Re: THEORY: Question about the evolution of language

On Thu, 9 Sep 1999, Christophe Grandsire wrote:

>         My parents told me that I was also an early talker and early walker
> (and early reader, I could spell words at 4 and learned to read not long
> after that). Who knows, maybe it's a genetic feature of conlangers :) !
I was a good speller at age 4-5, but only of words that interested me,
like "brontosaurus" and "tyrannosaurus".  Otherwise, my spelling was
atrocious until I entered junior high school, when it improved
dramatically, for reasons which remain obscure to me.  Now I'm a
terrific speller.  (Having taught a couple classes on Greek and Latin
roots in English didn't hurt in that department.)  But if you look at
the stuff I wrote when I was 7 or 8, it looks like it was written
in Chaucer's day.  My spelling strategy seems to have been "When in
doubt, stick in another letter", so that "busy" comes out as "buisey",
"although" comes out as "allthoagh", and so on.

Matt.