Re: CHAT behove etc (was: Natlag: Middle English impersonal verbs)

> > IMO a surprizingly large percentage of these slang spellings
> > actually work better than the current ones. As a prime example,
> > "U" versus "you".
>
>Ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh.  Never, do you hear?  Never!  You can have my
>irregular spelling when you pry my dictionary from my cold, dead hand!
>  "U" for "you" is in the same category as "4" for "for".
The category of "efficient"? ;)

But you may sleep in peace - in my experience "U" costs a lot more
credibility than most newspellings, so I'm not using it until it gets more
accepted. I ask only for the recognition of its compatibility with existing
patterns, and you seem to have already given that.


>   > But "theatre" is the more regular one. Since this is a "broken" <ea> -
>ie.
> > two vowels, not an /i/ deriving from pre-GWS */E:/ - the spelling
>"theater"
> > would suggest that the <a> is /ei/.
>
>And it is indeed pronounced that way in much of the Southern US.
>/'Ti:.ei.tr\=/.
Informative. I guess it's OK, then. I'm not sure which word I'd even use,
since I rarely need to discuss theaters in English. I was just reacting to
Sally's "THEE-uh-TREH" - the "-re" spelling does not really appear THAT much
contrary to American spelling.


> > And there's many, many more words for which the standard spelling is
> > irregular for 99% of English speakers, like "often",
>
>... which many people give a spelling pronunciation with a /t/...
>Mark J. Reed
Either way of reregularization's fine for me. "Offen" is just the one I hear
a lot more offen.

---

>>Whoa! You have a point there - this list could indeed hav potential to
>>spred a change of "-ive" to "-iv". Converted!
>
>:)  If only non-conlangers would read it.  Do you think the averidge
>educated Mercan looks in on us?
>Sally
No, the other way 'round. There's a lot of intelligent people on this list,
including professional linguists - if we start using it on other lists too,
it might slowly spread. Can't blame me for being idealistic, can you? :)

John Vertical