LL-L "Orthography" 2002.02.23 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 23.FEB.2002 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Orthography"

> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Orthography
>
> Lowlanders,
>
> Sandy Fleming pointed out the predicaments one finds oneself in when
> approaching Scots orthography (reform?).  In particular, he pointed out
> that over time readers and writers of Scots have been conditioned to
> expect the spelling of their language to generally follow English
> principles, that this can interfere with creating a consistently
> applicable system (alone for the fact that English spelling is, by and
> large, inconsistent), and that, conversely, "normalization," i.e.,
> increasing consistency, of Scots spelling may lead to
> "un-English"-looking results.  Sandy gave the example of _rose_ vs
> _roze_ 'rose' where in the latter the underlying /z/ is represented by
> <z>.

Ron,

I've been trying to give some thought to what you were saying
about this, including the suggestions involving silent "e", but
I think I'm all burnt out on the subject of orthography at the
moment - I just know by now that any sensible orthographic
suggestions will lead nowhere because nobody will accept the
resulting orthography!

The only thing I can think of is that perhaps the ScotsteXt
"Original/Edited" toggle could be used to try and familiarise
people with a "sensibly weird" Scots orthography. That is to
say, I could present the original text with traditional spellings,
but use a radical orthography for the edited texts (presently the
"edited" texts only contain grammatical corrections).

Of course, this raises the question of how to devise the new
orthography, but I suspect it will be easier to devise something
completely new than it has been trying to devise a sensible
spelling system that still _looks_ like the nonsensical one!

Thoughts?

Sandy
http://scotstext.org
A dinna dout him, for he says that he
On nae accoont wad ever tell a lee.
                          - C.W.Wade,
                    'The Adventures o McNab'

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Orthography

Sandy,

> Of course, this raises the question of how to devise the new
> orthography, but I suspect it will be easier to devise something
> completely new than it has been trying to devise a sensible
> spelling system that still _looks_ like the nonsensical one!

How about considering for future reference (whenever you feel
sufficiently refreshed) the maxim "Consistency over Looks"?  In other
words, it doesn't matter if you use English-inspired devices or
whatever, as long as the orthography is systematic rather than
haphazard.

Good luck!
Reinhard/Ron

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