LL-L "Orthography" 2010.06.03 (03) [EN]

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*L O W L A N D S - L - 03 June 2010 - Volume 03*
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>

Subject: Orthography

Dear Lowlanders,

Uh-oh! "Orthography" coming out of the woodwork again ...

For the information of those of you that are not familiar with this American
institution, a “spelling bee” is a spelling contest for primary and
secondary students.

Below is an article published by MSNBC today (
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37496186/ns/us_news-life/).

I particularly enjoyed the part about bee costumes.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA
Spelling bee protesters? Believe it Demonstrators want English language
spelling simplified

By LAUREN SAUSSER

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The nation’s capital always draws its share of protesters,
picketing for causes ranging from health care reform to immigration policy.

But spelling bee protesters? They’re out here, too.

Four peaceful protesters, some dressed in full-length black and yellow bee
costumes, represented the American Literacy Council and the London-based
Spelling Society and stood outside the Grand Hyatt on Thursday, where the
Scripps National Spelling Bee is being held. Their message was short:
Simplify the way we spell words.

Roberta Mahoney, 81, a former Fairfax County, Va. elementary school
principal, said the current language obstructs 40 percent of the population
from learning how to read, write and spell.

“Our alphabet has 425-plus ways of putting words together in illogical
ways,” Mahoney said.

The protesting cohort distributed pins to willing passers-by with their
logo, “Enuf is enuf. Enough is too much.”

According to literature distributed by the group, it makes more sense for
“fruit” to be spelled as “froot,” “slow” should be “slo,” and “heifer” — a
word spelled correctly during the first oral round of the bee Thursday by
Texas competitor Ramesh Ghanta — should be “hefer.”

Meanwhile, inside the hotel’s Independence Ballroom, 273 spellers celebrated
the complexity of the language in all its glory, correctly spelling words
like zaibatsu, vibrissae and biauriculate.

While the protesters could make headway with cell phone texters who
routinely swap “u” for “you” and “gr8” for “great,” their message may be a
harder sell for the Scripps crowd.

Mahoney had trouble gaining traction with at least one bee attendee. New
Mexico resident Matthew Evans, 15, a former speller whose sister is
participating in the bee this year, reasoned with her that if English
spellings were changed, spelling bees would cease to exist.

“If a dictionary lists ‘enough’ as ‘enuf,’ the spelling bee goes by the
dictionary, therefore all the spelling words are easier to spell, so the
spelling bee is gone,” Evans said.

“Well,” Mahoney replied, “they could pick their own dictionary.”



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