Re: Generalizations about English spelling

Steve Bett wrote:

>
> Suzanne,
>
> I am forwarding these comments by Theo Halladay.
> Theo's remarks are easy to identify because she writes in the
> regularized English currently being tested by the spelling society.
>
> I call it 4-rule spelling. Stressed long vowels are spelled about
> 20 different ways in standard English. In 4RS, there are only about
> two options: ale/day, eel/me, ile/di/dy, ode/lo, use/oo/du. Short
> stressed vowels are consistently marked with double consonants:
> daddy, verry, ilitterat. Redundant letters are dropped.
>
> I would welcome comments on this approach to spelling reform.

One of the roots of the problem is evident immediately. Maybe for you
(and for Will Shortz) <ale> and <day> have the same vowel, but for me
they don't. Why should one variety of Midwestern US English be
privileged as the variety all English speakers need to adjust to? This
is exactly what was wrong with Shaw's observations a century ago -- he
thought that requiring everyone to read in RP would wipe out the
"inferior" dialects of English.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...