Spelling reform
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Do you think the spelling of English will ever be reformed, I once got this example
offf a website on spelling reform this was their alphabet.
Short vowels a-short vowel sound in cat, mat, bag. e-short vowel sound in bed, egg, ten, dead, get, many. i-short vowel sound in bid, bit, pit, hint, fish. o-short vowel sound in cot, hot, dot, wash, father, tot, caught, shot. u-short vowel sound in cut, hut, hug, son, ton, honey, money, alike. Long vowels ae-long vowel sound in plate, late, bait. ee-long vowel sound in speed, meat, read, field, ie-long vowel sound in spider, wide, fly, cry, light. oe-long vowel sound in boat, coast, post, ghost. ue-long vowel sound in few, mute, beautiful. Two letter sounds Oi- boy, toy, coin, join. oo-two, who, tutu, suit, super, moon, new, boot, rude. ou-cow, how, wow, brown, mount. uu-cook, should, would, wood. book R vowel sounds. ar-car, Mars, tar, far, star. er-care, air, hair, very, hairy, marry, terror. eer-steer, hear, beer, pier. or-four, core, corn, for, your, ford, poor cord, tour, torn. our-flower, sour, flour, shower, our, tower. ur-burn, girl, learn, Earth, curve, sure, butter, burger. Consonants b-bag ch-chin d-dog f-free g-get never in words like gym. h-height never silent j-jet k-kite, cat. l-lick m-might n-night ng-finger, sing, thing, stung for words like think and tank, the g is left out. p-plane q-not used r-rust s-stove, sit sh-ship, hush t-tiger th-thing, that v-vehicle w-wing, when x-not used y-yes never in words like fly or happy. z-zag zh-vision |
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They also had the idea of respelling the consonants without appostrophies. I don't
think this is a very good idea.
can't-kant don't-doent doesn't-duzunt wasn't-wuzunt weren't-wurnt shouldn't-shuudunt isn't-izunt you're-yor we're-weer they're-ther he's-heez she's-sheez |
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they respelled some of the words that end in a short vowel sound.
nah-na short a yeah=ye short e pa=po duh=du some of the words that end in a long vowel sound. hey=hae he=hee high=hie ho=hoe hew=hue |
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For anyone who missed the first version of this thread have a look here:
http://www.antimoon.com/forum/2003/3358.htm I came up with a dozen objections to their system. You'll see them if you click on the link above (2nd post). Since I made these objections Richard has clarified a few things and I have only ten left (numbers 4 and 12 no longer hold). The problems I have with their system basically centre on the fact that they've based it entirely on their own accent completely ignoring the wide variety of accents out there. How could they expect their system to be accepted by those of us for whom it just doesn't work? I don't think that you should trust any spelling reformers who don't know what a diphthong is. Their definitions of "short vowel", "long vowel" and "two letter sound" are straight out of kindergarten. The vowel in "plate", "late" & "bait" is not a long vowel but a diphthong. The vowel in "wide", "fly", "cry" & "light" is not a long vowel either, it's a diphthong. The vowel in "boat", "coast", "post" & "ghost" is a diphthong not long vowels. The vowels in "boy", "coin", "brown" & "mount" are diphthongs too. The vowel in "two", "who", "moon" & "boot", on the other hand, is a long vowel but the vowel in "cook", "should", "would" & "wood" is short. And they've called the "ew" in "few" and the "eau" in "beautiful" a long vowel: it's not, it's a consonant followed by a long vowel. |
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| Yeah, I guess they don't know what a diphthong is. They use ''long vowel'' to describe a vowel that says it's name. |
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| In this spelling reform, double letters are only used when the sound is repeated. they reformed ''bus stop as ''busstop'', ''threshold'' as ''threshhoeld'' and ''bookkeeper'' as ''buukkeepur''. They don't double the ''g'' in finger and singular, they spell them ''fingur'' and singuelur''. |
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| They make three new words for ''used to'', ''have to'' and ''has to''. ''uestoo'', ''haftoo'', and ''hastoo''. Wood is used to make furniture. Wuud iz uezd too maek furnichur. I used to make furniture with wood. Ie uestoo maek furnichur with wuud. |
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| I think the language works just fine. Why do some of you want to change it? |
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| Yeah, if English spellings were ever reformed it would look crazy. |
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| In that spelling reform they, made a new rule, just like the a/an rule. They made a thu/thee rule. ''thu'' before a consonant and ''thee'' before a vowel. |
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| People often call the sounds in bit and bite, short-I and long-I. |
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| Those people don't understand basic phonetics and are therefore not qualified to go about reforming the spelling of the English language. |
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They had a list of reformed number names.
One=wun two=too three=three four=for five=fiev six=siks seven=sevun eight=aet nine=nien ten=ten eleven=eelevun syllables ee-lev-un twelve-twelv thirteen=thurteen fourteen=forteen fifteen=fifteen sixteen=siksteen eighteen=aeteen ninety=nienteen twenty=twuntee thirty=thurtee forty=fortee fifty=fiftee sixty=sikstee seventy=sevuntee eighty=aetee ninety=nientee hundred=hundrid thousand=thouzund million=milyun billion=bilyun trillion=trilyun They respell ''one hundred'' as wunhundrid. |
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| There are a lot of different spelling reforms such as Truespel, Fanetiks, and Neytoe Inglish. Each one of them is a little different. |
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They also ''respelled'' the and/or as ''andor'' that would look crazy.
They don't use any consonants in the vowel sounds, they respell ow and oy as ''ou'' and ''oi''. |