Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!me!radio.astro!helios!utpsych!raymond
From: raymond@utpsych.toronto.edu (Raymond Shaw)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.cog-eng,sci.psychology
Subject: Re: Spelling and Perceptual Mode (was: Effects of poor writing?)
Summary: Why we should leave English Orthography alone
Keywords: GB Shaw, orthography
Message-ID: <1989May10.211236.19705@utpsych.toronto.edu>
Date: 10 May 89 21:12:36 GMT
References: <39131@bbn.COM> <1982@trantor.harris-atd.com> <187@intek01.UUCP> <2670@puff.cs.wisc.edu> <131@minya.UUCP> <11580@well.UUCP>
Reply-To: raymond@psych.toronto.edu (Raymond Shaw)
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Organization: Psychology, U. of Toronto
Lines: 49
Xref: utzoo sci.lang:4494 comp.cog-eng:1098 sci.psychology:1830

In article <11580@well.UUCP> shf@well.UUCP (Stuart H. Ferguson) writes:
>+-- jc@minya.UUCP (John Chambers) writes:
>| 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
> [... much deleted ...]
>	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

George Bernard Shaw made some similar proposals some years later, and
I believe that he was much more serious about it.  The one good thing
about the Russian revolution is that they reformed the Russian orthography
so that it is now straightforward to spell/read Russian words.  If you
can pronounce a word in Russian, you can spell it.  When I was in college,
there was a clever, humorous article that claimed that this gave the Russians
a real advantage over us; they didn't have to waste time studying spelling
like the American kids. 

The thing to remember about all of this nonsense about reforming orthography
is that English is comprised of words from many other languages, and the
spelling of many of the words remains little changed from the original.
The beauty of this is that intelligent people (go ahead, flame me on this
one, I'm looking forward to it), that's right, I said it, INTELLIGENT people
can look at a word they don't know, and make logical guesses about the meaning
of the word, because of its spelling, which reflects the original language.

For example, take the two words threw and through.  Clearly, these are from
different root words in their original languages, and this information
would be lost if spelling reformers got their hands on them.  So, as awkward
as English orthography may be, it's best to leave it.

Finally, if you want to change spelling so that it matches pronunciation,
on whose pronunciation would you base it?  The Queen, or the people of
Queens (NY)?  Ok, so that's extreme... here in Canada, the last syllable
of Nissan (the car company) rhymes with "man," not "on."

Think about it.

-Ray Shaw
raymond@psych.toronto.edu