Spelling reform poll (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Spelling reform poll
Tags: Spelling \| Poll
Share with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon
Language Learning Forum : General discussion

Poll Question: Is spelling reform a good idea?
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
Yes, I want to write the same way I speak	28	[29.17%]
Why not, I speak a dialect anyay	5	[5.21%]
No, it gets too confusing	14	[14.58%]
No, I like the spelling as it is	45	[46.88%]
Don’t care	4	[4.17%]
You can not vote in this poll

25 messages over 4 pages: 1 2 3 4

LtM
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5862 days ago
130 posts - 223 votes

Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: German

Message 25 of 25

02 July 2009 at 2:08am | IP Logged

I have mixed feelings about making English spelling more consistent with modern English pronunciation. I think that some spellings that reflect earlier English pronunciation could be modernized (initial "kn" of knight, etc., comes to mind here, but there are a lot of other examples as well). On the other hand, it's interesting being able to see remnants of early speech patterns in modern English spelling.

However, (and please, this is only a thought; no need for anyone to get their feathers ruffled) I think that many people's instant reaction (in life, not necessarily in this forum) is to reject change, period. If something is long familiar, then it's "better", it's the "right" way. Rather than stepping back and looking at the pros and cons of an issue, whatever the issue may be, many automatically defend what they've always known simply because it is what they've always known. People are much more emotional than they are logical when it comes to making changes.

I'd really like to see more non-native English speakers respond to this thread; I would be very interested in reading their thoughts on the matter. (And thanks to Jar-ptitsa, Sennin, and Drabant for joining the discussion thus far.)

As a German learner, I appreciate the German spelling reforms of 1990 and later; they seem logical and useful to me. I have no problems with the pre-reform spelling that I see in older materials, but I prefer the changed spellings. However,
1) These changes were admittedly pretty mild, and
2) As a non-native German speaker, I have basically no emotional investment in the old spellings.

1 person has voted this message useful

This discussion contains 25 messages over 4 pages: << Prev 1 2 3 4

If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register

Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum

This page was generated in 0.1875 seconds.