2 ms·

English pronunciation leads to algorithms like Soundex [1], which just wouldn't seem necessary if words were written purely phonetically. Hangul gets closer, i

by arh68 12y ago

English pronunciation leads to algorithms like Soundex [1], which just wouldn't seem necessary if words were written purely phonetically. Hangul gets closer, in a way. It seems hard to make rhymes with words like 'reprise' and avoid 'despise'. Not all languages need to be so ambiguous. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundex

lomnakkus 12y ago
You really don't want a writing system which is too tied to pronunciation. If you go too far in that direction you'll end up with people with different dialects of the same language not being able to communicate clearly, even in writing! That would be a very undesirable state of affairs. Yet you still want some correlation between spelling and pronunciation, otherwise the writing system essentially becomes completely arbitrary and thus impossible to learn (since we humans rely so much on pattern recognition for learning).
- efesak 12y ago
  I am from country with strongly phonetical language and you are just plainly wrong. There are minor dialects but it is considered rather as slang in compare to language taught in schools or comunicate with officials or even broader audience. (On the other side, it is much more difficult for us to learn English and get used to that disconection between alphabet and said words. And we don't have spelling competitions :).)
  - kevin_thibedeau 12y ago
    The GP isn't wrong. Consider all of the mutually unintelligible Chinese dialects that use the exact same script.
  - lomnakkus 12y ago
    I am not wrong. My native country did this experiment about 200-300 years ago -- it failed badly, and that was with a very small population which was (geographically) widely distributed. Trying to read (as schoolchildren) a few samples of text written in different dialects during that time dispelled any notion that it was a good idea. Also: China (as another poster pointed out). EDIT: Btw, if you have a good grasp of English accents, it's pretty easy to see what kind of chaos would occur in a country as small as England. (Thinking of the "north south divide" thing.)

by arh68 12y ago

lomnakkus 12y ago

You really don't want a writing system which is too tied to pronunciation. If you go too far in that direction you'll end up with people with different dialects of the same language not being able to communicate clearly, even in writing! That would be a very undesirable state of affairs. Yet you still want some correlation between spelling and pronunciation, otherwise the writing system essentially becomes completely arbitrary and thus impossible to learn (since we humans rely so much on pattern recognition for learning).

efesak 12y ago
I am from country with strongly phonetical language and you are just plainly wrong. There are minor dialects but it is considered rather as slang in compare to language taught in schools or comunicate with officials or even broader audience. (On the other side, it is much more difficult for us to learn English and get used to that disconection between alphabet and said words. And we don't have spelling competitions :).)
- kevin_thibedeau 12y ago
  The GP isn't wrong. Consider all of the mutually unintelligible Chinese dialects that use the exact same script.
- lomnakkus 12y ago
  I am not wrong. My native country did this experiment about 200-300 years ago -- it failed badly, and that was with a very small population which was (geographically) widely distributed. Trying to read (as schoolchildren) a few samples of text written in different dialects during that time dispelled any notion that it was a good idea. Also: China (as another poster pointed out). EDIT: Btw, if you have a good grasp of English accents, it's pretty easy to see what kind of chaos would occur in a country as small as England. (Thinking of the "north south divide" thing.)