Re: English spelling reform

Adrian Morgan scripsit:

> There are any number of words that are reduced in practically all
> speech but which may preserve an unreduced vowel under special
> circumstances, e.g. possibly when sung.
Sung English is an interesting dialect with its own intense phonological
peculiarities.  For example, I say "glorious" as [glOr\i@s], with three
syllables, but make it [glOr\jOs] with only two when singing.
Once in Salt Lake City I heard the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearsing --
quite an experience -- and the choir director was making precisely this
point, at which time I realized that I had absorbed that rule myself
without ever being taught it.

Still, this is not as weird as Sung French, where final schwas that have
been silent for centuries are still pronounced!

> I find it easier to leave
> schwas as schwas than to develop some other policy on where to draw
> the line.
In Regularized Inglish, which of course is not a *phonemic* spelling reform
at all, unstressed vowels are left almost entirely alone, except that
unstressed "ai" /@/ becomes "e", thus "capten" for "captain", so that
it does not look like "retain".  Similarly "tortus" for "tortoise".

--
John Cowan
        jcowan@reutershealth.com
                I am a member of a civilization. --David Brin

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