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Aug. 16th, 2008 04:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aliarasFor ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
purple_chalk, because I think she might find this interesting:
Article in The Economist about changing the rules for writing
Now, I'm not sure how the people who want to clarify spelling are going to make that happen. My understanding of language is, it evolves. New words get added by modifying existing words according to logical rules, and then are tested in society. Some survive, some don't. The new additions are all colloquial, but eventually make their way up to academia and literature. So, why do people think they can just come in and say, "we're changing the rules, so now the rules are changed?" It's not like language works like legislation, it's a very social thing and it's constantly changing and being created. While making English spelling more phonetic might help those who are learning the language, the phonetic spellings would not be adopted quickly by native speakers. That's because spelling is considered an indicator of one's intelligence and level of education. Phonetic spellings look like the mistakes we all made back in school (and may still make, only to get caught by the spellchecker.) Nobody would take an academic paper seriously if it wuz ritten lyk this.
So I don't get it. Even IF one of the English-speaking nations' governments decided to change the school curriculum to introduce different spelling, the adults' opinions wouldn't be changed and the kids who went to posh private schools would have even more of a leg up. Or down. I can't imagine what going into public high school writing like this if public high school was writing phonetic would be like.
Anyways, thoughts?
purple_chalk, because I think she might find this interesting:Article in The Economist about changing the rules for writing
Now, I'm not sure how the people who want to clarify spelling are going to make that happen. My understanding of language is, it evolves. New words get added by modifying existing words according to logical rules, and then are tested in society. Some survive, some don't. The new additions are all colloquial, but eventually make their way up to academia and literature. So, why do people think they can just come in and say, "we're changing the rules, so now the rules are changed?" It's not like language works like legislation, it's a very social thing and it's constantly changing and being created. While making English spelling more phonetic might help those who are learning the language, the phonetic spellings would not be adopted quickly by native speakers. That's because spelling is considered an indicator of one's intelligence and level of education. Phonetic spellings look like the mistakes we all made back in school (and may still make, only to get caught by the spellchecker.) Nobody would take an academic paper seriously if it wuz ritten lyk this.
So I don't get it. Even IF one of the English-speaking nations' governments decided to change the school curriculum to introduce different spelling, the adults' opinions wouldn't be changed and the kids who went to posh private schools would have even more of a leg up. Or down. I can't imagine what going into public high school writing like this if public high school was writing phonetic would be like.
Anyways, thoughts?
