Re: English diglossia (was Re: retroflex consonants)

Tristan scripsit:

> As I've said in the Germaniconlang mailing list: you respell English,
> you put up with what you get. And you won't like it if you want
> inter-dialectal homogeneity. The only rules you can have that'll be as
> valid in one area as another are the present ones, full-stop. (And yeah,
> they aren't homogenous, but they're close enough to make no difference.)
Not so.  Regularized Inglish has inter-dialectal homogeneity at least as
good as the present system, precisely because it is not a phonetic or
phonemic spelling.  Wijk designed it on the basis of conservative RP
and General American, but it should work for most other Englishes as well.
If Americans end up writing "bin" where others continue to write "been",
this is no worse than all the silly -er/-re and -or/-our distinctions
that have no value whatsoever.

> means that no-one has to worry about the confusing differences between
> 'saw' and 'sore' or 'father' and 'bother'.)
RI is designed to make more distinctions than dialects actually require,
on the grounds that it is better for writers to have to remember whether
to write "theft" or "feft", than it is to leave readers wondering whether
"saw" or "sore" is intended.

> Did he use a database with -ise or -ize, (lice)nce or (lice)nse? Using
> <z> for /z/ looks un-English; and anyway, <s> represents /z/ an awful
> lot to be transformed.
He used both, and I agree that he winds up with too much "z".  Here's a
small sample of RI, with the s > z, th > dh, and a > aa changes backed out:

Wunce upon a time thare livd a poor boy named Dick Whittington, hoose
father and muther wer bothe ded.  Having nyther/neether home nor frends,
he roamd about the cuntry trying to ern his living.  Sumtimes he cood not
find eny wurk, and he offen had to go hungry.

On market days he herd the farmers tauk about the greit city ov Lundon.
They sed that its streets wer paved with gold.  So Dick made up his minde
to go to Lundon and seek his fortune.  Packing his clothes into a bundle
and cauling his faithful cat he started out.  After days and days of wauking
the hungry lad finally reached Lundon.

But alas, the streets wer not paved with gold but hard cobblestones.  He
wonderd [i.e. wandered] about the city seeking for wurk.  At last he came to
the house ov a rich merchant and knockt at the dor.

The dor wos opend by the cook, but when she oenly saw a ragged boy on the step,
she wos angry and told him to begon.  At that moment the oener ov the house,
Master Fitzwarren, returnd and seeing the poor boy's condition he took
pity on him and orderd the cook to giv him sum foode.  "If yoo wish to wurk,"
he added, "yoo may stay here and help cook in the kitchen.  Yoo will finde
a bed in the attic."  Dick thankt Master Fitzwarren very much for his
greit kindeness.

Dick might hav been happy had it not been/bin for the cook, hoo whipt him
aulmoste every day.  She treated him so badly that the merchant's daughter,
hoo wos a kinde-harted girl, felt very sorry for the lonely lad.

Wun day the merchant cauld aul his servants together.  He told them that he
had a ship reddy to sail to forren lands, and that each ov them might send
sumthing in her; and they shood hav aul it sold for.

"Whot ar yoo going to send, Dick?" asked the merchant's daughter.

"I have nuthing to send", sed Dick sadly, "nuthing but my cat."

"Fetch thy cat then, boy, and send her!" sed the merchant.

Dick wos sorry to part with Poossy, yet he obeyed his master, and with tears
in his ies [e.g. eyes] gave Pooss to the capten ov the ship.

=====

As yoo can see, this orthography is etabnannimous but not maggelitous.

--
John Cowan   <jcowan@...>   http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
"One time I called in to the central system and started working on a big
thick 'sed' and 'awk' heavy duty data bashing script.  One of the geologists
came by, looked over my shoulder and said 'Oh, that happens to me too.
Try hanging up and phoning in again.'"  --Beverly Erlebacher

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