Group wants Americans to adopt phonetic spelling

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13716134/?GT1=8307

As if we needed another reason for the United States to be ridiculed internationally, the American Literacy Council wantz to spel wurdz how thay sownd and ignor the peski consept of speling. Thay beleev it wil help kidz lurn to reed ezier.

Morons.

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That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Oh dear God. That is all.

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I thought this was a joke.

I can only hope.

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What group? MySpace members?

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That's the stupidest thing ever.

Would they be considering something like this?
(Note: I am not being serious. Neither was Twain.)

'"A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling" by Mark Twain

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s," and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all.

Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c," "y" and "x"--bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez--tu riplais "ch," "sh," and "th" rispektivli.

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.'

Updated On: 7/8/06 at 10:43 PM

didn't Twain also write something about the awful German language?

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Not to mention... whose pronunciation would they use? I can think of about 5 different ways people say some words due to regional accents.

And can you imagine trying to read a book written in Phonetic American? It wouldn't help kids to read- it would discourage reading, period. Which, in retrospect- to my conspiracy-riddled mind- may be what the intention is in the first place. Prevent people from being able to read dissenting opinions, which are of course doubleplus ungood.

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If you can read this, you're too smart.

We're doomed.

And I thought the wall along the Mexican boarder was a $h!tty idea!

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Ok...my school district experimented with ITA ---the international teaching alpahabet---back in the 1970's. It was based on phonetics, and had additional letters for sounds such as "ch" or "st" or "sh". The end result...my mother made tons of money tutoring children who couldn't make the transistion from ITA to the "real" alphabet. She also almost sent me to private school because I could already read and she was afraid that ITA would screw me up entirely. Luckily they discontinued it before I got to school.