 2008 2:13 pm GMT
This all is true, but I am not quite sure that a phonetic spelling really is beneficial. To anyone who has studied some Greek and Latin, the perfectly phonetic Italian spelling looks strangegly counter-intuitive ("idrogeno" is outlandish compared to "hydrogen"). Same for Spanish.

Well , in Spanish it's hidrógeno, so it's not that far from the Greek words hydros . Phonetic spelling is intiutive per se, words are writen as they are pronounced, so I don't understand your point of view. What is counter-intuitive is the h letter because it's not pronounced. In fact a child might misspell this word in Spanish and write idrogeno.
Guest   Wed Apr 02, 2008 6:35 am GMT
I like English's etymological spelling. The only problem is when the spelling results from a false etymology like with "island". "Igland" would be more etymologically correct.
Guest   Wed Apr 02, 2008 10:52 am GMT
What makes you thing the pronunciation of Spanish is easy?
There are many Central and South American accents/dialects difficult to understand...
Guest   Wed Apr 02, 2008 3:58 pm GMT
"What makes you thing the pronunciation of Spanish is easy?
There are many Central and South American accents/dialects difficult to understand... "

Spanish has the easiest sounds of all mayor languages, all words are made of simple sillabels like: te, ca, bo, pi, ru, etc.

El hecho de que algunos paises no hablen tan claramente no significa que el idioma sea dificil.
Tupiniquim   Wed Apr 02, 2008 4:06 pm GMT
''El hecho de que algunos paises no hablen tan claramente no significa que el idioma sea dificil.''

Pra mim é mó difícil. Tem muito falar colombiano e portorriquenho que num saco bulhufas. Eu prefiro a pronúncia da gente, muito mais fácil e gostosa.
Tupiniquim   Wed Apr 02, 2008 4:12 pm GMT
''Spanish has the easiest sounds of all mayor languages, all words are made of simple sillabels like: te, ca, bo, pi, ru, etc. ''

Spanish has -ct-, -dv-, -dm-, -tm- which are pronounced like that, heavy consonantal clusters, impossible for speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (languages that inserts -i- for nicer pronunciation: desconec-i-tar,
ad-i-vérbio, ad-i-mirar, ad-i-vogado, rit-i-mo). For Brazilians, Spanish is difficult to pronounce because of intermediate vowels (we have closed and open, like French and Italian) and heavy consonants...Weird intonation too (due to Gypsy influence?)