fonetics

[deird1]

So – spelling ríform.
Wyl y am mostlí in févor of éh words spelling matching thí wéh it saunds, my mén ríaksion tú thí possibiliti of spelling ríform is… wel, dred.

Mehnlí this is bikoz y ríli don’t wont tú lern éh hol nu spelling sistem. But also… y lyk aur wírd and komplicéted spelling, and how strénj it is. Y lyk bíing ébl to sí orl thí words that ar klírli from Jerman, or Latin, or Old Inglish, and hau thér spelling stil riflekts that. It’s word gíkery at its fynest – and y don’t wont tú giv that up.

(Interestingli, aur komplicéted words sím tú bí spelled much mor akkuratli than aur simpul wuns. Hau od.)

Comments

[velvetwhip]

Theodore Roosevelt was a proponent of spelling reform. It's one of his few failures.


Gabrielle

[vass]

I remember reading somewhere that one of the newspaper headlines when he was finished was THRU!

[velvetwhip]

That rings a bell with me, too.


Gabrielle

[alexseanchai]

I thought your gripe with spelling reform was it'd end up with everything spelled to match US Midwest pronunciation. Or am I confusing you with another Australian?

[deird1]

No, you're not confused. And yes, that is my main gripe. However:
- It's my main gripe because I think it's likely to actually happen. Whereas I don't think actual spelling reform would take it quite as far as I just did.
- I've just been studying lots of Latin and Old English, so pre-vowel shift spelling is more on my mind than usual.
- Frankly, complaints about America wouldn't look nearly so funny when I try typing them.

[alexseanchai]

*nods*

[jesuswasbatman]

Yes, I don't think spelling reform will ever happen in the UK because of all the regional/class issues around phonetics.

[hickumu]

Spelling reform? If this is a thing, it's a thing that's passed me by in my ivory tower. What's going on there?

[deird1]

It's actually fairly common. Most languages undergo spelling reform at some point - including English, which is why Americans spell it "colour" and "theater".

And England is definitely overdue for spelling reform - our spelling is around 400 years old, so it now bears little resemblance to the way we pronounce words. Bringing in reform would make our spelling actually look like what we say.

I tend to be gloomy about possible spelling reform, because I like our weird spelling, I don't want to learn a new spelling, and I really don't want the official new spelling to end up based on how the US pronounces their words rather than how I do...

[hickumu]

Hm. You know, I knew that Americans spelled things differently than British people, but I guess I never thought about why that was the case. I certainly never thought it was something people...decided on. Weird.

Basing it on pronunciation seems odd, though, since...well, even just using America as a reference, we have a minor war going between different states here on whether it's "peecahn" or "peekan".

[deird1]

*facepalm*

I just noticed that, even when I'm specifically writing about American spelling, I still manage to write "colour" without realising. Oops.

Definitely decided on, yes. And Australia nearly followed you. In fact, one of our main political parties is Labor (no "u") because they wanted to use the cool new spelling - and then no-one else changed over.

[hickumu]

XD No worries. I find myself including British spellings over American a lot. I attribute it to all my reading of Terry Pratchett and my writing of Giles fanfiction.

Well, even if it is decided non, I can see where it would take a while to change over. Reprinting different versions of all the spelling books and dictionaries and all that.

[slaymesoftly]

Wow - I had no idea this was a plan. I can understand some gradual changes in spelling over time (as has continued to happen through the centuries). I can't imagine a change this big or this abrupt - not to mention, as someone pointed out, regional differences in pronunciation would mean phonetic spelling would be a nightmare for everyone!

[stormwreath]

éh hol nu spelling sistem

Wait. Shouldn't that be niu, not nu? I didn't think Australia had fallen prey to the Americanised pronunciation of 'new' yet... :(

[deird1]

You're not wrong. That would be me being in a hurry and mis-spelling things. :)