LL-L "Orthography" 2008.12.17 (01) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 17 December 2008 - Volume 01
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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at scotstext.org>
Subject: LL-L "Orthography" 2008.12.15 (06) [E]

> From: Heiko Evermann <heiko.evermann at googlemail.com>
> Subject: LL-L "Orthography" 2008.12.15 (04) [E/LS]

> How abowt teeching the English e propa sistem of raiting first, one
> that aims for consistency and integrity, one that is not based on a
> way of writing that became obsolete with the Tudor sound shift. Mait
> meyke lerning English a lot esier for all the world. And good lack for
> teeching that sistem in Scatland.

I think that this illustrates one of the problems with English spelling
reform, as indeed any attempt at writing English more systematically
tends to do.

The thing is, we could never be in agreement about this because:

mait: I pronounce this diphthong differently and make the distinction
between, eg, "five" ("faiv") and "nine" ("nein") in English.

mayke: all vowels like this are pronounced as pure diphthongs in my
English.

Scatland: this flags your English as American in pronunciation for me.
There's no way left to spell, for example "cat" in my English, unless
you want to make it "caht" or something.

Of course there are many semi-regular and irregular differences between
American and English English that would be difficult to cover in one
spelling, for example, "serehnity" (American), "sereenity" (English),
garahdge/gahridge and so on.

Then Scottish English brings a whole new set of problems, for example,
as a Scottish speaker of English I would need the distinction between
the vowels in "five" and "nine", and between "w" and "wh", I would want
most of my vowels pure and I need a clear spelling of the letter "r"
independent of the surrounding vowels (so Shavian is completely
impossible for me to write unless I learn a whole new dialect of
English).

I think that in its expansion English has perhaps reached a point of no
return where it's only held together as one language by the common
orthography bolstered by a vast literature and a widespread familiarity
with accents other than ones own due to the film and TV industries.
There seems to be no way to spell it so that it can be written by all
native English speakers without it making even less sense to a large
fraction of them.

I'm not saying some reforms wouldn't be possible, such as the abolition
of "gh" and suchlike. But it can only be taken so far.

Sandy Fleming
http://scotstext.org/

•

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