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Subject: Not quite...

Author:
Ed Harris (London)

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Date Posted: 13:07:03 01/06/05 Thu
In reply to: Andrew(Canada) 's message, "two andrews" on 06:12:12 01/06/05 Thu

The 'makes sense' argument can't apply to English spellings. That's why the American spelling reforms were so pointless: either English is written phonetically or it isn't - there's no point in mucking around with a few words, because however hard you try to spell 'plough' as 'plow', there are still words like 'although' and so forth which would be difficult to change because of their more frequent usage. I think that we should just accept English spellings as they are, and never mind any attempt to systematise the blighters.

I would, however, point out, that the use of the letter zed in such words as 'surprize' and 'organize' is in fact the older usage. The 18th Century ship of a familiar name was the HMS Enterprize, not the Enterprise. In this instance, as with many others, the Yanks are purists and we're corrupt. This doesn't, however, apply to colonial idiocies such as 'color' and 'ax'.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: English spelling can never be phonetic

Author:
Ian (Australia)
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Date Posted: 13:29:09 01/06/05 Thu

There are simply too many accents and thus many ways to pronounce the words. Attempting to make spelling phonetic for one accent will automatically make it LESS phonetic for pretty much all of the others.

English spelling is sort of like the monarchy: people may say it is anachronistic or irrational, but it is the same for everyone and it is one of the links that keeps us together.

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