Re: CHAT: An introduction

Quoting Jake X <starvingpoet@...>:

> [an'dZr\e@s r\oUt]:
> > For some reason, I've lately heard alot of flak against German's
> supposed
> > orthographical horrors. I don't really see why - it may be less
> regular
> than
> > French, but the system is certainly alot less exotic to someone used
> to
> > Swedish orthography (which in turn is more erratic than German), and
> at
> any
> > rate it's way simpler than English.
> Since German was the first foreign language to which I was exposed, I
> was pleasantly surprised at thinking that German had such a _regular_
> orthography (compared to English, that is).  I still find French much
> harder
> to read than German.  I dn't think I had any confusion at all learning
> the
> orthography.  What makes people say that?
If I knew ...

The, well, variable indication of vocalic length is probably part of the
explanation. Perhaps to the way how |s| indicates both /s/ and /z/, but I
really don't know.

                                                              Andreas

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