Spell ChecK anyonE?
Uh oh.
Some of y’all are just going to loveeeeeeee this one!..Heh.
WASHINGTON — When “say,” “they” and “weigh” rhyme, but “bomb,” “comb” and “tomb” don’t, wuudn’t it maek mor sens to spel wurdz the wae thae sound?
Those in favor of simplified spelling say children would learn faster and illiteracy rates would drop. Opponents say a new system would make spelling even more confusing.
Advocates Push for Simplified Spelling continues..
It’s been 100 years since Andrew Carnegie helped create the Simplified Spelling Board to promote a retooling of written English and President Theodore Roosevelt tried to force the government to use simplified spelling in its publications. But advocates aren’t giving up.
They even picket the national spelling bee finals, held every year in Washington, costumed as bumble bees and hoisting signs that say “Enuf is enuf but enough is too much” or “I’m thru with through.”
E-mail and text messages are exerting a similar tug on the language, sharing some elements with the simplified spelling movement while differing in other ways. Electronic communications stress shortcuts like “u” more than phonetics.”
Sorry Kids.
I’ve got some bad news.
Speech comes about long before any written form of a language appears.
And well yes, most of us would like the spelling of words to match the way we pronounce them, Lord knows I would..but………
The English language (for much of the time) doesn’t seem to correspond at all.
But there’s a reason for that. It is because we use an alphabet, called the Roman alphabet, (ever hear of that?..:) which was originally devised for Latin, an older language which happens to have patterns of sounds and grammatical structures that differ from English.
There are over forty sounds in English but only twenty-six letters to represent them. So sometimes letters have to double up. And yes those annoying “silent” letters , and pronunciation changes!
The beauty of our language is that it is vastly rich and has developed over many centuries, drawing on many other languages to build up its stock of words. Latin, Greek, Spanish, Japanese and even African.
But who cares about all that eh kids?
It’s too hard!..It’s too difficult..it presents too much of a challenge.
Whaaaaaaa!
Well, what the heck let’s just “dumb down” our kids even more.
After all..Children are so fragile and we wouldn’t want to damage their psychological growth right?
Sure why don’t we just liberate them from these demanding and oppressive influences like conventional spelling, grammar or simple math skills.
Excuse me but ..
Has anyone taken a close look at our primary and high schools as of late? The graduates are less well-read, certainly less well-spoken, less knowledgeable…or can we say (without offending anyone) “dumber” than ever before.
Of course with the Liberal mentality of trying to make everyone “feeling good”.. the addition of easier text-books, watered-down requirements and changing test grade scales, ..it’s a wonder kids can think at all.
Hey, what the heck…kids..It’s better to “feel good” than to “be good” eh?
Linked to these fine posts:
Flopping Aces, TMH’sBaconBits, LeaningStraightUp, AssortedBabble, 123beta, PlancksConstant
July 6th, 2006 at 3:49 pm
Gee, no one dares comment that it just so happens that the greatest, most powerful nation on the planet (and it’s most loyal, dedicated ally) just HAPPENS to have English as the official language. Couldn’t be any correlation there, eh?
PS LOL, oh U Angel, wid your own special spelling style! That charming irony didn’t pass me by rel to this post, nosirrreee! ;-P
July 6th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
& another thaang:
Q: Do you know why the British Empire eventually failed?
A: Too much ink and paper, from too many extra letters as a result of all those extra letters and diphthongs and stuff in the King’s English (Queen’s?) vs. American English.
And so, QED, there was actually a wee simplification movement in English already, started I believe by Webster with his dictionary.
heh.
July 6th, 2006 at 4:57 pm
Seems like a new ebonics craze is afoot.
July 6th, 2006 at 5:19 pm
lolz TMH…gee I tried to spell everything rite in dat dere post..dintcha see?..lol
July 6th, 2006 at 5:58 pm
LOUKS LIKE THE HIP-HOP RAP LINGUISTIKS ARE ON THE WEY!!!!
HOOS YOUR DADI??????
July 6th, 2006 at 6:46 pm
If you kant reed why due yoo nead to spel rite?
July 6th, 2006 at 7:06 pm
Ah don no wud yu guys r talkin four. most uv us spel wel.
July 6th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
lol@ y’alls…guess the message got across eh?..
July 6th, 2006 at 8:02 pm
Dis is jus 2 hard 2 reed.. I dont git it…
July 6th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
Items of Interest…
Sorry for the lack of posting. Being at the lake for four days means lots to do when I get back. I had a bunch of errands to run and a (new) sunburn to put aloe on.
Here are some links to some great posts and some news articles:
-Amy Proctor has ……
July 7th, 2006 at 7:50 am
OMG! What about the classics of literature? Are we going to translate Moby Dick into Mowbe Dic? Argh!
Not to mention that all of us who are “classically trained” will be functionally illiterate! I can barely read that “fowneticaly” spelled stuff, and my Mom or Dad, Grandma or Grandpa sure as heck couldn’t re-learn the English language to suit a buch of mouth-breathing teenagers!
What about French? They have all sorts of letters at the end of their words that aren’t pronounced…
July 7th, 2006 at 8:29 am
Because of the anomalies of the phonetics of English, our brains have to create special neurological pathways–pathways which promote thinking out of the box and crossing the corpus callosum. IMO, our language itself promotes the oft-lauded skill of critical thinking.
July 7th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
Brooke: Would that be “Dic” or “Dik”? Which is easier, a hard C or a K?
Could be like the French, and just pretty much toss out the K altogether… there, that’s easy… but OMG, then C could be either soft OR hard, floor wax OR dessert topping…
Now that’s too darn tricky for moi.
July 7th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
Open Trackback Weekend #9…
OK, it’s been a good week, but now’s it’s time for the Trackback party to begin. So link your posts here all weekend!…