Dieing languages and "easy to learn" spelling (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE



> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Tom Zurinskas
> Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 10:36 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Dieing languages and "easy to learn" spelling
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Dieing languages and "easy to learn" spelling
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> If English speakers don't adopt an English-friendly phonetic
> spelling NOW, will they be forced to use one based on another
> language in the future?  Should future language respelling be
> done in the "easy to learn" alphabet of "Nuriguel" or in an
> "easy to learn" English based script - truespel?
>
> The world is thinking about respelling.

The English-speaking portion of the world is not thinking about
respelling.  Hardly anyone is thinking about respelling.  I've been
speaking English for upwards of 40 years, and the number of times that
it's occurred to me that the English speaking world would be well served
by revamping the written form of the most successful language produced
by humanity is zero.  I've never had a conversation (face to face) with
anyone about improving English in such a manner.  Nor written. Nor
email.

Your posts in the ADS-L (which seem to gather no traction whatsoever)
are the only times that spelling reform ever comes to my attention.

But everyone needs a hobby, so keep it up.




> I suggest that
> English-based would be the best choice, being the "lingua
> franca" of the world.  What English needs is an English based
> phonetic system.  Truespel is mature and fits the bill now.
> See below copied from another emal:
>
> An organization in Korea has persuaded some language-planners
> in China and UNESCO to seriously consider an expanded version
> of the Korean alphabet for use as an international script.
> Google-search "Nurigeul" and/or visit
>
> http://www.korea.net/news/issues/issueDetailView.asp?board_no=
> 18140&menu_code=A
> and watch
>      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtGhiz5V8Yg&feature=related
>
> U.N., China eyeing Hangeul-based alphabet to combat illiteracy
>
> Korea News:  October 13, 2007
> Dr. Kim-cho Sek-yen, Director of Sejong Studies Institute.
>
> Of the roughly 7,000 languages worldwide, on average, one
> goes extinct every two weeks, according to the Living Tongues
> Institute for Endangered Language in Australia and the U.S.
> National Geographic Society.
>
> In words of K. David Harrison, an assistant professor of
> linguistics at Swarthmore College and author of "When
> Languages Die" (2007), losing a language means losing a vast
> repository of knowledge accumulated by generations of people.
> Videos, recorders, journals, storybooks and other basic
> literacy materials are being used to slow this decline.
>
> Recently Korea has joined the efforts to rescue languages
> with a unique method -- lending the speakers of dwindling
> languages Hangeul, Korea's own easy-to-learn alphabet.
> Hopefully, this will be one of Korea's biggest contributions
> to the world.
>
> "But Hangeul is not enough," says Professor Kim-Cho Sek-yen
> who came to Korea for a speech at the WOGA 2007,
> International Women Leaders Mission Conference. Living in New
> York with her husband and daughter, she has devoted over
> three decades completing "Nuriguel" - an alternative Hangeul
> system with additional letters that allow an even wider range
> of pronunciation that can cover sounds like "f" and "th" that
> are absent in Korean and hence difficult to transcribe
> accurately. Below are the newly added letters after Hangeul;
>
> "The principle of Hangeul is that it can transform and
> regenerate itself," she said. "I didn't just create letters
> out of the blue. I merely restored the lost Hangeul letters
> of the 15th century and formed additional letters based on
> the movements of speech organs just like King Sejong, the
> inventor of Hangeul, did." She said. "That's why I call it a
> visible speech sound. You can see clearly why certain
> Nurigeul letters are shaped as they are in accordance with
> the pronouncing organs."
>
>
> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+ See truespel.com -
> and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.
>
>
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