Chinglish

[LanDi Liu]

What the hell?

Ron, before you put words in other people's mouths and start screaming
in all caps, maybe you should read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabetic_principle

Most writing systems that I'm familiar with use the alphabetic
principle, including English.  In modern English the letter
combination "igh" normally represents [ai].  It's not a 1:1
relationship, and even in Tom's truespel, there is not a 1:1
relationship for every letter/sound combination.  Only IPA boasts
that, and that gets broken here and there by the best of them.

"Alphabetical writing systems APPROXIMATE pronunciations."  Yeah,
that's kinda the whole point of the alphabetic principle.

The alphabetic principle is important especially to kids learning how
to read.  If there was no such principle in English then kids would
have to memorize the spellings of tens of thousands of words
independently of each other.  To beginning readers, especially kids,
that would be basically impossible.

I think a lot of people on this list need to get laid more often.

Randy

On Sat, Aug 30, 2008 at 12:09 AM,  <RonButters at aol.com> wrote:
> In a message dated 8/29/08 11:58:21 AM, truespel at HOTMAIL.COM writes:
>> The alphabetical principle is that letters stand for sounds.
>>
> There IS NO such "alphabetical principle" that any competent linguist or
> phoneticial would subscribe to. What this really means is that YOU believe that,
> in writing English, letters SHOULD stand for sounds in some kind of 1:1
> relationship as determined largely by your ear and prejudices. The fact is that in
> the history of alphabetical writing systems--and certainly for a language as
> complicated socially and geographically as English--this has NEVER been the case.
> Alphabetical writing systems APPROXIMATE pronunciations. When I write "high,"
> do you see a word that ends in an aspirated [g] sound? When i write "high,"
> do you hear a vowel that ends in an offglide or is simply a lengthened [a]? Or
> is it the stressed vowel of "machine"? Enough!
>
>
> **************
> It's only a deal
> if it's where you want to go. Find your travel deal here.
>
> (http://information.travel.aol.com/deals?ncid=aoltrv00050000000047)
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
Randy Alexander
Jilin City, China
My Manchu studies blog:
http://www.bjshengr.com/manchu

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