Simpler Spelling?

Discussion in 'Homeschooling in the News' started by Velma, Jul 7, 2006.

  1. Velma

    Velma New Member

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    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060705/ap_on_re_us/simpl_wurdz

    WASHINGTON - When "say," "they" and "weigh" rhyme, but "bomb," "comb" and "tomb" don't, wuudn't it maek mor sens to spel wurdz the wae thae sound?
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    Those in favor of simplified spelling say children would learn faster and illiteracy rates would drop. Opponents say a new system would make spelling even more confusing.

    Eether wae, the consept has yet to capcher th publix imajinaeshun.

    It's been 100 years since Andrew Carnegie helped create the Simplified Spelling Board to promote a retooling of written English and President Theodore Roosevelt tried to force the government to use simplified spelling in its publications. But advocates aren't giving up.

    They even picket the national spelling bee finals, held every year in Washington, costumed as bumble bees and hoisting signs that say "Enuf is enuf but enough is too much" or "I'm thru with through."

    Thae sae th bee selebraets th ability of a fue stoodents to master a dificult sistem that stumps meny utherz hoo cuud do just as wel if speling were simpler.

    "It's a very difficult thing to get something accepted like this," says Alan Mole, president of the American Literacy Council, which favors an end to "illogical spelling." The group says English has 42 sounds spelled in a bewildering 400 ways.

    Americans doen't aulwaez go for whut's eezy — witnes th faeluer of th metric sistem to cach on. But propoenents of simpler speling noet that a smatering of aulterd spelingz hav maed th leep into evrydae ues.

    Doughnut also is donut; colour, honour and labour long ago lost the British "u" and the similarly derived theatre and centre have been replaced by the easier-to-sound-out theater and center.

    "The kinds of progress that we're seeing are that someone will spell night 'nite' and someone will spell through 'thru,'" Mole said. "We try to show where these spellings are used and to show dictionary makers that they are used so they will include them as alternate spellings."

    "Great changes have been made in the past. Systems can change," a hopeful Mole said.

    Lurning English reqierz roet memory rather than lojic, he sed.

    In languages with phonetically spelled words, like German or Spanish, children learn to spell in weeks instead of months or years as is sometimes the case with English, Mole said.

    But education professor Donald Bear said to simplify spelling would probably make it more difficult because words get meaning from their prefixes, suffixes and roots.

    "Students come to understand how meaning is preserved in the way words are spelled," said Bear, director of the E.L. Cord Foundation Center for Learning and Literacy at the University of Nevada, Reno.

    Th cuntry's larjest teecherz uennyon, wuns a suporter, aulso objects.

    Michael Marks, a member of the National Education Association's executive committee, said learning would be disrupted if children had to switch to a different spelling system. "It may be more trouble than it's worth," said Marks, a debate and theater teacher at Hattiesburg High School in Mississippi.

    E-mail and text messages are exerting a similar tug on the language, sharing some elements with the simplified spelling movement while differing in other ways. Electronic communications stress shortcuts like "u" more than phonetics. Simplified spelling is not always shorter than regular spelling — sistem instead of system, hoep instead of hope.

    Carnegie tried to moov thingz along in 1906 when he helpt establish and fund th speling bord. He aulso uezd simplified speling in his correspondens, and askt enywun hoo reported to him to do the saem.

    A filanthropist, he becaem pashunet about th ishoo after speeking with Melvil Dewey, a speling reform activist and Dewey Desimal sistem inventor hoo simplified his furst naem bi droping "le" frum Melville.

    Roosevelt tried to get the government to adopt simpler spellings for 300 words but Congress blocked him. He used simple spellings in all White House memos, pressing forward his effort to "make our spelling a little less foolish and fantastic."

    The Chicago Tribune aulso got into th act, uezing simpler spelingz in th nuezpaeper for about 40 years, ending in 1975. Plae-riet George Bernard Shaw, hoo roet moest of his mateerial in shorthand, left muny in his wil for th development of a nue English alfabet.

    Carnegie, Dewey, Roosevelt and Shaw's work followed attempts by Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster and Mark Twain to advance simpler spelling. Twain lobbied The Associated Press at its 1906 annual meeting to "adopt and use our simplified forms and spread them to the ends of the earth." AP declined.

    But for aul th hi-proefiel and skolarly eforts, the iedeea of funy-luuking but simpler spelingz didn't captivaet the masez then — or now.

    "I think that the average person simply did not see this as a needed change or a necessary change or something that was ... going to change their lives for the better," said Marilyn Cocchiola Holt, manager of the Pennsylvania department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

    Carnegie, hoo embraest teknolojy, died in 1919, wel befor sel foenz. Had he livd, he probably wuud hav bin pleezd to no that milyonz of peepl send text and instant mesejez evry dae uezing thair oen formz of simplified speling: "Hav a gr8 day!"
     
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  3. Lornaabc

    Lornaabc New Member

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    We do have the craziest spelling anywhere.
     
  4. Velma

    Velma New Member

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    We really do but I couldn't handle "net speak" as a real language. :lol:
     
  5. Sherry

    Sherry Guest

    So much of the background and meaning of our language would be lost if we threw out the spelling. The people that want to do away with it can just go ahead and spend all the time they want typing away in their version of "literacy" in cyberspace but I think we should preserve our language.Imagine trying to translate a Bible so that it retains it's precise meaning into an inprecise language. There always seems to be someone that wants to bring things down to the lowest denominator when that's the denonimator that suits them.

    I should add that I don't see any harm in having a casual conversation and using shortcuts like U for you or spelling through thru and other abbreviations used casually but for the sake of understanding the sciences,philosophy,religion and other literature I believe we need to retain the roots of our language.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 10, 2006
  6. Jackie

    Jackie Active Member

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    Oh, it bothers me, Sherry! When I have to tell a 17YO DSS that he CANNOT write "U" in a thank-"U" note to a friend's dad for inviting him on a special trip. He honestly couldn't see what was so "wrong" with it!
     
  7. Sherry

    Sherry Guest

    I think you have a typical 17 yo ds. That sounds like something my 17 yo ds would do. But he wouldn't be letting me read the thank "U" note in the first place. : )
    Recently,I have been in big trouble with my son for doing things like that. :oops: :lol:
     
  8. Jackie

    Jackie Active Member

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    Part of it was, he felt that since he TOLD the guy thanks when he had been dropped off, that was it. I told him that no, I expected a NOTE to be written. Which is why I wanted to actually SEE the note. Yes, unfortunately, it probably is typical 17 YO boys! Sigh......
     
  9. Sherry

    Sherry Guest

    They can be exasperating at times. DRIVING with a 17 yo boy at the wheel can be a harrowing experience. My son is a fairly good driver, but he does have his moments that really unglue me. I just don't need that much excitement in my life. I like a peaceful, quiet life. His driving doesn't always fit in with that. I am thankful he is not interested in motorcycles - yet. My husband has a sport bike. It's just a matter of time before my ds shares the interest in motorcycles with his Dad. We also have a 24 year old son-in-law that rides motorcyles. I do enjoy seeing them have a good time, but it does cause me some stress at times.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 11, 2006
  10. Jackie

    Jackie Active Member

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    Well, DSS is now out and "on his own", such as it is. He doesn't keep in touch unless he needs something for the most part, because he knows that he has chosen his mother's flighty lifestyle over our more stable, responsible one. My DH felt that he had been given a "second chance" when Phillip (now 6) was born. And Phillip is ALL BOY! We had a gigantic tree branch come down in the back yard; Phillip showed me how some of the smaller branches on it could be used for a catapult. He can't wait until he's old enough to go hunting with Daddy!
     

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