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From: shf@well.UUCP (Stuart H. Ferguson)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.cog-eng,sci.psychology
Subject: Re: Spelling and Perceptual Mode (was: Effects of poor writing?)
Message-ID: <11580@well.UUCP>
Date: 9 May 89 05:38:34 GMT
References: <39131@bbn.COM> <1982@trantor.harris-atd.com> <187@intek01.UUCP> <2670@puff.cs.wisc.edu> <131@minya.UUCP>
Reply-To: shf@well.UUCP (Stuart H. Ferguson)
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Organization: The Blue Planet
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+-- jc@minya.UUCP (John Chambers) writes:
| Not really; it's not much of a challenge at all.  In at least three of 
| the linguistics classes that I took, there were assignments to produce
| phonemic representations of English.  I did it rather differently each
| time.  ....
| If you were to get together a team of linguists to "solve" the problems
| of English spelling, they'd mostly get involved in a raging debate due
| to the fact that there are so many easy ways to do it, and no good way
| to select one.  If, by some fluke, they came up with a proposal, it
| would probably be so abstruse that nobody else could make head nor tail
| of it.

	 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.
-- 
		Stuart Ferguson		(shf@well.UUCP)
		Action by HAVOC