Re: German Spelling Reform (fwd)

On Sun, 8 Aug 1999, FFlores wrote:

> Irina Rempt-Drijfhout <ira@...> wrote:
> > That seems to change the meaning, and on top of that, impoverish the
> > lexicon: there will be no separate word for "to cycle" or "to drive"
> > any more, just "to ride/drive a bike" and "to ride/drive a car". It's
> > as if the Dutch word "fietsen" were to be replaced by "fiets rijden"
> > (which, translated into German, is literally "Rad fahren").
>
> Well, it changes the orthography, not the spoken words. Though I guess
> it could cause some confusion. Especially from people trying to find
> _radfahren_ or _autofahren_ in a dictionary.
Distinguo. Where there was one word earlier, this word *no longer
exists*, and even if you make the same sounds meaning the same thing
you're saying something different: "N V" instead of "V".

> > It looks as bad as the new Dutch spelling, which I'm stubbornly
> > refusing to use in any writing where I'm master of my own spelling.
> [snip]
> > It's not as if the -n- is pronounced, either.
>
> It isn't? Then why's it there? A spelling reform is supposed to
> update the orthography, not to take it back in time!
It's not even taking it back in time; it never was "pannenkoek" or
"kerkenraad". The -n- is only there to homogenize all -e(n)-
compounds; the Powers That Be couldn't live with "bessensap" but
"bananeschil" (berry juice, banana peel). They thought it would be
easier to learn. The fact that there's also "appelsap" (apple juice)
seems to have been overlooked; nobody has yet proposed to call it
"appelensap".

It's not called a plural, though it's formed like it; it's called a
"tussenklank" (intermediate sound) though it's not meant to be
pronounced. What do you call a sound that isn't heard?

   Irina

            Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastynay.
                     irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself)
       http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/index.html (English)
    http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/backpage.html (Nederlands)