Real alphabet for English?

http://bearfabrique.org/EnglishAlphabet/English_Alphabet.htm ^

[dfwgator]

Well, "ä," "ö," and "ü" were originally digraphs ("ae," "oe," and "ue"), until the trailing "e" was reduced in size and move atop the leading vowel, where it eventually degenerated into the "Umlaut."

So tonight, we'll split a schnitzel... and start on the German lessons again.

We should. You must be getting rusty.

We'll just have to work at it twice as hard from now on. Das ist gut?

Sehr gut.

And the first thing we're gonna do is brush up on the umlaut.

Das ist wunderbar.

[RansomOttawa]

If English is to be the international language of business and commerce

As opposed to the present Latin?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Lemme ax you how you noticed dat?

Iza lisnen to some songs...Soul an Blues...and dat shit was gitten all up in my ears an stuff.
Yo, I mean...it like shizzled my dizzle. A'ight?

[varmintman]

And after generations are taught the simplified spelling will they be able to read older books or will they be lost to the general culture or treated as mere quaint poems and prose like Chaucer’s works?

Older works will be converted. Then they'll be easier to read...

[varmintman]

I don’t get it. Why would we need letters for sounds that don’t exist in English (Spanish N~, trilling R, etc.)? None of the major languages have separate letters for trilling Rs and English-style Rs.

My own taste would be to include two or three kinds of things, Spanish N and umlauted German vowels which don't exist in English but which are commonly encountered. Obviously no one person could enforce such a thing and some major group effort would have to be involved. The alphabet suggested here is just that, a suggestion.

[varmintman]

If English is to be the international language of business and commerce

It pretty much is already

I might should have used the word "remain" rather than "be"...

[varmintman]

In the third year, publik akseptanse...

Why the 'e' on 'akseptans??

[varmintman]

Just need to punch up the spelling of Shakespeare a bit: “2 B or not 2 B, that is the question”

You'd still want a hard E (with the line over it) for 'be'.