Re: Why my conlangs SUC K!!!

Philippe Caquant scripsit:

> I think Americans are just simplifying English
> orthograph, withouth asking anything from the English.
> I've read "nite" instead of "night", "trax" instead of
> "tracks", etc.
Neither of these is standard.

> (also "gaol" has become "jail").
That has pretty much taken over the entire anglophone world.

> Americans seem to be more pragmatic, so I guess they
> will simplify it in the long term.
The differences between American and English spelling are
trivial, and are mostly a matter of removing a few pointless
distinctions, as in -or vs. -our and -re vs. -er, in each
case in favor of the first alternative.

> Alas, French are
> definitely not pragmatic on that topic, that's why our
> orthograph is once of the 3 worst ones in the world
> (with English and Tibetan).
Oh no.  French orthography is complicated, but not especially
irregular: it is fairly straightforward to predict pronunciation
from spelling once you learn the rules, with a few difficulties
like "oignon", which "should" be [wA~Jo].  Predicting spelling
from pronunciation is of course not usually possible.

But some 11% of English words, including many of the most common
ones, have deeply irregular pronunciations:  there is just no
explanation of why "one" should be [wVn], except history.
And as for "captain" [k&pt@n] vs. "detain" /ditejn/, there's
nothing to say....

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