Posted on 05/30/2008 7:29:11 AM PDT by MissouriConservative
A fyoo duhzen ambishuhss intelectchooals, a handful ov British skool teechers and wuhn rokit siuhntist ar triing to chang the way we spel.
They are the leaders of the spelling-reform movement, a passionate but sporadic 800-year-old campaign to simplify English orthography. In its long and failure-ridden history, the movement has tried to convince an indifferent public of the need for a spelling system based on pronunciation.
Reformers, including Mark Twain, Charles Darwin and Theodore Roosevelt, argued that phonetic spellings would make it easier for children, foreigners and adults with learning disabilities to read and write. For centuries, few listened, and the movement, exhausted by its own rhetoric and disputes within its ranks, sputtered out. It's back.
Spelling reform is currently enjoying a renaissance in the U.S. and Britain. At a time when young people are inventing their own shorthand for email and text messages, the reformers see a fresh opportunity 2 convert people 2 the cause.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Oh good grief.
What a bunch of loosers.
this iz stoopid
ZOMG we all be teh 1337 h4x0rz nao.
I no, but what can u do? May b 2moro we can adobt ebonics.
The spelen be - wat a bncha loozers-—its consept an it’s roolz ar soooo laik over.
On a side note, I find it sad that in this era of global economic competitiveness, where better and better jobs are being lost overseas, that the most celebrated intellectual competition in the US is a spelling bee.
How quaint.
4realz
I could not agree more. One would think that engineering or science competitions would get the nod, but, alas, it is not to be.
Jobs aren’t being lost overseas because they are smarter. They are dumber but work cheaper. So cheap they can hire two people to do the job of one American worker and still save money. Plus no benefits package.
Spelling phonetically introduces all sorts of problems into the written language such as phonetic “accents” and slang pronunciations. It’s hard enough to understand everyone in our society as it is, to further dumb things down on a written level as well is not a good idea.
A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling
by Mark Twain
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.
Poor kid...She was leaving out all the vowels. We played "hangman" until she learned to "go for the vowels"! It worked. Silly simple game...a game MY TEACHER used when I was little.
My grandson learned Math from playing monopoly....and good sportmanship. He now backs off playing games with grandma....so he doesn't hurt my feelings. He refers to himself as "King Anthony" since he always beats me in checkers.
Those numbers ARE part of the title. Copyright and all.
And the other product of "Hollywood", pop music, also plays, er playz dis gaym with band and song names like Twizted, Linkin Park, and "creative" spelling of a name like Antoine as Antwon.
I'd just take a red pen to such spellings and write "See Me" in a red circle at the top of the page.
And they cite Mark Twain as a REFORMER? Sounds like he was making fun of their foolish notion.
“Jobs aren’t being lost overseas because they are smarter. They are dumber but work cheaper.”
Certainly in the short run the cheap labor argument wins the day. However, in the long run, before those jobs went overseas, they were, by and large, created here first. And they were created here generally by someone who was trained and gifted in math, science, medicine, and/or business.
I can’t think of any meaningful job that was created primarily on the basis that they could spell well.
Would spell check just go “random” and toggle between any of the 18 acceptable spelling of wurds?
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