Re: English diglossia (was Re: retroflex consonants)
| From: | John Cowan <jcowan@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, January 30, 2003, 5:34 |
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Tristan scripsit:
> Doesn't matter: the very second you tell people to change the 'correct'
> spelling from 'you' to 'yoo', they'll also change the correct spelling
> of 'saw' and 'sore' to be the same (assuming they say them the same).
What of it? People who can't spell get "their" and "there" wrong too.
RI isn't meant to make spelling easier (much); it's primarily meant to
make learning to read easier, by eliminating the 15% of maggelitous
words that have to be learned by rote.
In RI, "ou" has the long sound of "o", and all other "ou" combinations
have been changed. Since "you" has the long sound of "oo", it becomes
"yoo". ("Long" and "short" are used in their traditional English
meanings, and are kept in RI descriptions because they are nicely
diaphonetic.)
> Looks ugly...
All in what you get used to.
> And I've heard irregularities are easier to memorise than
> regularities (why, I don't know)...
Well, if you *have* to memorize them, maybe so. The point of rules
is not to have to memorize things.
--
You escaped them by the will-death John Cowan
and the Way of the Black Wheel. jcowan@reutershealth.com
I could not. --Great-Souled Sam http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
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