LL-L "Orthography" 2005.09.28 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 28.SEP.2005 (05) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Mark Williamson <node.ue at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Orthography" 2005.09.26 (09) [E/Irish]

Actually, along with the basic and obvious rules of English spelling
(ie, that nearly all consonant letters can make only one sound, if,
that is, you count digraphs as letters: "ph", "ch", "sh" can usually
only make one sound, and the two sounds made by "th" have almost no
minimal pairs in most English dialects), a list of about 50 rules can
give the correct pronunciation of a word 93.5% of the time (based on a
list of 5000 words, presumably a much longer frequency-weighted list
would have slightly different results).

Mark

> Scríobh ár Isaac:
>
> > Tá claonadh agam aontú.
> > I tend to agree.
>
> Me too.  I remember how the Irish and Scottish orthographies used to 
> mystify
> me.  Once I understood the principles it became abundantly clear that 
> there
> are actual systems (unlike in certain other languages that shall remain
> nameless ...), and that they allow the learner to pronounce words 
> correctly
> in most cases.  In most cases, the learner is able to spell correctly if
> given dictations, without necessarily having previously learned the 
> spelling
> of each word.  The systems are just different, use different devices, from
> those of orthographies for Germanic languages.  There are "extra" vowel
> signs that are not pronounced, just signal if a syllable belongs to the
> "slender" (palatal) or "broad" (non-palatal) category.
>
> Slán go fóill!
>
> Reinhard/Ron
> ___
> "A rud is annamh is iontach."
> (That which is strange is wonderful.)

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