Re: A break in the evils of English (or, Sturnan is beautiful)

En réponse à Tristan <zsau@...>:

>
> From what I've seen of English and French spelling (a lot of English,
> less so French), I'd have to say that English is simpler. It has more
> irregularities, but it's simpler. Of course, that could be because I
> speak and use English on a daily basis. But still, English would spell
> _oiseau_ as 'wazo(w)' or read it as
>
The thing is that being simpler and having more irregularities is simply
antinomic! |oiseau| may look strange, but it's perfectly regular (|oi| is
*always* pronounced [wa], |s| is *always* pronounced [z] between vowels, and
|eau| is *always* pronounced [o]) and the rules to read it are already acquired
by children of 7, as well as *all* the rules to read French (really, only the
first year is used to actually "learn" writing rules - at least in my time -.
The other years are used to actually learn words for the other direction: to
write, since in this case the fact that French has often different ways to
write the same sound makes things a bit more complicated). But the whole thing
is that French writing rules are far simpler than the rules Mark Rosenfelder
had difficulties to put together, simple enough at least that we actually learn
them.

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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