Spelling-Reform

[ilikeverin]

Yess, uvv corse, like most lingwists.  Fore wunn, itt woodd deecrees dhuh prevulens uvv dislekkseea.

No, but really, dyslexia is much more rare of a diagnosis in countries that have a sensible orthography.  There's no reason why English should have to struggle with a terrible system that we've perpetuated for no apparent reason when we could at the very least get rid of "ough" and disambiguate the two types of "th"

Really? I thought it was the other way around--I know many dyslexics have a much easier time reading Chinese characters than the Latin Alphabet at least.

It's also lower in, say, Italian- or Spanish-speaking countries.  English is just in an awkward place where you can't memorize every word as a separate character but you also can't use comprehensible and easy rules to reason out what a word sounds like when you see it.

[Хahar 🤔]

redneck/ghetto children

Shut up.

[Oakvale]

gangstas from some hood?

[Simfan34]

No, because the result tends to look like the output of a stupid five year old. This is the biggest problem- it "looks dumb".

[Oak Hills]

Just to be clear, I was thinking of some moderate changes to be implemented by individuals to change the most illogical of spelling thru linguistic evolution.  I do oppose some central authority deciding what the "correct" spellings ar and forcing everyone to comply.  I just think it's crazy to freeze the spellings at what some dictionary-editor arbitrarily decided to use in the aiteenth century.

Howevr, it can be fun tu rite in wierd-looking Inglish.

[Oak Hills]

Also, some food for thought, curtesy of Wikipedia:

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-language_spelling_reform#Undoing_the_damage

Spellings hav always changed, and it is quite silly to insist on current standards.  Nothing "utopian" about it.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Ah, yes. That old classic: if your argument is suddenly in a lot more trouble than anticipated, accuse your opponents of standing for something absurd that they do not in fact actually support.

[politicus]

I do oppose some central authority deciding what the "correct" spellings are and forcing everyone to comply.

That is the normal way to regulate written languages and the absence of such an institution is one of the main reasons English spelling is so conservative.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

     British English and American English will probably split into different languages eventually as they maintain separate spheres of influence. While I don't see the need to accelerate it for some utopian project, splitting the language might in fact be a pragmatic change.

Without first phonographs, then talking movies, then television, and now the internet, American and Britannic might well have evolved into separate languages.  But we're too well integrated now and local dialects are fading.

[Insula Dei]

Fact: noone now reads Dutch literature prior to the Havelaar (and very few people read any pre-WWII literature at all.)

[RFayette 🇻🇦]

This reminds me of how some professors argue against redneck/ghetto children having to learn proper English because that's "their" dialect, yet their argument is written in perfectly precise, pedantic, academic English.

The reality is that people take you more seriously if you use standard English.  End of story.

Did it perhaps occur to you that that may be the profs' native dialect?

Yes, but it is rather ironic that one uses the most formal writing possible to justify the promotion of a very non-rule-centric form of English.

I apologize for the terms "ghetto/redneck."  I was using them to refer to dialects of English; my point was that both dialects can put one at a disadvantage in the workplace or in academic settings due to perceived negative stereotypes.  It's not a great thing, but it is the way things are; as such, I don't think we should be encouraging "free grammar" or "loose English" while at the same time adhering to every grammatical convention.  To me, that's hypocrisy.

Also, while you could argue it's the prof's "native dialect," it also happens to be the standard dialect, one that could be used in any American institution and be clearly understood.   

[Associate Justice PiT]

     British English and American English will probably split into different languages eventually as they maintain separate spheres of influence. While I don't see the need to accelerate it for some utopian project, splitting the language might in fact be a pragmatic change.

Without first phonographs, then talking movies, then television, and now the internet, American and Britannic might well have evolved into separate languages.  But we're too well integrated now and local dialects are fading.

     Except that American and Britannic are very different things to this day. I've tried listening to Englishmen from outside of London; they're nearly unintelligible. Nevermind differences in usage, which constitute a lot of the distinctions that exist between languages. We Americans know a vehicle with a flat bed or a trailer as a "truck", not a "lorry" like our friends across the pond.

     While the advent of the internet may slow down the rate at which these things evolve separately, it would take a long time to erase the differences that already exist.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

     British English and American English will probably split into different languages eventually as they maintain separate spheres of influence. While I don't see the need to accelerate it for some utopian project, splitting the language might in fact be a pragmatic change.

Without first phonographs, then talking movies, then television, and now the internet, American and Britannic might well have evolved into separate languages.  But we're too well integrated now and local dialects are fading.

     Except that American and Britannic are very different things to this day. I've tried listening to Englishmen from outside of London; they're nearly unintelligible. Nevermind differences in usage, which constitute a lot of the distinctions that exist between languages. We Americans know a vehicle with a flat bed or a trailer as a "truck", not a "lorry" like our friends across the pond.

     While the advent of the internet may slow down the rate at which these things evolve separately, it would take a long time to erase the differences that already exist.

You overestimate the vocabulary problem.  Unlike most languages, English has a rich tradition of synonyms.