Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site mit-eddie.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!mit-eddie!barmar From: barmar@mit-eddie.UUCP (Barry Margolin) Newsgroups: net.nlang Subject: Re: Re: Credibility Message-ID: <4593@mit-eddie.UUCP> Date: Tue, 2-Jul-85 02:08:10 EDT Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.4593 Posted: Tue Jul 2 02:08:10 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 3-Jul-85 08:20:57 EDT References: <271@sri-arpa.ARPA> <483@oliveb.UUCP> Reply-To: barmar@mit-eddie.UUCP (Barry Margolin) Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA Lines: 28 I'm not sure whether this directly answers the questions about "expressive" and "lyrical" qualities of the English language. However, the current, inconsistent spelling rules DO provide information to a reader running into a new word. I can tell by looking at the word "phoneme" that it probably has something to do with sound, as it contains the root "phon", which is a common Greek root relating to sound or hearing. If it were spelled "fone" I would not guess this relation, since Greek-derived words use "ph" for the "f" sound. True, in spoken English this information is lost. This also is the case for "to", "two", and "too", but we manage due to the addition of inflection and body language. In addition, in many cases of spoken language, the listener can ask the speaker what is meant, which is not possible in written language. In general, written and spoken languages are necessarily different, and decisions about one should not be based on the other. Another way in which retaining the old spellings helps is in learning foreign languages. For instance, it is more obvious that the German word "nicht" is the translation of "night" than it would be if the latter were spelled "nite". Unfortunately, this only really works when the word comes from that language; for instance, the latter spelling looks closer to the French work "nuit". -- Barry Margolin ARPA: barmar@MIT-Multics UUCP: ..!genrad!mit-eddie!barmar