wuts up with theez craezee spelingz?

[A.B. Normal 65]

heer ahr a fue trudishunl spelingz that just doent maek sens too mee:

how and cow vs. flow and crow
blue vs. hue
good vs. food
cough vs. through
physician
pique
school
how about bow (rhymes with cow), bow (rhymes with throw), and bough?
xenophobe

english reelee iz mesd up iznt it?

consider the foloeing revizhunz:

wen "gh" oer "ph" ahr supoezd too sound liek "f" just uez "f" insted,
wen letrz ahr supoezd too bee sielent just drop them (?!), uez
consistent letrz and letr combinaeshunz too reprezent given soundz, if
"ch" oer "que" sound liek "k" just use "k", if "x" oer "s" soundz liek
a "z" just use a "z"! Wow, how eezee wuhd english speling beekum too
lern? heerz the wae the werdz abuv miet look if the abuv roolz ahr
aplied:

blue > bloo
hue staez hue (union > uenyun)
good > guhd
food staez food
cough > cof
through > throo
physician > fizishun (thats a kool wun, eh?)
pique > peek
school > skool
bow staez bow (riemz with kow)
bow (riemz with throe) > boe
bough > bow
xenophobe > zenufoeb

[Iain]

Post by A.B. Normal 65
how and cow vs. flow and crow
blue vs. hue

Why is this in in here? The ending is slightly different I suppose,
but this takes care of itself since "blyoo" is awkward to pronounce
compared to "blue".

Post by A.B. Normal 65
good vs. food

What??

Post by A.B. Normal 65
cough vs. through

Ideally, I'd have it "thrue".

Post by A.B. Normal 65
physician

Corresponds nicely with magician etc, also in the logic of the
construction. Almost all ---cian words end that sound.

Post by A.B. Normal 65
pique
school
how about bow (rhymes with cow), bow (rhymes with throw), and bough?

There is an ambiguity with two "bow" words, although the weapon is an
exception, and the act of bending over follows the rule. I expect the
reason for this is that the weapon went obolete at about the time
pronunciation standards shifted. I don't see much point in re-spelling
ancient tools and it should probably be thought of as a harmless
historical quirk.

Post by A.B. Normal 65
xenophobe

This is a good spelling as it ties nicely with the meaning and sound.

Post by A.B. Normal 65
english reelee iz mesd up iznt it?
Wow, how eezee wuhd english speling beekum too
lern?

I was about average at the language aged ten, so it can't be that much
of a nightmare.

Post by A.B. Normal 65
blue > bloo
hue staez hue (union > uenyun)
good > guhd

I know of no such sound as "guhd". "Food" and "good" sound identical
to me.

Post by A.B. Normal 65
food staez food

Stays should stay stays: It makes phonetic and meaningful sense,
considering the S\eth at the end.

Like hay, bay, today: I can't think of a discrepency.

Post by A.B. Normal 65
cough > cof

This would look too related to coffee, coffin, etc. Too many words
already have this prefix IMO.

Post by A.B. Normal 65
through > throo

How about "thru", since it's already in use?

Post by A.B. Normal 65
physician > fizishun (thats a kool wun, eh?)

Some people say S, some Z, depending on place in the world. As long as
the speaker follows some sort of uniform logic to their pronounciation
it's understandable. No need to customize it too strongly to your own
speech patterns.

Post by A.B. Normal 65
pique > peek

The collision here is obvious, besides, "pique" sounds how it looks.
If I didn't know the word at all, I'd have still thought "peek" just
by looking at it. Same with clique, antique, etc.

Post by A.B. Normal 65
school > skool

As long as scholar, etc were also altered that seems fine IMO.

Post by A.B. Normal 65
bow staez bow (riemz with kow)
bow (riemz with throe) > boe

Sounds sensible.

--
Iain

[A.B. Normal 65]

Post by Iain

Post by A.B. Normal 65
how and cow vs. flow and crow
blue vs. hue

Why is this in in here? The ending is slightly different I suppose,
but this takes care of itself since "blyoo" is awkward to pronounce
compared to "blue".

I think that ideally it would be nice if there were only one letter
combination for any given sound and only one way for that letter
combination to be sounded. That to me would be more consistent and
would help people who do have trouble with English. I've read some of
the statistics on illiteracy in English given by the American Literacy
Council, and they're making a pretty good case that literacy among
English speakers could be greatly improved if English spelling was
consistent with English speech. Check out their website if you're
interested in this. They're at www.americanliteracy.com.

blue, true, and glue should be spelled bloo, troo, and gloo. I didn't
pick blu, tru, and glu because "u" is most commonly used as a short
"u" as in dumb, drunk, and umbrella. I'm not saying my respellings
are the only possible way to correct crazy spellings, just offering
them as suggestions and trying to make them consistent. Others have
consistent phonetic systems that are just as valid as mine. As long
as it's consistent and phonetic I think it would be a major
improvement over the confusion of our current traditional spellings.

Post by Iain

Post by A.B. Normal 65
good vs. food

What??

Do most people pronounce the "-ood" ending the same in these words?
The American Heritage Dictionary Makes a distinction in the
pronunciation key. Good is with a short "oo", food's "oo" is long. I
typically look these up on dictionary.com, and they usually reference
the American Heritage Dictionary. Do you know of a good free link to
get British pronunciations?

Gotta go. More to follow...

[Iain]

Post by A.B. Normal 65
Do most people pronounce the "-ood" ending the same in these words?
The American Heritage Dictionary Makes a distinction in the
pronunciation key. Good is with a short "oo", food's "oo" is long. I
typically look these up on dictionary.com, and they usually reference
the American Heritage Dictionary. Do you know of a good free link to
get British pronunciations?

On second thoughts, I think it's a Scottish\Northern English accent
thing. I speak like Mrs Doubtfire. This is a good reason why spelling
should not be tied too closely to any one already existing
pronounciation, and why the best course of action of any reform would
be to iron out inconsistencies, rather than complexities, and let
ever-changing pronunciation naturally hinge around steady spellings.
--
Iain

[A.B. Normal 65]

Post by Iain

Post by A.B. Normal 65
cough vs. through

Ideally, I'd have it "thrue".

foer konsistensee iem uezing "ue" az a long "u" as in "cue", so ie
think "through" shuhd bee "throo" rather than "thrue".

Post by Iain

Post by A.B. Normal 65
physician

Corresponds nicely with magician etc, also in the logic of the
construction. Almost all ---cian words end that sound.

heer agaen, iem sugjesting that oenlee wun leter kombinashun foer a
given sound wuhd bee the wae too goe. just mie opinyon, ov koers.

Post by Iain

Post by A.B. Normal 65
pique
school
how about bow (rhymes with cow), bow (rhymes with throw), and bough?

There is an ambiguity with two "bow" words, although the weapon is an
exception, and the act of bending over follows the rule. I expect the
reason for this is that the weapon went obolete at about the time
pronunciation standards shifted. I don't see much point in re-spelling
ancient tools and it should probably be thought of as a harmless
historical quirk.

hahrmles unles uer trieing too lern english and having trubl az soe
manee doo.

Post by Iain

Post by A.B. Normal 65
xenophobe

This is a good spelling as it ties nicely with the meaning and sound.

but if "x" iz sounded liek "z" in this kaes, wie wuhdnt "z" doo just
az wel? just beekahz the greeks uezd "xeno-" duznt meen wee kant
englishiez the preefix and uez "zeno-". ahlsoe, konsitentlee uezing
an "f" instead ov "ph" wen its suposd too sound liek "f" wuhd maek
speling soe much simpler foer peepl too lern, doent ue think?

...

--a.b.

[A.B. Normal 65]

Post by Iain

Post by A.B. Normal 65
food staez food

Stays should stay stays: It makes phonetic and meaningful sense,
considering the S\eth at the end.
Like hay, bay, today: I can't think of a discrepency.

i like "ae" for the long "a" sound. i tried "ay" for a while, but
discovered that "ae" appears to be much more common in traditional
english spelling and therefore looks more appropriate most of the
time, at least in my opinion. that's why i have gone with "ae". the
plural ending "-s" is usually sounded "-z" isn't it? (ie, dogs,
houses). why not spell it like it sounds? then, when we teach
english spelling that's one less exception to learn when relating
pronunciation to spelling and vice versa.

Post by Iain

Post by A.B. Normal 65
cough > cof

This would look too related to coffee, coffin, etc. Too many words
already have this prefix IMO.

you're not seriously suggesting that "-ough" sounding like "-off"
makes any sense at all, are you?

Post by Iain

Post by A.B. Normal 65
physician > fizishun (thats a kool wun, eh?)

Some people say S, some Z, depending on place in the world. As long as
the speaker follows some sort of uniform logic to their pronounciation
it's understandable. No need to customize it too strongly to your own
speech patterns.

i understand your argument here about the "s" in physician. do you
know of any statistics showing how many people in the world use
british pronunciations vs. american pronunciations? instinctively,
i'm thinking the majority of people in the world probably use british,
but i'm not sure where to look up that statistic. if a "standard"
pronunciation is to be agreed upon, it would make sense to keep the
one that the majority already uses. this is of course a whole 'nuther
can of worms. my opinion is that it is most logical that we adopt
international "standard" pronunciations as part of a broad english
spelling reform. if we don't, we would end up with two spellings for
a great number of words - british and american, and i'm pretty sure
that wouldn't be a good idea.

Post by Iain

Post by A.B. Normal 65
pique > peek

The collision here is obvious, besides, "pique" sounds how it looks.
If I didn't know the word at all, I'd have still thought "peek" just
by looking at it. Same with clique, antique, etc.

but if you were just learning english you might think that "antique"
should be pronounced "anteekyoo", right?

Post by Iain

Post by A.B. Normal 65
school > skool

As long as scholar, etc were also altered that seems fine IMO.

Post by A.B. Normal 65
bow staez bow (riemz with kow)
bow (riemz with throe) > boe

Sounds sensible.

we agree then, traditional english isn't sensible. i know, i probably
haven't actually made you a convert to my new spelling system, but if
we have some things we can agree upon i consider that a positive
thing. nice chatting with you about this.