Re: Generalizations about English spelling

> > (SB) 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,

> > I would welcome comments on this approach to spelling reform.

> PD: One of the roots of the problem is evident immediately. Maybe
> for you <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?

SB: One variety of Midwestern US English is the vareity that all
Dictionary readers have to adjust to. It is also the one that they
usually have to listen to on TV news broadcasts.

> PD: 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.

SB: The words "ale" and "day" would not be rewritten according to
the 4 rules. Since this is not a phonemic writing system, I am not
sure that it means that that every English speaker pronounces the
vowel in these words the same any more than the present writing
system implies this.

This experimental writing system is supposed to provide a way to
reduce irregularity in English spelling. It is just a way to reduce
the variety of ways the same sound is represented in traditional
English.