Re: American (was Re: Cants)
| From: | Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, December 14, 2003, 18:09 |
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At 17:14 13.12.2003, Greg Johnston wrote:
>American is essentially achieved by simplifying and complexifying English
>at once. The simplifying is effectively phonetically spelling almost every
>word, and not necessarily using proper grammar. This also complicates the
>language, as one does not know if "no" is being used as "know" or,
>literally, "no".
Well, that complexity is already there in
the spoken language, so you already know
how to determine from context whether /now/
is 'no' or 'know'. The benefits of keeping
a traditional orthography full of alternative
spellings and silent letters hardly outweighs
the disadvantages. The only real advantage is
continuity, but the real reasons English won't
undergo a spelling reform are political rather
than linguistic.
/BP 8^)
--
B.Philip Jonsson mailto:melrochX@melroch.se (delete X)
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