Language changes, spelling reform (was Conlangea Dreaming)

On Wed, 11 Oct 2000, Robert Hailman wrote:

> Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, 10 Oct 2000, Robert Hailman wrote:
>
> > > That seems like an awful lot of sound changes for one generation, but I
> > > suppose it could happen.
> >
> > I think it must have been a gradual thing, just most noticeable when it
> > hit my generation.
>
> That would explain it. Or perhaps, and I may just be showing my
> ignorance as far as Korean goes, your generation adopted one of the
> regional dialects as it's standard language, as opposed to the standard
> languages of generations past.
I hadn't thought of that one.  My mom is somewhat familiar with various
Korean dialects and has described them to me, but possibly it was some
dialect she wasn't familiar with...who knows?

The weirdest Korean experience I had was when we had a class trip up to
the DMZ (well, as near as we could get!) and there was a Korean speaker
presenting some topic or other to the other Korean tourists.  It was very
odd--usually I can get the gist of what's going on, or figure out a fair
percentage of words even if it's somewhat technical Korean, but this
woman just sounded *different* and I couldn't even recognize very basic
things, the pronunciation was that different.  That was in the north
(well, of South Korea).  My mom tells me the people of Chejudo (Cheju
Island), who have their own distinct subculture, speak with a noticeable
"drawl" (or slowly at least) and their own sound-changes.

> > > > They've also gradually made some of the spelling more modern and sensible
> > > > to modern pronunciation.
> > >
> > > Do you mean to match up with sound changes, or in the Romanization?
> >
> > Spelling in Korean.  I have no idea what they're doing in the
> > Romanization, though the Romanization is actually more phonetic than the
> > alphabet, so it probably wouldn't make a different.  (The examples I
> > remember her showing me had to do with picky-alities of mutations and so on.)
>
> Ah. I find it odd that speakers of languages such as Korean would accept
> these spelling reforms, but when a spelling reform is proposed for
> English, it's laughed at. I happen to like the current English spelling,
Why is it odd?  <puzzled look>

> I find that I read English kind of like people who are fluent in Hebrew
> tell me that they usually end up reading Hebrew: Rather than looking at
> each letter, the just look at the overall shape of the word. It's more
> important to have that skill for Hebrew, because you don't have the
> vowels in most circumstances, but the English spelling system provides
> so little insight into the pronounciation of some words that I find a
> handy skill to have.
I have no idea how I read English, just that it happens.  I can read up
to 1000 pages in a day (if all I do is read--if I'm also doing classes
and homework, 400-500 is more typical) so I do read very rapidly, but I
can't tell you how exactly it happens.  I do find that I don't process by
words, but by phrases or chunks of words.  The one time I took a reading
speed test (and my sister did too), we both maxed out the scores, and
that was with us finishing the passages *before* time was called and they
began asking reading-comprehension questions.  <bemused look>  I'd go
back and reread the passage a 2nd or 3rd time and when they *finally*
called time, I'd find that I wouldn't stop on a word, but on a cluster of
words.  That's the only reason I know!

I have had no respect for reading-speed tests ever since.  :-p

YHL