Re: English diglossia (was Re: retroflex consonants)
| From: | Tristan <kesuari@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Saturday, February 1, 2003, 1:38 |
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kendra wrote:
>I'm just jumping in this conversation with utter disregard for, uh, not
>sounding completely dumb.
>But if the spelling change suggested by somebody (I can't remember who, my
>other computer died a day or three ago so I don't have e-mail back that far)
>isn't that much different, why bother implementing it at all?
>
Becoz(?) it completely avoids aul that hassle ov having(havving?) to
lern irregular spellings. If yoo donte hav too spend a year lerning how
too spell 'all', 'were' and 'word', yoo can spend it lerning how to
spell 'contrary', 'unfortunately' and 'antidisestablishmentarian' (or
whatever it is).
>I learned to read pretty fast and have been good with spelling all my life,
>though I still can't spell exercise or exaggerate or lisence without
>squinting at them,
>
It's actually either 'licence' or 'license', the latter being the
American spelling and the Commonwealth spelling for verbs and the former
the Commonwealth spelling for nouns, so that I have a 'drivers licence'
and so am licensed to drive a car, but an American would have a 'drivers
license' but still be licensed to drive a car.
> as many have before me, wondering why I can't remember
>them, and spell wierd wrong every time because I think ei looks wayerd.
>Anyway, my question is, how much more efficient is a system that doesn't
>seem to change that many things?
>
Becoz if oanly (shorely 'oe' would make the sound /i:/ e.g. oestrogen
but nun with it making /ou/) sum wurds change, we donte need too spend
thousands of dollars or pounds or euros or whotever the local currency
is changing billions of wurds, and becoz of my first comment.
>Aj prsunlj lajk funetik speliq, as any sort of spelling reformed the English
>way (ie 'long a' for e, 'long i' for i) looks utterly ridiculous to me, and
>I lament the utter irregularity of it, given that Jeff and I don't agree on
>phonetic spelling in Tiri'n and we speak the same dialect of English.
>My sentences are far too long and I far too ignorant!
>
Well... if it helps, using 'ai' or 'ay' for the long A sound makes
phonetic sense for Australian English, where it's pronounced /&i/.
Tristan.
>
>
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