English spelling reform for non-native speakers

Amabo   Sun Jul 05, 2009 2:41 pm GMT
Spellng reform = ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...

Please, enough already.
cnablis   Sun Jul 05, 2009 4:58 pm GMT
<< I always surprise when I heard about "american accent" or "british accent", for me they sound alike. I can't heard the difference. They just speak english for me. >>

So you can't tell the difference between the accent in these 4 clips?


English accent:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMbeVQj6Lw

Scottish accent:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMbeVQj6Lw

American accents:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMbeVQj6Lw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMbeVQj6Lw
cnablis   Sun Jul 05, 2009 5:02 pm GMT
Let't try this again with 4 different videos:

<< I always surprise when I heard about "american accent" or "british accent", for me they sound alike. I can't heard the difference. They just speak english for me. >>

So you can't tell the difference between the accent in these 4 clips?


English accent:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB4Lke_Znbk

Scottish accent:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v1jmVvF4gM

American accents:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMbeVQj6Lw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGcWNI6TyXg
guillaume   Sun Jul 05, 2009 5:50 pm GMT
Travis

Globish is just a simplified english, I will never be fluent in english, and I don't wish to be fluent in english, I just need to be understand by chinese or japonese people. They don't speak english fluently too but I don't care, we understand each others, it's the goal and it's enough, so I stay with globish.
guillaume   Sun Jul 05, 2009 6:00 pm GMT
cnablis

I can heard some differences, yes, but it's weird because I only understand the first video with american accent, and for the two first (english and scottish accents) and the last one (the second american accent) I have difficulties in understanding what they say.
cnablis   Mon Jul 06, 2009 12:27 am GMT
<< but it's weird because I only understand the first video with american accent, and for the two first (english and scottish accents) and the last one (the second american accent) I have difficulties in understanding what they say. >>

I can only understand the first US accent (one of the most famous sound bytes of our era), and the English one (which is a classical, old-fashioned accent, and much easier to understand than modern UK ones). The Scottish video is 99% unintelligible, even with the subtitles, and the 2nd US accent is perhaps 97% unintelligible.

But there are definitely big differences in the accents, esepcially the unintelligible ones.
Outlander   Mon Jul 06, 2009 3:44 pm GMT
It is easy to hear that accents sounding like JR in Dallas are American.

But accents like Jerry Seinfeld's I might be uncertain of.

Seinfeld:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FIpLWUT3yw
Really Why?   Mon Jul 06, 2009 9:53 pm GMT
If Americans would like their own language I suggest they call it American and leave English to Brits and the rest of the world who know how to use it and don't butcher it with their lazy spellings and lack of heritage of origin.
blanc   Mon Jul 06, 2009 10:46 pm GMT
<<nd leave English to Brits and the rest of the world who know how to use it >>


LOL!
babakha   Fri Jul 10, 2009 3:58 am GMT
"Amabo Sun Jul 05, 2009 2:41 pm GMT
Spellng reform = ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...

Please, enough already. "


Not enough for non-native speakers.

We want a new orthography of English
a new writing form which is not irrelevant to their pronunciation. OK?
wew2   Fri Jul 10, 2009 3:59 am GMT
Maybe English should abandon Latin alphabets and adopt Rune script. Then it will work and beside for the benefit of preserving so-called "culture" and "tradition"
111   Fri Jul 10, 2009 4:03 am GMT
Don't destroy our non-native speakers' right for creating a new orthography of English.

We need a new English spelling form and it's our right to do it.

So, please those native speakers and those who pretend to be "non-native speakers" let us alone. OK?
Globish   Fri Jul 10, 2009 4:12 am GMT
Exactly. Non-native speakers need to reform English spelling. If the natives don't agree, too bad for them, just don't allow any books into the country unless they've been 'transliterated' into the new spelling. Also, it won't be difficult to carry out the reform as we , as non-natives, don't have any emotional conenction to the language and hence there is none of the political correct dialect-favouring issue. We will just vote and choose and that's that. No one will get very upset because to us it is just a bland techo-language.
Travis   Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:03 am GMT
Oh please. Either you are trolling or are simply delusional here in thinking that any orthographic reform for English would succeed without massive support in at least the US or the UK...
loxahatchee luke   Fri Jul 10, 2009 10:35 am GMT
Given that the spelling differences between the US and UK are fairly minor (unlike pronounciation differences), shouldn't we really be talking about pronunciation reform here? Words would just be pronounced as they are spelled. Non-native speakers could lead the way. Maybe the natives would eventually come around, and everyone would pronounce English the same way, leading to the end of all these mutually unintelligible dialects that we currently have?

In a similar way, perhaps non-native speakers would lead the way with grammar and syntax reform? Of course, it's unclear whether or not we have a real problem with widely divergent grammar among native speakers across the globe.