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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: More Rational English Spelling
Message-ID: <1516@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 6-Apr-85 14:51:30 EST
Article-I.D.: dciem.1516
Posted: Sat Apr  6 14:51:30 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 6-Apr-85 16:11:01 EST
References: <houxl.696>
Reply-To: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 23
Summary: 


>3. Piypl ar snobz abawt speliq, xowz hu no haw layk tu lord it ovr xa
>rest av as.

For the same reason, the civil service (mandarins?) at King SeiJong's
court fought hard against the adoption of Hangul in Korea.  The King's
reason for developing this rational alphabet was to make it possible
for the common people to communicate with him, rather than having to
go through the intermediary of someone literate in Chinese character
writing.  After his death, they more or less scuttled Hangul, which
was revived only since WWII (it formed a kind of underground writing
during the Japanese occupation, but was hardly used in Korea between
the 15th century and the 20th).

But in respect of modified spelling and snobbery, a bigger problem is
that it is hard for people to learn new things, and those that do know
something about current spelling practices would be in difficulties
with a new system, no matter how rational it might seem.
-- 

Martin Taylor
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