Dieing languages and "easy to learn" spelling

[James Smith]

Maybe we should try pronouncing words the way they're
spelled; let's start with "been", "again", and
"Worcestershire", then see where we can go from there!


--- Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:

> 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.  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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James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.

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