Re: more English orthography

Barry Garcia eskrïremä:

> In my dialect, merry, marry, and Mary are all pronounced the same. I make
> a distinction between pin and pen, but a friend from Fresno in eastern
> California says both the same way.
I remember being shocked by this when I first saw it discussed here some
years ago. I would imagine that many British English-speakers would be
amazed that such words would all be pronounced the same by anybody.

For me, /meri/, /mæri/, /me@ri/; /pIn/, /pen/ - approx RP. Does this
polyhomonymity [!] cause problems for such American English-speakers with
interpreting IPA?

BTW, I think it also well illustrates the minefield that is English
orthographic reform, if such is based on pronunciation. English could
[almost?] be said to now be a number of languages (some, mutually
unintelligible) that have a common written form. In this scenario, it starts
to become almost ideographic.

But then, these are the random neural firings of a language-lover with no
formal training or qualification in linguistics.<g>

James

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james@zolid.com  James Campbell  Zeugma--Our Life Is Design  www.zolid.com
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