Are you a proponent or opponent to English spelling change?

Question

Check this article out.http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13716134/?GT1=8307  I'm a proponent, but I doubt it will change.    English is the toughest language I've ever learned.  So far, I've  been in the U.S. for 26 years and still can't spell all words  correctly.  Just recently, I mispelled acupuncture by adding an  extra "c."  I figured since "accurate" has double "c,"  "accupuncture" looked right to me.  This is the reason why  spelling bees exist only in the English language.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

These guys have been trying to simplify spelling for decades, but what fun would it be? I much prefer the thought and consideration, erudition and good visual memory that current English spelling requires. What else could I do with my free time?

Why would you equate acupuncture with accurate, when you know it involves a needle, something that is quite acute?

Tuanle · Answer

I think English students can excel in their learning when spelling can be mastered at a much faster pace. Conjugation and tense in English already drove me nuts during my early learning stages, because they do not exist in Vietnamese and Chinese. Literacy in English wouldn't be a major problem if spelling were simplified.

When I was introduced to Spanish, I had to deal with masculine and feminine forms. This also drove me insane, but its spelling is so much easier than English. I was able to concentrate on learning other parts of the Spanish language, such as vocabluary, when learning its spelling was effortless.

Currently, I see my 3 and 6 year-old daughters making the same spelling errors I used to make. It's ridiculous to teach them how to spell /tu/ 3 different ways: to, too, two. This can be understood by context: I have /tu/ go /tu/ the bathroom, I like icecream /tu/, this is just my /tu/ cents.

Cool Breeze · Answer

Unfortunately for you, a spelling change in English is inconceivable. It would call for a unanimous decision in the major English-speaking countries. Moreover, even if it happened, it wouldn't make things easier: instead of just one way to spell a word, people would have to learn two ways to be able to understand pre-spelling reform texts. Texts written in English over hundreds of years wouldn't cease to exist overnight and all public signs and notices put on the walls all over the world wouldn't disappear. In other words, the language has been around for too long.

Also, if spelling reflected pronunciation more closely, there would be be at least three spellings for garage and eight for Byzantine. Spelling differences between the various varieties of English would increase dramatically, there would be general confusion at newspapers and publishing houses and writing and reading English would slow down considerably. English is mixed up enough as it is without total anarchy in spelling.

A much better idea might be to simply start accepting some spellings that are usually considered wrong: recieve, beleive, indite to mean 'indict' etc. Even that is unlikely to happen. English spelling has not undergone major changes in 300 years. In the days of Old English, before the printing press was invented, a person could spell a word in two ways without paying much attention to it. No more.

Tuanle says English is difficult for him (her?). The difficulty arises from the fact that his/her native language isn't related to the Germanic languages. English is very easy for a German because German is one of the languages English is derived from. In fact Old English is syntactically essentially the same as modern German. From this point of view, all languages can be said to be either easy or difficult for some.

Learning my native language would also be difficult for Tuanle although it is very easy for an Estonian. Finnish and Estonian are both Finno-Ugric languages and thus very closely related. The grammar would present you with some difficulties. Just to give you an example, I'll write some English sentences and the Finnish equivalent of the word new in those sentences. As these are illustrative examples, they don't necessarily make much sense.

This is a new box. uusi
These are new boxes. uusia
These are the new boxes. uudet
I need a new box. uuden
What's the color of the new boxes? uusien
What's in the new box? uudessa
What's in the new boxes? uusissa
It came out of the new box. uudesta
They came out of the new boxes. uusista
It ran into the new box. uuteen
They ran into the new boxes. uusiin
It's sitting on the new box. uudella
They are sitting on the new boxes. uusilla
I don't expect much of the new box. uudelta
I don't expect much of the new boxes. uusilta
Don't say it to the new box. uudelle
Don't say it to the new boxes. uusille
I'll change it into a new box. uudeksi
I'll change them into new boxes. uusiksi

Of course you need a different inflection of the word in all the above cases if you use the comparative (newer) or the superlative (the newest). Aren't you glad you have never had to learn a grammatically complicated language?

Cheers
CB

Tuanle · Answer

I agree that reform in any language is difficult, but not impossible. Chinese, for example, has simplified many characters after communist control, and Vietnamese has romanized all their characters. Since English is a dominant language in the world, it's here to stay for many centuries with minor changes.

International System of Units is another example of how it cannot change the English Units due to the English Units dominace. The majority of the world use SI Units, but English Units remains. Back in the 80's I remember seeing Liters being used at gas stations, but it's now extinct in the U.S.

Anonymous · Answer

Countries with a more complicated writing system have a higher rate of dyslexia
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010316073551.htm

IMO a simplified English spelling would make it much easier to learn. However there is too much resistance to it. An easier alternative, as CB says, might be to not get so hung up about spelling variations.

Are you a proponent or opponent to English spelling change?

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