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Why don't we revamp English language to be more phonetic?

Zeze

Zeze

Lifer
I'm half serious. I also speak Korean (one of the youngest and modern language, derived and improved from Chinese) and Korean language is very phonetic.

95%~ of the time it's pronounced the way it is spelled with designated fixed vowel characters. I can literally teach you how to read Korean in 10 minutes.

Now, I don't give a shit about Korean language, neither do you. But it gives an example that our language doesn't have to behave our current way.

Why can't English be more like this? I was terribly appalled when I was learning English and even adults couldn't spell certain words.

1. You got your unnecessary double letter spellings (fucking 'unnecessary', mississppi, appreciate).

2. Vowels that sound different on every occasion (Apple, fAther, fAme, etc).

3. Then you have pure retarded arbitrary spellings like Sa(l)mon, De(b)t, etc...

Can we clean it up a little bit? It's chaotic. And yes that's pronounced Kayotic.
 
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It's a nice change of pace. Most of the Indian languages are phonetic too. You speak what ever you write.
 
Do schools even put any emphasis on phonics anymore? I think it was phased out in the 1970's about the time the new math was coming in.

What you're going to see is a bastardization of spelling as a result of texting...but maybe that's the first step towards a revamp of our language.
 
Pronunciation - Silent Letters 😵

Here is a list of common letter combinations with silent letters.
This list contains most of the silent letters that give English as a second language students difficulties.

Silent B
B is not pronounced when following M at the end of a word.
climb
crumb
dumb
comb
Silent C
C is not pronounced in the ending "scle"
muscle
Silent D
D is not pronounced in the following common words:
handkerchief
sandwich
Wednesday

Silent E
E is not pronounced at the end of words and usually makes the vowel long.

hope
drive
gave
write
site
Silent G
G is not often not pronounced when followed by an N
champagne
foreign
sign
feign

Silent GH
GH is not pronounced before T and at the end of many words
thought
through
daughter
light
might
right
fight
weigh

Silent H
H is not pronounced when following W. Some speakers whisper the H before the W.
what
when
where
whether
why
Silent H
H is not pronounced at the beginning of many words. Use the article "an" with unvoiced H.
Here are some of the most common:
hour
honest
honor
heir
herb

Pronounced H
H is pronounced at the beginning of these common words. Use the article "a" with voiced H.
hill
history
height
happy
hangover

Silent K
K is not pronounced when followed by N at the beginning of a word.
knife
knee
know
knock
knowledge

Silent L
L is often not pronounced before L, D, F, M, K.
calm
half
salmon
talk
balk
would
should

Silent N
N is not pronounced following M at the end of a word.
autumn
hymn

Silent P
P is not pronounced at the beginning of many words using the suffix "psych" and "pneu".
psychiatrist
pneumonia
psychotherapy
psychotic

Silent S
S is not pronounced before L in the following words:
island
isle

Silent T
T is not pronounced in these common words:
castle
Christmas
fasten
listen
often
whistle
thistle

Silent U
U is not pronounced before after G and before a vowel.
guess
guidance
guitar
guest

Silent W
W is not pronounced at the beginning of a word followed by an R.
wrap
write
wrong

Silent W
W is not pronounced with these three pronouns:
who
whose
whom
Click to expand...
 
In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.
Click to expand...

Like so?
 
Zeze said:
I'm half serious. I also speak Korean (one of the youngest and modern language, derived and improved from Chinese) and Korean language is very phonetic.

95%~ of the time it's pronounced the way it is spelled with designated fixed vowel characters. I can literally teach you how to read Korean in 10 minutes.

Now, I don't give a shit about Korean language, neither do you. But it gives an example that our language doesn't have to behave our current way.

Why can't English be more like this? I was terribly appalled when I was learning English and even adults couldn't spell certain words.

1. You got your unnecessary double letter spellings (fucking 'unnecessary', mississppi, appreciate).

2. Vowels that sound different on every occasion (Apple, fAther, fAme, etc).

3. Then you have pure retarded arbitrary spellings like Sa(l)mon, De(b)t, etc...

Can we clean it up a little bit? It's chaotic. And yes that's pronounced Kayotic.
Click to expand...

wont be necessary when best korea takes over the US and hangul speeekee becomes mandatory.
 
<-- comes from the country that invented the language

Yes English is garbage and should be revamped to be more phonetic or... fonetic :thumbsup:
 
(1) This is already happening, especially in American English. The superfluous "u" has been dropped from words like "neighbor" and "color" and the "s" has been changed to a "z" in words like "realize" and "optimize." Words like "plough" and "draught" have become "plow" and "draft."

(2) Any language as cosmopolitan as English is going to have phonetic difficulties. English has spent the past several hundred years importing words directly from other languages. And even excepting words that have been lifted wholesale from other languages (and therefore follow those languages' pronunciations, such as "champagne" following the French pronunciation rules), many words that are now "native" English words came in from other languages centuries ago. There are words that have Germanic roots, some with Scandinavian roots, some with Greek roots, and many with Latin roots. A language simply cannot have such a diverse background and still maintain consistent phonetic rules in all cases.

(3) The duplicated "n" in "unnecessary" is actually necessary, as is the duplicated "s." In the case of the duplicated "n," this signals a break between syllables; without it, the word would be pronounced "un-es-is-sary" instead of "un-nes-is-sary." The double "s" is needed for similar reasons, though, admittedly, many modern speakers split the syllables before the double "s" rather than in the middle. The duplicated letters in "Mississippi" and "appreciate" perform the same function. Though, again, modern pronunciation has been drifting away from recognizing this.

ZV
 
Zenmervolt said:
(1) This is already happening, especially in American English. The superfluous "u" has been dropped from words like "neighbor" and "color" and the "s" has been changed to a "z" in words like "realize" and "optimize." Words like "plough" and "draught" have become "plow" and "draft."

(2) Any language as cosmopolitan as English is going to have phonetic difficulties. English has spent the past several hundred years importing words directly from other languages. And even excepting words that have been lifted wholesale from other languages (and therefore follow those languages' pronunciations, such as "champagne" following the French pronunciation rules), many words that are now "native" English words came in from other languages centuries ago. There are words that have Germanic roots, some with Scandinavian roots, some with Greek roots, and many with Latin roots. A language simply cannot have such a diverse background and still maintain consistent phonetic rules in all cases.

(3) The duplicated "n" in "unnecessary" is actually necessary, as is the duplicated "s." In the case of the duplicated "n," this signals a break between syllables; without it, the word would be pronounced "un-es-is-sary" instead of "un-nes-is-sary." The double "s" is needed for similar reasons, though, admittedly, many modern speakers split the syllables before the double "s" rather than in the middle. The duplicated letters in "Mississippi" and "appreciate" perform the same function. Though, again, modern pronunciation has been drifting away from recognizing this.

ZV
Click to expand...

This, definitely this. Also, we can't be bothered to learn to type accent marks over every other vowel. Too inefficient.
 
We need to get after French first! Or at least simultaneously! Someone above said they like Spanish, Portuguese is great for avoiding junk like this as well.
 
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