Re: Generalizations about English spelling

Suzanne -

Interesting. Is this related to my ability to "read" more then a bit of
the local Chinese restaurant menus despite having only studied Japanese,
not Chinese? I recognize the meaning of characters by sight, even when
they are not the same as corresponding J characters. I wouldn't have a
clue how to pronounce them. On some unfamiliar characters I can derive
meaning elements from the radicals, although this is sometimes enhanced
by matching up the English with the Chinese.

It seems to me that I have a certain amount of literacy, enabling me to
accomplish some tasks satisfactorily) based solely on reading skills
related to prior knowledge of the shapes of words and the ability to
predict their meaning.. Is that what you mean?

Best,

Barry

suzmccarth wrote:

> --- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Steve Bett" <stbett@...> wrote:
> > Steve Bett wrote:
> >
> > > > What Swadesh, Pike, Laubach, and others are saying is that code
> > > > literacy can be achieved in 3 months or less.
> >
> > > PD: Morris Swadesh and Kenneth Pike?
> > Where did they pronounce on this topic?
> >
> > SB: A reference is provided below.
> >
> > > PD: Pike's concern was to "reduce" unwritten languages to
> writing,
> > > and, having grown up a good American Descriptivist, he
> reflexively
> > > assumed that a surface-phonemic (in those days,
> simply "phonemic")
> > > orthography was optimal.
>
> Didn't Pike state a phonemic orthography was optimal and then quote
> himself to prove it was optimal?
>
> Missionaries of the 19th century could 'prove' that a syllabary was
> easier and faster.
>
> > However, to claim that
> > morpho-phonemic English spelling conventions are optimal for those
> > learning to read and write seems to be going a bit too far.
>
>
> I was taught that there is always a playoff. It is easier to read
> directly for meaning with a morphophonemic orthography and easier to
> write a phonemic orthography. So it is important for reading
> fluently to have 'hear' and 'here' as different and consisitent
> spellings but easier and faster to write if they both were spelled
> as you say them - the same.
>
> Some dyslexics read long and complicated, even irregular words much
> faster than they read small words with regular spelling. They depend
> on the visual difference in the shape of the word. I remember one
> little kid reading 'civilization' but stumbling over 'clap'.
>
> Kids can read "draw a picture" and 'write a story' fairly quickly,
> long before they can recognize the diference
> between 'spice','splice' and 'slice.'
>
> Suzanne
>
>
>
>
> www.egroups.com/group/qalam - world's writing systems.
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>
>
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