Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site oddjob.UChicago.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!ihnp4!gargoyle!oddjob!sra From: sra@oddjob.UChicago.UUCP (Scott Anderson) Newsgroups: net.nlang Subject: Re: Phonetic spelling isn't practical Message-ID: <525@oddjob.UChicago.UUCP> Date: Wed, 7-Nov-84 08:39:41 EST Article-I.D.: oddjob.525 Posted: Wed Nov 7 08:39:41 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 9-Nov-84 06:18:23 EST References: <4147@decwrl.UUCP> Organization: U. Chicago: Astronomy & Astrophysics Lines: 16 >Perhaps conditions are different for "small" languages (I understand that >Hungarian is actually written phonetically), but it seems unlikely to me that >any old, widespread, culturally diverse language like English, Spanish, French, >Chinese, Portuguese or Russian can possibly be accurately described in a static >form. Actually, Spanish *is* a phonetically written language (at least the way they teach it in the US). It is always possible to look at the written form of a word and pronounce it correctly -- provided one remembers where one is, as there are regional differences in how some of the letters are pronounced. For example, in Spain the letter 'z' is pronounced like a soft 'th', while in most of Latin America, it is pronounced like 's'. But this is consistently done, in every word which contains a 'z'. Scott Anderson ...ihnp4!oddjob