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From: mauney@ncsu.UUCP (Jon Mauney)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Spelling Reform
Message-ID: <2701@ncsu.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 16-Oct-84 09:45:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: ncsu.2701
Posted: Tue Oct 16 09:45:04 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 18-Oct-84 08:30:04 EDT
References: <179@scc.UUCP> <2696@ncsu.UUCP> <4483@fortune.UUCP>
Organization: N.C. State University, Raleigh
Lines: 22

>  Some obvious targets of spelling reform are superfluous letters 
>  as in knight, and glaringly inconsistent representations of sound 
>  as in the -gh of through, tough and though.
>  
>  Does anyone else have ideas for reasonable and practocal spelling reform?
>  

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.

The solution is not a logical, phonetical (unattainable, inhuman) system,
but merely one which doesn't have quite so many exceptions.  Mind you,
I think the words are prettier left the way they are.
-- 

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Jon Mauney    mcnc!ncsu!mauney    C.S. Dept, North Carolina State University