Bee Season: The annual spelling bee brings out protesters as well as nerds

[Michael H Covarrubias]

Quoting Matthew Gordon
>
> > What is your basis for claiming "Paulescu
> > says that he believes inconsistent phonetic
> > spelling 'causes' dyslexia"?

Quoting Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>:
>
> Scientists say they have discovered
> the biological basis for dyslexia. ...
>
> ... The main scientist behind the study,
> Eraldo Paulescu, suggested languages
> like English and French could be changed
> to make them easier for people to read.
> He said: "There is an argument for
> reforming complex orthographies,
> or writing systems, to improve literacy
> problems in these languages."
>

At no point in the article does Paulescu claim or even hint that English
orthography causes dyslexia.

Even though the BBC's scientific reporting has a shameful history of unfounded
claims and conclusions (see their take on John Wells and cow dialects) this
article wisely avoids pinning the origin or *cause* of dyslexia to spelling.

Read carefully Mr Zurinskas (difficult I know since it is in "tradspel")

"The problem exists across many
nationalities, but the research
found that English-speaking
dyslexics suffered most, because
the language is so complex."

This does not say that more English speakers are dyslexic. It says
English-speaking dyslexics suffer more than others.

"Comparing dyslexics in various
countries, they found that
English-speaking dyslexics
experienced far more problems
with reading and writing than
the others.

"And they say this is because
it is so difficult in English
to tell how a word is pronounced
from the way it is written."

Again. Not more dyslexics. No causation from orthography.

Your citation, Mr Zurinskas, of Paulescu's only quote suggests that perhaps
simplified spelling might help to improve literacy. That's not curing dyslexia.
Dyslexia is not illiteracy.

Michael

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org