13 Percent of the English Language is Not Spelled Phonetically

I received a letter today from the "Reading Reform Foundation," which tells me that "23 million (American) adults are functionally illiterate, unable to read an advertisement, a job application, directions on a medicine bottle." They say "30 percent of all schoolchildren have serious reading difficulties."

I rather believe this, judging from my own limited experience with people. But why is this?

Can it be that part of the reason is the matter of English spelling? The letter tells me that "87 percent of English words are phonetic; each of them follows predictable rules for reading and spelling." But that means that 13 percent of English words are not, and that includes many common words indeed.

Notes:

If 87 percent of English words are spelled phonetically, then that means more than one in 10 is not, further explaining high levels of illiteracy in our culture.

Folksonomies: phonetics

Taxonomies:
/hobbies and interests/reading (0.508354)
/religion and spirituality/atheism and agnosticism (0.401796)
/science/social science/linguistics/translation (0.383411)

Keywords:
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Entities:
Reading Reform Foundation:Organization (0.946621 (neutral:0.000000)), 87 percent:Quantity (0.946621 (neutral:0.000000)), 13 percent:Quantity (0.946621 (neutral:0.000000)), 30 percent:Quantity (0.946621 (neutral:0.000000))

"A Question of Spelling" The Roving Mind

Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Asimov, Isaac (1983), "A Question of Spelling" The Roving Mind, Prometheus Books, page 340, Retrieved on 2008-11-30

Folksonomies: phonetics

Schemas

31 DEC 2010

Arguments for English Spelling Reform

This schema is a collection of arguments about how proper grammar, with its illogical and inconsistently applied rules, is used by academics and intellectuals to create a privileged class of people who's ideas deserve considering because they have successfully learned the irrational system.

Folksonomies: phonetics grammar