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Re: English is a crazy language

From:Wesley Parish <wes.parish@...>
Date:Tuesday, April 23, 2002, 10:29
On Tuesday 23 April 2002 20:38, you wrote:
> On Tue, 2002-04-23 at 14:50, Danny Wier wrote: > > This has been discussed on a list a LOT on both conlang and auxlang, > > English spelling reform. I promote limited reform much like Irish Gaelic > > reformed their language by eliminating silent letters. A futuristic > > vision of English I have is where "lite" become standard instead of > > "light", just as "draft" (as in beer) is used in the US instead of > > "draught". And "hiccough" is now spelled "hiccup". > > > > Other first-stage reformed words, most of these involving removed silent > > "gh": fite, laff, ot or aut (ought), eit (eight), coff, troff, caut > > My opinion is that it should be <ait>. <ei> has too many readings to > reliably expect one, indeed, 'either' can be either /aiD@(r)/ or > /i:D@(r)/! Also, I (and the people on Aussie forums etc. with dodgy > spelling) would prefer to spell 'ought' as <ort> but I can see why that > wouldn't be a common feeling ;) > > And that brings me to another point... Why not abolish correct spellings > of particular words altogether and let spellers take charge, just like > speakers with pronunciations? If you practise it a bit, reading > forums/chat isn't too hard. (But we must have a few rules, like people > who use numbers and punctuation to spell with will be shot with no > trial!) >
Don't you mean |tiacht| with no trial? |ti| as in ghoti-ing, convention, convection, etc; |acht| as in yacht? Wesley Parish -- Mau e ki, "He aha to mea nui?" You ask, "What is the most important thing?" Maku e ki, "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata!" I reply, "It is people, it is people, it is people!"

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Tristan <zsau@...>