Merkins

Sun Oct 22 06:35:35 UTC 2006

Tom,
Don't you DARE call Clackmannanshire England.  It's about 100 miles
within Scotland.  They may be both U. K. (and Britain), but there is
a difference.

Paul Johnston

On Oct 21, 2006, at 11:06 PM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Merkins
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> Sean,
>
> Oh please tell me all about IBM's Writing to Read system.  The idea
> is to
> teach kids phonetics first using a simple phonetic system.  The
> kids need to
> know only 40 sounds to read and write in that notation.  They could
> do it in
> first grade with a keyboard before they learned to form letters.
> Transition
> to tradspel was not a problem.  Thousands of kids participated as
> opposed to
> the few hundred kids in Clakmannanshire using synthetic phonics
> that is
> changing the way England will teach their children.  I recall that
> Princeton
> ETS said Writing to Read worked.
>
> You can contact me off line if you like.  I'm sporting truespel as
> the way
> to go for teaching reading using IBM's Writing to Read as the proof of
> concept.  Unfortunately Writing to Read used a few special symbols,
> while
> truespel does not.
>
> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL4+
> See truespel.com and the 4 truespel books at authorhouse.com.
>
>
>
>
>
>> From: Seán Fitzpatrick <grendel.jjf at VERIZON.NET>
>> Reply-To: grendel.jjf at verizon.net
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: Merkins
>> Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2006 18:33:31 -0400
>>
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>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       =?iso-8859-1?Q?Se=E1n_Fitzpatrick?=
>> <grendel.jjf at VERIZON.NET>
>> Subject:      Re: Merkins
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------
>>
>> And didn't LBJ used to say "Mur'cans"?
>>
>> The Writing to Read program is indeed very good.  I worked for IBM
>> in a
>> company town when the kids were little (early '90s).  They were
>> typing
>> charming little phonetically spelled stories long before they
>> would have
>> been able to write them.  After two years the orthography was
>> pretty much
>> standard English, but the stories were not so charming.
>>
>> Seán Fitzpatrick
>> Jesusland—Faith, Hope, and Dubya-MDs
>> www.logomachon.blogspot.com/
>> -----Original Message-----
>>
>>> From: Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
>>> Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>> Subject: Re: Merkins
>>> Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2006 22:27:04 -0400
>>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
>>> Subject:      Re: Merkins
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> -------
>> ----
>>>
>>> At 12:40 PM 10/19/2006, you wrote:
>>>> I don't think changing traditional spelling (tradspel) is
>>>> doable.  Ted
>>>> Roosevelt in consort with Andrew Carnegie tried and couldn't
>>>> change a
>>> word,
>>>> even through an executive order.  Webster was the last success, at
>> least
>>> in
>>>> USA.
>>>>
>>>> So the only thing possible to influence is pronunciation,
>>>> keeping it
>>>> consistent with tradspel to help learners by maintaining letter
>>>> sound
>>>> correspondance.  But I see no mechanism to do that except for our
>>> schools.
>>>> Now that "phonemic awareness" (Stanovich) is seen to be the "single
>> most
>>>> important attribute exhibited by successful readers" (to
>>>> paraphrase),
>>> there
>>>> may be more action in that area.  I think the trend away from
>>>> phonics
>> in
>>> the
>>>> past for early reading teachers has fostered disparate
>>>> pronunciations.
>> I
>>>> advocate for USA English the Writing to Read approach by IBM of the
>> 80's,
>>>> only using truespel, which has no special symbols.
>>>>
>>>> "Merkins".  Is that an Ausy term?
>>>
>>> No, no--'Merkins' is a tried and true American English
>>> pronunciation!  Listen to Newt Gingrich (if you can stand to),
>>> and you'll
>>> hear him call us "Mer(a)kins" (I'd put a schwa in there).  It's
>>> Philly/Baltimore/east Pennsylvania dialect, and maybe more (NJ?
>>> Del?).
>> The
>>> first syllable is the same as in 'Murray'.  Recall our
>>> Mary/merry/marry/Murray discussion a while back?  Another problem
>>> with
>> the
>>> alphabetic principle--people just won't obey it!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Tom Z
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> From: RonButters at AOL.COM
>>>>>
>>>>> Do you advocate, then, quite different spelling conventions
>>>>> (more than
>>>>> the=20
>>>>> trivial differences that we now see) for the England, Scotland,
>>>>> Wales,
>>>>> Irela=
>>>>> nd,=20
>>>>> Jamaica, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, etc.? Or
>>>>> should
>>> they
>>>>> a=
>>>>> ll=20
>>>>> have to speak Merkin? It seems to me that this would make
>>>>> English a
>> MUCH
>>>>> mor=
>>>>> e=20
>>>>> DIFFICULT language to learn as a 2nd language.
>>>>>
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