English spelling reform for non-native speakers

Message to non-native English speakers:

While we're at it, can we tinker with your native languages too?

For example, I'm fed up with the funny-looking writing systems and weird alphabets many of you use.

Can't you change them all to Roman lettering?

Thanks.

<<Message to non-native English speakers:

While we're at it, can we tinker with your native languages too?

For example, I'm fed up with the funny-looking writing systems and weird alphabets many of you use.

Can't you change them all to Roman lettering?

Thanks.>>



Yes, but you have to be the majority first.

''... 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, ...''

... and Big Brother will be watching you.

''... leading to the end of all these mutually unintelligible dialects that we currently have?''

Do we currently have mutually unintelligible dialects of English?

''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.''

Naive you, do you really believe in what you're writing? The purpose of that forum is to learn proper English, not to fantasize about how to rape it.

''Non-native speakers could lead the way.''

We already have had enough leaders!

>>Do we currently have mutually unintelligible dialects of English?<<

Actually, yes, once one considers things like many rural English English dialects. (Many of these I would call no closer to Standard English than Scots...) And even excluding English English, I have found some dialects here in North America *quite* hard to understand if not unintelligible, such as Tidewater and even the AAVE spoken right here (when spoken between actual AAVE-speakers)...

I can understand the Virginia Tidewater and the Georgian Tidewater, but Travis may be a spy as I heard his dialect and remain genuinely baffled by it.

>>I can understand the Virginia Tidewater and the Georgian Tidewater, but Travis may be a spy as I heard his dialect and remain genuinely baffled by it.<<

We up here just do not get as much attention to how we speak as, say, Southerners or New Englanders, so when people hear more extreme idiolects from here, well, it is common for them to just not know what to make of it...

But yeah, even I myself am quite amazed by just how far more progressive idiolects of the dialect here have gotten from General American... and how quickly, too, since more conservative idiolects here are not that far from GA either.

<<For example, I'm fed up with the funny-looking writing systems and weird alphabets many of you use.>>

There are to few letters in English to express all sounds used, so I suggest we incorporate some 'funny-looking' letters from the 'weird alphabets' into the new English writing system.

There are no more keys left on the typewriter.

I'm sorry but this all seems quite silly to me. Why on earth should native English speakers augment their writing system in order to make it easier for foreigners to learn the language? Its lunacy!

And even if we were to make it more based on phonetics, who's phonetics would we be using, exactly? Which accents would be deemed "suitable" to be used as the template? General American? Recieved Pronunciation? Broad Australian, perhaps?

I say just leave the language as it is and let it develop naturally, as it has for the last two millenia. I learned how to spell more or less adequately, so why reform the entire language to please people who can't even speak it?

<<There are no more keys left on the typewriter.>>

Other languages have managed to adapt the keyboard:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout

There are also some unnecessary letters which could be replaced: Q, Y, X, C.

<<And even if we were to make it more based on phonetics, who's phonetics would we be using, exactly?>>

We could use the pronunciation of some specially chosen person. We could vote about who it should be.

<<I'm sorry but this all seems quite silly to me. Why on earth should native English speakers augment their writing system in order to make it easier for foreigners to learn the language? Its lunacy!>>


You're missing the point. Of course NATIVE speakers aren't going to do it. The point is that NON-native speakers might change English in order to make it easier for THEMSELVES to learn the language.
Don't forget that it's predicted that in the future 3 billion people will know English. 2.5 billion non-natives vs 500 million natives, who will be calling the shots? Not to mention that English speaking countries are declining in importance.

<< You're missing the point. Of course NATIVE speakers aren't going to do it. The point is that NON-native speakers might change English in order to make it easier for THEMSELVES to learn the language.>>

But that doesnt make sense. If non-natives are learning the language, why change it to a variety that the natives cannot understand if they need to communicate with them in the first place?

And yes, perhaps non-native speakers will outnumber native speakers some day. But if English-speaking nations are allegedly declining in importance, then why would there be masses of people even bothering to learn the language at all?

Even if non-natives will outnumber natives someday, speakers will still try to adopt a model of english which is reflective of a the native speech of an established English-speaking nation. Look at India, for example. A very minute percentage of the population speaks English as a mother tongue, but for those who are anglophone as a second or third language, they use a model which is closer to an establish standard, whether that be British or American. The majority of the Francophone population worldwide is already made up of non-native speakers, whether they be of African, Caribbean or other European or Middle Eastern decent, and yet the model for learning the language has firmly remained based on the speech of Paris.

<<
And yes, perhaps non-native speakers will outnumber native speakers some day. But if English-speaking nations are allegedly declining in importance, then why would there be masses of people even bothering to learn the language at all?>>


As the language of international communication. Remember Latin? It was used right up until the 1700s for technical writing, used by people like Isaac Newton. By that time, it waas long dead as a spoken language.
The decline of English speaking nations would probably even increase the use of English, as it would become even more 'neutral' and 'acceptable' by the world.