German Spelling Reform (fwd)

(This was meant for the list but my mailer sent it to Nicole,
not like its usual habit, and I didn't pay attention)

On Sun, 8 Aug 1999, nicole perrin wrote:

(the new German spelling)

> Verbs with nouns as prefixes will be split into two words and have the
> noun capitalized:
>         radfahren > Rad fahren
>         autofahren > Auto fahren
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").

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.
It creates illogicalities: "pannenkoek" (literally "panscake") which
used to be "pannekoek" ("pancake") and ambiguities: "kerkenraad"
("churches' council", and it's used for that too, but the usual
meaning is "church council" which used to be, logically,
"kerkeraad").

It's not as if the -n- is pronounced, either. This will probably make
for a lot of spelling pronunciation, complete with pedants who insist
that "you have to pronounce it, because it's written!" (I was raised
by one, who couldn't believe that her spoken Dutch was, well, spoken
Dutch even if she heard it on tape).

   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)