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?
1746. English, by the way is dated back to slightly prior to the first millennium, common era. So we enjoyed, roughly, 800 years without zealously "book-regularized" yet reckless phonetically spelling and spelling zealots, and have suffered only 250 or so years of these zealots of phonetically insane yet book-regularized spelling.
Count me with the "loosers" -- not totally, but we could use some serious realignment of many spellings.
Well said.
Actually I see their point. How much easier to teach a child to read in many other languages than English.
The Supreme Court and Politicians won't have to pay attention to the language of our Constitution. That document can finally “grow”.
There is a reason for holding to such traditions as our written language.
Why not jettison the Chinese alphabet instead?
There, their, they’re! Don’t be, bee too, to, two upset!
Well you’re right of course, it just seems a shame that phonetics is lost in a jungle of a randomly-evolved alphabet. Not to mention that written language would be far easier to learn and use if there was some organization to it.
Just introduce the Decabet (hey, it’s metric!) /obscure
For example, Spanish. That’s why virtually all of the illegal aliens here are literate </s>
Hangman!!! How DARE you? Halp, police! Someone has a noose, someone has a noose. Oh, the huge manatee.
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.
- Mark Twain's Autobiography
Are you series?
If anything, a better keyboard would be in order since we no longer have to worry about typewriter keys bashing into each other.
Makes me wonder if schools have a zero tolerance policy towards kids who take a sheet of paper out in study hall or at lunch and play hangman.
One of the things that amazed me when I took German was how almost every word is spelled exactly as it sounds.
I have a buddy who speaks three languages and competes in several adult spelling bees annually, and I asked him about this. He said that spelling bees are for the most part an English only event, since it wouldn't occur to non-English language speakers to make a contest out of spelling, since it is rarely challenging in any language other than English.
I don’t know about most celebrated. I think Jeopardy gets better ratings than the spelling bees.
This is simply not true. A large number of the children with learning disabilities that I work with have little to no phonics skills and are dependent upon the development of site word vocabulary to learn how to read and write. Using a phonics based system would not help, but would certainly hinder their progress.
This is simply not true. A large number of the children with learning disabilities that I work with have little to no phonics skills and are dependent upon the development of sight word vocabulary to learn how to read and write. Using a phonics based system would not help, but would certainly hinder their progress.
I’d hate to be the parent of a child who found this out the hard way. All it takes is for one child to observe the game in progress and claim they feel threatened, then it’s “Katie, bar the door!” And children are never vindictive, are they?
In her method, she used an entirely different form of notation based on numbers and dashes to represent fingers on the strings and length of notes. In fact, the method didn't even use any common musical terms. This was to be used for at least a year or more. By the time the students got to reading real musical notation, they had no idea what to do with it. My argument against that method is that if you are going to teach children some sort of notation, you should probably teach them the one the rest of the world uses.
As my former college adviser once said, "Kids are young. They aren't dumb."
We're dumbing down our society if we continue allowing the least common denominator to decide how we live.
Don’t get me wrong - I’m not jumping on this band wagon do “dumb-down” our way of spelling, but it is interesting how the human mind can read even horribly misspelled words, and do so quite efficiently.
This floated around the internet awhile back.
Cna yuo raed tihs?
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!
Why would someone want to destroy such a great and fascinating language?
National Spelling Bee Brings Out Protesters Who R Thru With Through
In the world of Architectural Drafting (construction blue prints) we've been using 'Thru' at least since the 1970's.
There isn't a lot of extra room on a 42"x30" print for notes so anything that can be abbreviated, is. This still holds true even with CAD. You can only make the font size so small before its useless in the field (construction site).
But for Formal / Proper use in English spelling .. fugetaboutit. (/s)
NO to Ebonics and NO to 'Thru'.
Please see Romalda Spalding’s “The Writing Road to Reading”. English is overwhelmingly phonetic if you are actually taught the phonemes and the phonograms that represent them. 70 phonograms (letters and letter combinations) and 30 usage and punctuation rules.
100 little facts and you can read, write, spell and speak the English language. Most people think English isn’t phonetic because they have never been taught the full code and the history behind it.
Instead they’ve learned a mishmash of various sight reading methods with a little bit of phonics and think spelling is impossible and illogical.
Miseducation at it’s best.
Mark Twain had a way of waiting until everyone was in bed and then farting under the covers. (So to speak...)
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