Re: more English orthography

Herman Miller wrote:

> Even with the same sounds, there are differences between dialects. Some
> American dialects distinguish words that I don't (merry, marry, Mary), and
> others make fewer distinctions (pin = pen).
An orthography with pretensions to be multi-dialectal should IMHO represent
more distinctions rather than less.  To recycle an example:  it is better
for a writer to wonder "Is it spelled 'theft' or 'feft'?", rather than
for a reader to wonder "Does this represent 'lord' or 'laud'?"

Therefore, a spelling system should be rhotic and keep vowels separate that
have collapsed in some dialects.

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