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In most languages with alphabetic writing, if you know a spoken word, you can write it. But in Chinese and Japanese, people might know a word, use it daily, bei
by pezezin 4y ago
In most languages with alphabetic writing, if you know a spoken word, you can write it. But in Chinese and Japanese, people might know a word, use it daily, being able to read it, and still forget how to write it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_amnesia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_amnesia
- Beltalowda 4y agoAh right, that makes sense.
- dontlaugh 4y agoIt varies in alphabet languages too. Plenty of native English speakers can’t spell words they can speak. Chinese is not much worse than English in this respect.
- thrown_22 4y agoYes, English is a terrible written language. In a sane world we would have moved to IPA a long time ago. jˈɛs, ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ ɪz ɐ tˈɛɹɪbəl ɹˈɪtən lˈaŋɡwɪdʒ. ɪn ɐ sˈeɪn wˈɜːld wiː wʊdhɐv mˈuːvd tʊ ˌaɪpˌiːˈeɪ ɐ lˈɒŋ tˈaɪm ɐɡˈəʊ.
- tokinonagare 4y agoAnd then we would need to use two very different spellings for American and British English. Be careful with what you wish.
- thrown_22 4y agoThere isn't such a thing as a spelling when you write down what you hear. We can still understand each other despite the spelling of center and centre being different.
- pezezin 4y agoYes, that's why I wrote "in most languages" :D We all agree that English spelling is a royal pain in the ass.