|
by G F Sutton - 17 September, 2005
The alphabet is supposed to be the basis of our entire western civilization, but we are NOT taking proper care of it.
As a result, the mistakes that have devolved into our writing system are now threatening the integrity and effectiveness of our efforts to educate the next generation. At a time when we show increasing signs of willingness to tinker with our own genetic makeup, we are unwilling to correct evolutionary defects in our system of spelling. I'm nearly 50 years old, half a century, and I still need to double check the spelling of 'necessary' from time to time. While reworking a webpage originally written by someone whose native tongue is not English, I found the word misspelled* this way: neccesary. * 'misspelled' means not spelled consistent with dictionaries. * 'Misspelled' means not spelled consistent with commom sense. This difficulty is understandable for non-native writers of English, but why are American school children misspelling it so frequently? The answer is obvious, 'necessary' is Misspelled in all our dictionaries! So are tens of thousands of the most common words of our language. The spelling of tens of thousands of common English words is so lacking in common sense, that school children (and adults) are tripped up on a daily basis. Examples of Misspellings devoid of common sense: two "l"s where only one is pronounced: spelling two "p"s where only one is pronounced: tripped two "r"s where only one is pronounced: correct two "r"s where only one is pronounced: tomorrow two "m"s where only one is pronounced: recommending use of a "c" where a "k" would clarify pronunciation: recommending use of a "c" where a "k" would clarify pronunciation: clarify use of a "c" where an "s" would clarify spelling: license use of an "s" where a "z" would clarify spelling: confused. **use of silent letters: calm, palm, light, night, paradigm. use of "ed" where "t" would accurately indicate pronunciation: tripped---> tript helped---> helpt finnished---> finisht wished---> wisht use of "ed" where "d" alone would accurately indicate pronunciation: spelled---> speld confused---> kunfyoozd Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive! Sir Walter Scott, 1808. I could modify Sir Walter Scott's phrase to express what we do to each new generation of Americans by refusing to correct our Misspelled English words: Oh, what a tangled web we use, when first we practice to confuse! Our alphabet is now a very tangled web. Now, I'm not recommending prudish pressure being applied onto our children to get them to spell according to tradition. I AM recommending scrapping tradition in favor of a consistent one to one mapping of speech sounds to the alphabet. Simply, write the way we talk. A linguist will tell you there aren't enough letters in the alphabet for one to one mapping. But our language has already evolved solutions to this problem (in addition to evolving the quirks and problems decribed above). What we need now is to weed out the quirks that have accumulated over time and universalize the solutions our language has evolved for us. For Example: using "ch" for the sound produced in the words church, bench, cheek, chop, choose, china, chocolate, cheese. The use of "ch" for this speech sound is already well established, so lets make it universal and exclusive for this sound. Universal means always using'ch' for this sound. Exclusive means never using 'ch' for any other sound. This would mean shunning the use of 'ch' in words like 'Loch Ness' and names like 'Cher'. If she insists on spelling it that way then maybe we should pronounce her name 'Chair' :-). But school children should be taught to spell and pronounce her name 'Shair'. We should use "ch" in words like: capture---> kapcher culture---> kulcher A statistical study should be done of the English language to determine the most commonly used letter groups already representing speech sounds. Consistent use of these common letter groups should then be extended throughout the English language to become universal and exclusive, eliminating all the exceptions. Here is a list of commonly used groups of letters for representing speech sounds: a as in cat // should be used in words like laughter---> lafter air as in chair // should be used in words like where---> whair aw as in law // should be used in words like caught---> kawt ay as in day // should be used in words like ate---> ayt ch as in chop // should be used in words like culture---> kulcher ee as in feet // should be used in words like eat---> eet er as in her // should be used in words like hurry---> heree ie as in pie // should be used in words like hike---> hiek oh as in Oh! // should be used in words like boat---> boht oo as in food // should be used in words like jewel---> jool ou as in could // should be used in words like hood---> houd ow as in how // should be used in words like shout---> showt u as in cut // should be used in words like what---> whut Writing, after spelling reform, would look something like this: Ie noh it louks stoopid tu yoo, but fyoocher jenerayshins uv skool childrin woud thangk us and thingk owr way uv speling beefor speling reeform wuz stoopid. Dhay woud bee riet. Dhu limitid way wee deefien dhu werd 'alfubet' may in fakt beetray owr ignerints uv dhu most baysik elumints uv owr ritn langgwij. Alfubet: The letters of a language arranged in the customary order. Dhu leterz uv u langgwij uraynjd in dhu kustumairee order. Dhis definishin laks enee hint uv whut an alfubet iz intendid tu doo, dhat iz, tu vizhyoouliez dhu sowndz uv speech. Dhu werd 'alfubetiks' (alphabetics) iz deefiend dhu way dhu werd alfubet shoud be: Alfubetiks: Dhu sieints uv repreezenting spohkin sownds bie letterz. Owr polisee maykerz peereeodiklee reeuraynj dhu dek chairz uv owr 'ejukayshinoul tietanik' bie reekwiering tufer testing, smawler klas sieziz and udher ekspairimints. But thay seem az lawst and udrift az owr wunts usending siviliezayshin. ** There is a potential use for silent letters after spelling reform. Some words have precise homonyms which would leave some ambiguity as to which meaning is intended if we were to spell all words the way they sound. Examples: air---> air err---> air heir---> air Usually, context would be sufficient to clarify the meaning intended, but in cases where the meanings must be certain, such as in legal documents, medical charts, etc, an easy, effective solution is available. Since the letters "c" "x" and "q" would no longer be needed for representing sounds in our new system of spelling, they could be used as silent letters to be added to homonyms to modify meaning without modifying pronunciation: air---> air err---> airc heir---> airx |