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From: wcs@ho95e.UUCP (x0705)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Credibility
Message-ID: <130@ho95e.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 8-Jul-85 16:48:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: ho95e.130
Posted: Mon Jul  8 16:48:16 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 9-Jul-85 06:49:02 EDT
References: <271@sri-arpa.ARPA> <483@oliveb.UUCP> <380@spar.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 32

>     Our bad spelling, no doubt the worst obstacle to newcomers to English,
>     would appear to aid the acquistion of written vocabulary, at the cost of
>     knowledge about its pronunciation, at least for anyone who is already
>     literate in some european language.
>     
>     And there is a complementary payoff for school children, who must spend
>     at least 6-12 years in order to gain literate proficiency [almost as
>     difficult as Chinese], provided their areas of interest have connections
>......
> -michael

I suppose this is worth throwing my 2c in.  First of all, while it would
be nice if English spelling were more phonetic, it is much more critical
that it be relatively uniform.   Our pronunciation certainly isn't, and
any one group that claims to speak "the true pronunciation" and therefore
replaces current spelling with "the true phonetic spelling" is going
to render illiterate either me or most of Australia (not to mention
Louisiana, Maryland's Eastern Shore, the Geordies on England....)

Foreigners already have to deal with pronunciation problems; "rationalizing"
our spelling system would help only a bit.  (Actually, it would make it a
lot worse, if American pronunications were used - very few of our vowel
sounds are pure sounds; most of them are at least diphthongs, and vary
considerably between regional accents.)

As for school children, I was fortunate to learn reading during one of the
pro-phonics cycles, from reasonable teachers - most of my classmates by the
end of second grade could spell 95% of the words we spoke.

			Bill Stewart
-- 
Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ 1-201-949-0705 ihnp4!ho95c!wcs