Group wants Americans to adopt phonetic spelling

[anjilly]

Posted: 7/8/06 at 10:01pm

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.

[zzannahk]

Posted: 7/8/06 at 10:07pm

it looks like they way some members post on here, lol, nothing new

[kate2]

Posted: 7/8/06 at 10:07pm

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

[KelRel]

Posted: 7/8/06 at 10:08pm

As if teaching reading and writing isn't hard enough. Imagine trying to understand writing from 20-30 different kids who may spell the same word a different way. Each person hears things slightly differently. This would be a nightmare!

[jasonf]

Posted: 7/8/06 at 10:09pm

Oh dear God. That is all.

[Patronus]

Posted: 7/8/06 at 10:12pm

This seems so much more logical than improving the curriculum to improve the quality of spelling and grammar across the country.

Why solve the problem when we can just collectively dumb down the entire country to an embarrassingly new level?

Makes perfect sense to me!

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 7/8/06 at 10:14pm

I thought this was a joke.

I can only hope.

[jasonf]

Posted: 7/8/06 at 10:15pm

We're not dumb enough yet. That's the message.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 7/8/06 at 10:29pm

What group? MySpace members?

[Jon]

Posted: 7/8/06 at 10:33pm

This wold mean the immediate closure of "25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee".

[xM3L24x]

Posted: 7/8/06 at 10:34pm

That's the stupidest thing ever.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/8/06 at 10:37pm

It's not stupid, it's accomodation FOR the stupid. Wanting to do this is just allowing for stupidity to be excusable, and dumbing down standards so that stupidity and inability to spell or lack of effort to spell properly will be excusable. Easy way out.

[Zyla]

Posted: 7/8/06 at 10:43pm

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

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 7/8/06 at 10:43pm

That's.... I can't even comment. I'm still frustrated as it is with this country for not having adopted the metric system yet. Way to be "different" (i.e. stupid and impractical), America.

[zzannahk]

Posted: 7/8/06 at 10:48pm

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

[jasonf]

Posted: 7/8/06 at 10:57pm

Eh - we voted Bush into office. We r dum enuf.

[anjilly]

Posted: 7/8/06 at 11:01pm

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.

[Lavieboheme3090]

Posted: 7/9/06 at 12:10am

Hell No is all I have to say. I am dyslexic and went through years of tutoring. Sure I still can’t really spell, but hey that is what spell check is for. Instead of trying to dumb things down for kids they just need to take the time to find out what then need individually to learn how to read and write well. I won’t go into all the details of how messed up the system is, however, that is not the point. Thousands of kids like me have had to work there butts off to reach a normal level of literacy, so I have not pity for kids how aren’t willing to learn the system that everyone else uses.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 7/9/06 at 12:19am

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

We're doomed.

[duroc]

Posted: 7/9/06 at 12:45am

I think it might be better just to adopt the IPA (International Phonetic Alphebet). It's not only phonetic but universal.

ænd ɪts fʌn tu raɪt.

[jam_man]

Posted: 7/9/06 at 1:15pm

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

[azelma]

Posted: 7/9/06 at 9:31pm

It doesn't seem SO crazy, but maybe that's just me. I think it's impractical, but in theory, there are many arbitrary elements to English spelling, and if everything were more predictable (not necessarily even phonetic, but just always adhering to the same rules), it might make it easier, not only for children to learn to read the language, but also for foreigners to pick it up. I don't think the idea is for all people to adopt their own personal phonetic spellings, but for there to be standardized spellings which are more phonetically spelled. However, then there's the problem of words that are from other languages, that might present a problem.

I'm going to be eaten alive in this thread, I know it.

[singingwendy]

Posted: 7/9/06 at 9:40pm

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.