[snippy_about_it]

Look, our language is primarily contextual so there's absolutely no problem for any person who knows English to determine the meaning of those words no matter how they are spelled.

The written language should follow spoken usage.

That's absurd. We must not only know how to speak, we must know how to read and write the language. Do you know how to diagram a sentence? I can't believe you would suggest we take no care in spelling correctly words such as there, their and they're. Should I suppose you were also in agreement with the idea of teaching Ebonics? The dumbing down of Americans continues.

[muawiyah]

Sure, I can diagram sentences, but that makes sense if and only if you are not working with an isolating or analytic language where WORD ORDER is vital.

English grew out of an older "synthetic" group of languages, but in modern times it's become much more like Chinese and Chinese-like languages.

Now, regarding "spelling", if a single spelling can handle the requirements for guiding the pronunciation of several words, that single spelling can easily be handled in English. Word order will tell the listener or reader what part of speech controls its meaning.

"Their" and "They're" are, in fact,both personal pronouns, and irrespective of their different meanings, there's really no purpose served in reserving two different spellings for them.

Now, how many conjugations and declensions in Latvian have you memorized this year ~ 20 perhaps, or maybe 35 ~ or more! Now those people need to use sentence diagraming just to figure out what they said.