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Re: Another tongue-in-cheek spelling reform

From:Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>
Date:Thursday, April 21, 2005, 5:57
--- # 1 <salut_vous_autre@...> wrote:

> Gary Shannon wrote: > > >Rather than go in the direction of increased > calrity > >and phonetic precision, why not move in the > direction > >of increased ambiguity and phonetic confusion? > > > > Great! I find it really more interesting than the > reforms everybody talked > about last days! >
<snip>
> > When a vowel is kept, should I infer it is the > stressed one? the one that's > important enough for deserving being kept? > > Or maybe not, it would too much regular :-P >
That's what I had in mind. <snip>
> > Would a compound made of a word beggining in |ph| > placed after another keep > the |ph| or would it change to |gh| for keeping it > confusing and regular? >
Good question. I'm not sure.
> >Most short words (two, three and four letters) have > >arbitrary spelling that must simply be memorized, > >although they generally follow more of the rules > than > >they break, except when they break more rules than > >they follow. > > > > LOL "They follow more than they break unless they > break more than they > follow"! >
<snip>
> > The thing I notice is that you get stuck with a lot > a words that are spelled > the same > > In your example: "Pgg wn yv td haggz t bochr fr td > fyzd tmarro." > > "wn" may also be "won", "yv" may be "I've" (that's > what I tought of first, > and I'd still do so considering the next rule for > contractions), "td" may be > "toad", and "fr" may be "fry" (but it may have a > regular spelling and be > spelled "phr" considering it's a less basic word) > > You probably can't get rid of all words that are > spelled the same >
Maybe "when" needs to be "wnn"? I thought "toad" would be "tod" since I saved "o" for all the rounded sort of vowel sounds. As for "fry" I figured to keep terminal "y", so it would be "phry". <snip>
> >"sung" are spelled "syng" and "syngh" for no > >particular reason, and must be learned by rote. > > >
Especially one as ambiguous as this!
> That's cool! All languages need some spellings that > are there "for no > particular reason" ;-P > > >(rule book continues for 147 more pages giving > >arbitrary rules and their many, many conflicting > >exceptions.) > > Rly ytrstng! (Is that this?) > > - Max >
I might have gone with "ryly" for "really", since initial, long, and stressed vowels are all spelled "y". (Also, don't forget the "n" in yntrstng". :) --gary