LL-L "Orthography" 2004.06.04 (05) [E]

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From: Ruth & Mark Dreyer <mrdreyer at lantic.net>
Subject: LL-L "Orthography" 2004.06.03 (02) [E]

Dear All,

 Referring to English spelling, the torment of my school-days - Eina!

   Speaking from the perspective of another language, there is nothing quite
so horrific to contemplate, until you slam up against French orthography.

I have a point to add, though, not original, alas. I have just looked up
from an old book, 'The Loom of Language' by F. Bodmer (Ed. L Hogben), George
Allen & Unwin Ltd. 1955.

    One of the great merits of English, as with every other language, is the
vast treasury of it's Literature, composed, alak-a-day! in obedience to the
traditional & cripplingly idiosyncratic spelling system (I will not say
rule). Now institute spelling reform - feel free - & at a stroke you will
cut off the common reader's access to all the Literature that has gone
before. Do that, see, & you will have destroyed one of the major merits of
English as an international language. The loss will affect not merely the
works of Shakespeare, for example, or Dickens, or Kipling or even Tolkien,
but the scientific texts in Journals, of Gumow, Darwin, Hawkins, to name a
few.

    I will believe that the Chinese & the Japanese will entertain exactly
the same reluctant reservations about the reform of their highly
idiosyncratic scripts, for example. The cost of reform is just too high.

    Thanks, Ron, for breaking the logjam. I was afraid it was my computer.
How're you feeling?

Yrs Sincerely,
    Mark

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Orthography

Mark (above):

>    Thanks, Ron, for breaking the logjam. I was afraid it was my computer.
> How're you feeling?

Thanks for asking.  I'm on a fast track to recovery.  If my correspondence
still seems weird by any chance, I can not blame any mind-altering pain
medication.

>    Speaking from the perspective of another language, there is nothing
quite
> so horrific to contemplate, until you slam up against French orthography.

Ugh, that's nothing in comparison with Tibetan, Mongolian and ... English.
At least there's *some* sort of an envisaged system.

>     One of the great merits of English, as with every other language, is
the
>  vast treasury of it's Literature, composed, alak-a-day! in obedience to
the
>  traditional & cripplingly idiosyncratic spelling system (I will not say
>  rule). Now institute spelling reform - feel free - & at a stroke you will
>  cut off the common reader's access to all the Literature that has gone
>  before. Do that, see, & you will have destroyed one of the major merits
of
>  English as an international language. The loss will affect not merely the
>  works of Shakespeare, for example, or Dickens, or Kipling or even
Tolkien,
>  but the scientific texts in Journals, of Gumow, Darwin, Hawkins, to name
a
>  few.

OK, so I'll continue in the role of the devil's advocate ...

What you say is, strictly speaking correct, and it is *the* excuse given to
cover for the real reason: the fear factor ("fear of change, one of the most
powerful fears there is").  However, especially in this day and age,
literature of yesteryear can be computer-transliterated in a split second
and then reprinted (or viewed online).  Those who want to see the original
versions -- which would be mostly academics and specialist enthusiasts --
would be trained to read the old "system."  This is exactly what has been
done in other languages for a long time, in the West and elsewhere.  For
example, Mongolian writings in the old vertical (Uyghur) script (which is
now being resurrected in Mongolia and has always been used in China) were
republished transliterated in the Cyrillic-based script for the general
population of Mongolia and Mongolic-speaking parts of the Soviet Union.  Not
even works by Lessing, Goethe and Schiller, in early Modern German, are
published orthographically exactly as they had been originally written and
published; they are somewhat "cleaned up" for today's readers, as are
Shakespeare's Early Modern English works, and as are vast numbers of Danish
and Norwegian works that had been published prior to the spelling reforms of
the early 20th century.

> The cost of reform is just too high.

Higher than the cost of maintaining an outmoded system that requires
lifelong learning and enormous educational resources, and which (allegedly)
exacerbates the types of economic and educational problems and missed
opportunities that result from functional illiteracy, even among native
speakers of the language?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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