--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "suzmccarth" <suzmccarth@...> wrote:

> The Writing systems of the Worlds, 1989, by Florian Coulmas, who was
> selected for the preceding quote because he used the word "simple."

Sorry I flew off the handle over the use of the word 'simple.'

In the end, coulmas proved to be a good read on English orthography.

"For instance, if the principles of morphemic invariance, etymology,
homograph avoidance or deviant proper name spelling, all of which play
an important part in the present English spelling, were discarded for
the sake of a rigorously phonemic orthography, the result would be too
strange and involve too many changes in the established spelling
habits to be accepted by the literate part of the speech community."
Coulmas. Writing Systems of the World. 1989. p. 256.


Suzanne