13 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
Phonetic Orthography in Spain and Italy
Fonetic spelling, in one form or another, has been,
and is now, used by progressiv teachers in England
and America as an introduction and an aid to the
study of the current orthografy. Their experience is
that children can spel correctly that is, fonetically
the words they ar able to pronounce, as soon as
they hav learnd the alfabet employd, and the principle
of combining letters into sillables.
In languages such as Italian and Spanish, that hav
approximately fonetic alfabets, appro...
1 
There is a cost savings that comes with reducing the number of years spent teaching spelling.
13 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
Phonetic Spelling Saves Time and Effort Through Fewer Let...
Simplified spelling means shorter spelling. Of the
32 Rules printed in Part 3 of this Handbook, 27 drop
letters from words as now speld; 3 involv trans-
positions of letters to reconcile conflicting analogies;
and 2 involv substitutions of one letter for another,
with the same object. In no instance has the Board
recommended a change involving the addition of a let-
ter to a word. Further simplifications wil result in fur-
ther abbreviations. A completely fonetic sistem of
notation, ...13 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
Simplified Spelling is Good for Americanization of the World
Foreners, when brought into personal association
with those who speak English, easily learn to speak
English themselvs. Its grammar is simple. It has
great flexibility, due to its richness in terminology and
its abundance of sinonims. It has an unsurpast litera-
ture, making a knowledge of it desirable by those who
hav no call to speak it. In every respect, except one,
it is best fitted to be the language of sience, commerce,
and international communication.
The desirability of havi...12 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
The Many Ways of Representing Sounds in English Spelling
English spelling, owing to the conditions that gov-
ernd the growth of the English language, now presents
many anomalies. The same letter, or combination of
letters, often represents many different sounds; while
the same sound is often represented by many different
letters, or combinations of letters.
The combination ough, for example, represents at
least 9 different sounds in the words cough, rough,
though, through, plough, hough, thorough, thought,
hiccough; and the sound of e in ...12 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
The Printing Press and Dictionaries Crystallized Spelling
English spelling was at first practically fonetic, like
the spelling of Latin, Spanish, Italian, Polish, and
most other languages, and changed as pronunciation
changed. In its case, however, various causes com-
bined to interfere with this orderly process. Among
them wer the variations in the early dialects, the dif-
ferent spelling sistems of the Norman conquerors, the
later different spelling sistem of the imported Dutch
printers, the bungling attempts during the Renaissance
to mak...23 AUG 2012 by ideonexus
A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling
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...Mark Twain's clever observation of how to simplify English spelling.
29 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Eccentric English Spelling is the Result of Dictionaries
The eccentric spelling of the English language is preserved because of a pervasive meme that there are right and wrong ways to spell words. This meme has all kinds of support, including dictionaries, computer spell-checkers, and children's spelling bees. But before the Use a dictionary strategy-meme became prevalent during the 18th and 19th centuries, people spelled words any way they wanted. It's not True that there's one and only one correct way to spell a word-it's just a meme. As Mark Twa...Spelling could evolve naturally before we started referencing dictionaries for a correct way of spelling words that don't sound like how they are spelled anymore.
30 NOV -0001 by ideonexus
Spelling is the Problem
Now let me get to a lower level still in this question. And that is, all the time you hear the
question, "why can't Johnny read?" And the answer is, because of the spelling. The
Phoenicians, 2000, more, 3000, 4000 years ago, somewhere around there, were able to
figure out from their language a scheme of describing the sounds with symbols. It was
very simple. Each sound had a corresponding symbol, and each symbol, a corresponding
sound. So that when you could see what the symbols' sounds w...Folksonomies: phoenetics
Folksonomies: phoenetics
Putting letters together into words is one of the most basic skills required for literacy. If this basic skill is so hard for so many people to grasp, then, Feynman argues, there is a problem with the way words are spelled.
30 NOV -0001 by ideonexus
Benjamin Franklin's Strategy for a Phonetic American Alph...
The alphabet can be found here.Folksonomies: phonetics
Folksonomies: phonetics
Franklin was interested in moving American English to a phonetic spelling system, introducing eight new letters to the alphabet to account for common sounds not currently covered with single letters and removing other letters considered redundant.
30 NOV -0001 by ideonexus
13 Percent of the English Language is Not Spelled Phoneti...
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...Folksonomies: phonetics
Folksonomies: phonetics
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.
