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Spelling "reforms" in English.

edited 2011-05-05 09:55:27 in General
[tɕagɛn]
They always look really, really stupid, and are just flat-out uneccessary. Seriously: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundSpel (on my Ipod (I found it!), can't hyperlink) Look at the examples section. That is some of the most retarded shit I've ever seen. It looks like the sloppy spelling of a first-grader. Never mind that ironically, it's harder to read than normal English orthography.
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Comments

  • I once saw one that unironically used "z" for plurals, like "wordz". At first, I thought they were joking.

    Anyway, if you want to reform spelling, this is what you should be REALLY using:


  • the fuck

    is that
  • I'll give you a hint: the first three words are "All human beings".
  • That's Don Zabu's script that he made, I think.  He's mentioned it a lot before.  Unless I'm thinking of a different troper.


  • No, that was me. I take delight in showing it to people who haven't seen it before, just for their utter confusion.
  • How does it work? I'm interested in knowing what sounds each grapheme means and what diacratics do to the letters.
  • edited 2011-05-05 11:11:08
    Tech support
    Ah spelling reforms, here is my favorite.

    For example, in Year 1 that useless letter c would be dropped to be replased either by k or s, and likewise x would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which c would be retained would be the ch formation, which will be dealt with later.

    Year 2 might reform w spelling, so that which and one would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish y replasing it with i and Iear 4 might fiks the g/j anomali wonse and for all.

    Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants.

    Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez c, y and x — bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez — tu riplais ch, sh, and th rispektivli.

    Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

    Mark Twain

  • You know, as silly as these spelling reforms look, you have to admit that they'd be perfectly normal to anyone who grew up being educated in them.
  • That is so ridicilous I'm convinced it's a parody,
  • It is, which is why I like it.
  • edited 2011-05-05 11:08:40
    ^^ The thing by Mark Twain?

    Um... yes.

    The fact that it's by Mark Twain should have given it away.
  • I dunno, didn't he write a horrendously and serious lambasting of German?
  • Actually, there's some question as to whether or Mark Twain actually did write that piece:

    http://www.englishspellingsociety.org/journals/j31/satires.php
  • If you guys had grown up with these reformed spellings, you wouldn't find them ridiculous. The only reason you see our spelling as being anywhere close to okay is because you've used it your whole life.

    I imagine non native speakers feel differently.
  • Yeah, well their languages have all that wierd grammar shit! So it's even!


    /tongue-in-cheek

  • He who laments and can't let go of the past is forever doomed to solitude.
    English is a convulted mess. And spanish grammar is not weird, quite the opposite, it is something english grammar is not: consistent. Also, orthography dictates pronounciation too.
  • You can change. You can.
    Hush, vandro, you might explode their brains...
  • edited 2011-05-05 22:29:03
    [tɕagɛn]
    "And spanish grammar is not weird, quite the opposite, it is something english grammar is not: consistent."

    Not counting the orthpgraphy, English has some rather simple grammar rules.

    Incredibly light verb conjugation (before you bring up stuff like "sing/sang/sung", that's a feature of Germanic Languages in general) Use of word order to indicate grammatical case. Many plurals are formed the same way: adding an "s", when German, to name an example, has over 10 different ways of forming plurals.

    In Spanish, on the other hand, a verb can be said over 2000 different ways.

    Enough said.
  • Oh, here we go again...

    Chagen: English sucks. Get over it.
  • OOOooooOoOoOOoo, I'm a ghoOooOooOOOost!
    Not counting the orthpgraphy, English has some rather simple grammar rules.

    The rules are simple, but nothing follows them.
  • INUH: Blame that on the speakers and not the language.

    CA: Sorry, but English is the greatest language to ever exist.
  • Sorry, but English is the greatest language to ever exist.
    *dies laughing*
  • He who laments and can't let go of the past is forever doomed to solitude.
    Sorry, there is no future tense, no conditional tense, and all that.

    Do you know why spanish has 2000 ways of expressing a verb? Because subjects are unnecessary.
  • A handful of redundant letters are the least of the language's problems.
  • edited 2011-05-05 22:45:02
    OOOooooOoOoOOoo, I'm a ghoOooOooOOOost!
    @Chagen:Wait, so you're saying that...English would be a great language if the people who speak it hadn't caused it to evolve in the way it had? Because that's pretty much just saying "English would be great were it a different language."
  • You can change. You can.
    "In Spanish, on the other hand, a verb can be said over 2000 different ways."

    Oh, people overrate conjugation's difficulty. Irregular verps are not that different from English's Irregular verbs.

    Besides, both vandro and me speak both languages fluently (Or at least write them) if anything, I think we can safely say that we're right.
  • edited 2011-05-05 22:47:20
    ^^ Well, that's not really necessarily a false statement...
  • edited 2011-05-05 22:49:40
    [tɕagɛn]
    Gee, for hating this innocent Germanic language so much, you sure fucking don't mind speaking it, considering that doing it right now.

    The fucking hypocrisy.

    Also, Spanish is a shit language, Italian and French are way better.
  • OOOooooOoOoOOoo, I'm a ghoOooOooOOOost!
    Gee, for hating this innocent Germanic language so much, you sure fucking don't mind speaking it, considering that doing it right now.

    The fucking hypocrisy.

    Not sure if serious.
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