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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!ihnp4!ihuxq!ken
From: ken@ihuxq.UUCP (ken perlow)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Spelling Reform
Message-ID: <1287@ihuxq.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 18-Oct-84 21:18:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxq.1287
Posted: Thu Oct 18 21:18:59 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 21-Oct-84 13:47:19 EDT
References: <179@scc.UUCP> <2696@ncsu.UUCP> <4483@fortune.UUCP>, <2701@ncsu.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 26

--
>> If English orthography is to be reformed,  then the way to do it is
>> through a few changes to the most problematic cases.  The various
>> uses of -gh is probably the single biggest offender.  Other candidates
>> that spring to mind are the choices between ance/ence, ant/ent,
>> able/ible, and ei/ie.  The newspapers have already given us employe
>> and cigaret;  they could give us nite, flexable, and beleve if thay
>> wonted tu.

>> Jon Mauney

Some of these seemingly random spellings, though, are not.  Many of the
-ance/-ence and -ant/-ent words reflect the Latin conjugation their root
verbs came from (-are/-ere).  And one newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, in
fact tried to give us "nite", "thru", and a few others.  They stopped
trying some time ago.  A better answer is an educational system that
stresses reading, writing, and Classical languages--not a band-aid (tm)
to cover the festering sore of American illiteracy.  Anyone who's had
enough practice at it can spell.
-- 
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