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It would be far easier to make existing English spelling more phonetic using the existing alphabet. Such efforts wud hav the benefit of beeng immeedeeatly obve

It would be far easier to make existing English spelling more phonetic using the existing alphabet. Such efforts wud hav the benefit of beeng immeedeeatly obveeus to existeeng speekurs

iafisher 8y ago
The problem with making spelling more phonetic is that not everyone pronounces English the same. Even a single country like the United States or the United Kingdom counts a range of accents and dialects. A phonetic spelling is always going to be non-phonetic for some speakers.
- pmoriarty 8y ago
  "A phonetic spelling is always going to be non-phonetic for some speakers." Only if there is a single "correct" (or canonical) way to spell each word. If every speaker uses a phonetic alphabet to spell their words the way they speak them then there will be no problem reading them back phonetically. Now, understanding these phonetically spelled words might be a problem for some readers, but that's no different from the problem in understanding they'd have when they heard someone speak in a different accent.
  - alangpierce 8y ago
    There's even plenty of precedent for the same word having different spellings based on region, like with color/colour. I imagine it would be similarly normal to learn that "tomahto" is the British spelling of "tomato" (or whatever it would end up being).
    - dsego 8y ago
      We have that in south slavic languages. For example this word meaning time (or weather) spoken and written differently based on dialect/language: vreme, vrime, vrijeme. [1] Maybe a regional spelling reform could lead to English starting to break apart into several different languages? [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialects_of_Serbo-Croatian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialects_of_Serbo-Croatian
  - Zanni 8y ago
    Ugh, no. You'd gain the very minor benefit of being able to read in the author's dialect but at huge cost in reading speed. I cringe whenever an author forces an accent or dialect into their writing rather than simply noting that a character speaks with a particular accent. It forces me to read at the speed I can vocalize, which is about half my normal reading speed. I can see this being useful for specific cases but not as a general practice.

It would be far easier to make existing English spelling more phonetic using the existing alphabet. Such efforts wud hav the benefit of beeng immeedeeatly obveeus to existeeng speekurs

iafisher 8y ago

The problem with making spelling more phonetic is that not everyone pronounces English the same. Even a single country like the United States or the United Kingdom counts a range of accents and dialects. A phonetic spelling is always going to be non-phonetic for some speakers.

pmoriarty 8y ago
"A phonetic spelling is always going to be non-phonetic for some speakers." Only if there is a single "correct" (or canonical) way to spell each word. If every speaker uses a phonetic alphabet to spell their words the way they speak them then there will be no problem reading them back phonetically. Now, understanding these phonetically spelled words might be a problem for some readers, but that's no different from the problem in understanding they'd have when they heard someone speak in a different accent.
- alangpierce 8y ago
  There's even plenty of precedent for the same word having different spellings based on region, like with color/colour. I imagine it would be similarly normal to learn that "tomahto" is the British spelling of "tomato" (or whatever it would end up being).
  - dsego 8y ago
    We have that in south slavic languages. For example this word meaning time (or weather) spoken and written differently based on dialect/language: vreme, vrime, vrijeme. [1] Maybe a regional spelling reform could lead to English starting to break apart into several different languages? [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialects_of_Serbo-Croatian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialects_of_Serbo-Croatian
- Zanni 8y ago
  Ugh, no. You'd gain the very minor benefit of being able to read in the author's dialect but at huge cost in reading speed. I cringe whenever an author forces an accent or dialect into their writing rather than simply noting that a character speaks with a particular accent. It forces me to read at the speed I can vocalize, which is about half my normal reading speed. I can see this being useful for specific cases but not as a general practice.