Re: English is a crazy language

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!)

> (caught), alright (currently non-standard for "all right"), furlow,
Shouldn't that be 'alrite'? And what's 'furlow'?

> I'm thinking of some sort of diacritic like a macron over one word to
> distinguish it from the other homograph. I was taught phonics in first grade
> by using numbers over letters and letter groups, so that the first "wound"
> was "wou^1nd" and the second "wou^3nd".
For some reason, I doubt (dout?) English speakers would take very well
to diacritics. Take a look at the way they've already been practically
abolished! (It is my role in this cafe to announce that Dvorak has a
fiancee.)

> > 16) After a number of injections my jaw got number.
>
> A hyphen in the second: numb-er?
Or just get rid of the silent 'b' from 'numb' and make it 'nummer'. A
much more elegant solution.

> Seriously, I would publish what you wrote, really.
I think that it wasn't his. I'm almost certain I've seen it somewhere
before (although it's always possible that it was at his website or
something).

BTW: What's a parkway? (Dictionary.com seems to be down ATM.)

--
Tristan

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