Re: USAGE: No rants! (USAGE: di"f"thong)

Henrik rót:

> Hi all!
>
> John Vertical <johnvertical@...> writes:
>
> >> *sigh* OK, since the hopes of passing the topic quietly were for
> >> naught, I'm going into Rant Mode then.
>
>
> No, no, we won't go into rant mode.
>
> It feels a bit like 'auxlang are a good thing' threads.  Don't tell me
> a spelling reform of English is a good thing and don't tell me it is
> not a good thing.
>
> Here's a poll:
----------------------------------------------------------------------

     1) Do you think English spelling should be reformed?

      [ ] No, it should not be reformed
      [ ] Yes, it should be reformed, but only slightly
      [x] Yes, and we need a whole now spelling
      [ ] I don't care

I'm actually somewhere inbetween "only slightly" and "whole now spelling"
since I think that the symbols for phoneme pairs like /I/--/AI/, /V/--/ju/,
/g/--/dZ/ should be somehow related in shape.  My ideal would be to use
some diacritic like in Icelandic, but the Anglo peoples' _odium
diacriticorum_
makes another solution necessary...

     2a) Do you think English spelling is phonemic?

      [ ] Yes
      [x] No
      [ ] I don't know
      [ ] I don't care

     2b) Do you think English spelling is phonetic?

      [ ] Yes
      [x] No
      [ ] I don't know
      [ ] I don't care

     3a) Do you think English spelling should be phonemic?

      [x] Yes
      [ ] No
      [ ] I don't care

Ideally both phonemic and etymological, or as good a balance
between those as possible.

     3b) Do you think English spelling should be phonetic?

      [ ] Yes
      [x] No
      [ ] I don't care

     4) Which spelling would you prefer for current 'laugh'?

      [ ] laugh
      [ ] laff
      [x] laf
      [ ] larf
      [ ] _______
      [ ] I don't care

     If you only answered 'I don't care' or 'I don't know' up to here,
     rethink whether you are really interested in this poll...

     5) Who is the most important group of people you think of when
        proposing/rejecting a spelling reform?

      [ ] People who can read already and just want to keep on reading
          undisturbed.  (This is probably the largest group of living
          people now).

      [x] L1 learners of English

      [x] L2 learners of English [This will be the largest group of people
          if time is considered and we wait for 100 years.)

      [ ] Myself, I cannot read/write properly/have had problems
learning it.

      [ ] _________________

     6) How should one cope with different dialects?

      [x] By neglecting distinctions made in some dialects.
      [ ] By considering all distinctions made in dialects.
      [ ] By using historical state of English and base the spelling on it.
      [ ] By defining a standard dialect and use it regardless of variants.
      [ ] By using a semantics based writing system.
      [x] _By providing spellings that support the most
             dialectal pronunciations possible

     7) Have you thought about or (tried to) invent(ed) a spelling reform
        yourself?

      [x] Yes
      [ ] No

     8) Which other lang do think needs a spelling reform?

      [ ] Chinese
      [x] Danish
      [x] Faeroese
      [x] French
      [x] German
      [x] Japanese
      [x] Swedish
      [ ] __________

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

     What else?

IPA is probably a bad source of new symbols; they don't look very
distinctive in handwriting, and the capitals designed for African
languages are not too reassuring -- tho capitalization can be
dispensed with.

     **Henrik



--
/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch at melroch dot se

    "Maybe" is a strange word.  When mum or dad says it
    it means "yes", but when my big brothers say it it
    means "no"!

                            (Philip Jonsson jr, age 7)