--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "David Starner" <prosfilaes@...> wrote:

>
> On 7/9/06, Peter T. Daniels <grammatim@...> wrote:
> > If the process would be automatic, then English
> > spelling-to-pronunciation is _already_ fully predictable and no

reform

> > is needed.

> That's a non-sequitor.

Non sequitur.

> The issue is not that well-trained people and
> computers can't predict how to pronounce things usually; it's that
> children have a hard time learning the system and even well-trained
> people and computers sometimes make mistakes.

But now of course we find uses for these complex spellings - few
would misunderstand 'The sons raise meat' as 'The sun's rays meet'.
A more serious quibble is how one would handle:

A: I'm going to.
B: I'm going too.
C: Where are you going to?

Spelling stress variants differently might be extremely confusing.
You could spell the final word the same in (B) and (C) and
differently in (A), to general confusion.

> > We _have_ a system that reflects the complexities of English

vowels --

>
> I am under the impression that English writing simplifies the

English

> vowel system to fit the five vowel letters of the Latin alphabet, no
> matter what dialect or century of the English language you're

looking

> at. Were, for example, bead and head, ever pronounced the same, or

is

> there any systematic rule that could seperate the two?

They are still pronounced the same in some places, e.g. Stirling.
What has happened here is that /d/ has irregularly shortened /e/
and /o/-type vowels. An extreme example is _blood_ v. _good_ v.
_blood_. Learned opinion is that the vowels were the same in Early
Modern English. The 'ea' vowel is particularly prone to shortening,
but this is rarely meaked in inflection, e.g. 'leant' v. 'slept'.

As to simplifications to fit the vowel letters, the only historically
consistent simplification is a willingness to abandon the struggle to
mark length. Middle English was extreme in that it did not
distinguish open and close 'e' and 'o'. When faced with the latter
issue, Old English adopted æ for open 'e'.

Richard.