Spelling?

[Jona Lendering]

I don't see why it can't be upgraded or modernized,

PLEASE NO!!!!!! We've done that several times in Belgium and the Netherlands. It is a catastrophe.

Spelling is officially regulated in a Belgian and a Dutch spelling law of 1946 and 1947. To make things easier, the governments published a long list of words, informally known as 'the green booklet' because of its color. In the 1990's, however, the laws were amended and the new Green Booklet contained many errors.

In the end, an association called 'Onze Taal' (Our Language) decided to publish a better explanation of the law, which became known as the White Booklet. To make matters even more complicated, in 2005 the governments decided to amend the law, changing it a bit an following the examples of the White Booklet.

The net effect of this was that most Dutch newspapers decided to ignore the latest Green Booklet and use the new White Booklet, which again explains the law better than the explanation by the government. Most Belgians don't see a problem, and the dissatisfaction in the Netherlands may have less to do with love for language than with the fact that since the 1990's, the Dutch government has very often been unable to explain its own laws. (I could add examples from fiscal law; I lost my university job after a mistake by the Dutch tax department. :evil: )

[M. Demetrius]

I always thought it was rather unfair to criticize Dan Quayle for not being able to spell potato

Dan Quayle was reading the "correct" spelling from a card he was given by the teachers. That fact doesn't get the proper amount of exposure, imho. Funny how that works, isn't it?

[Jona Lendering]

I always thought it was rather unfair to criticize Dan Quayle for not being able to spell potato

Dan Quayle was reading the "correct" spelling from a card he was given by the teachers. That fact doesn't get the proper amount of exposure, imho. Funny how that works, isn't it?

That's true. Perhaps Quayle might have saved his face by saying "I think it is X, and I am somewhat surprised to see Y on this card". A politician who publicly expresses that he is not certain about something - wow, that would be an honest man. I certainly might consider voting for him (her).

[M. Demetrius]

Diogenes would follow you into the polling places, Jona, if he weren't in there first.

[Mitra]

I agree with Matt, a correct mastery of language is important, especially if the errors can alter the phrase sense. This site is interesting about the language problems: http://claudepiron.free.fr/articles.htm .

In Italy just to TV era (60 years ago) the use of italian was not so diffuse in daily live of people mass (also if vulgar italian is born soon from the original latin), especially in the rural people. The italian dialects are very different both from italian that one from other, for grammar and song (for the substrate of pre-latin languages and external post-latin influences), so during the WWI the officers need translators in the units for understand the dialect of soldiers in the various units. The kids learned it to school but in all day live they don't used it with their parents.
The TV has been the great unifier of italian society .

BUt anyway the written languages change also for semplification needs derived from the common use. The romance languages aren't regional semplified version of latin?

[Arthes]

I think this example sums up the problems. And I bless the Italians; if you can read it, you know how to pronounce it.

Reminds me of something Benny Hill was good at.... :lol:
Ghoti....I pronounced it goati...not fish!
Anyway, isn't gh only pronounced f at the end of the word....like cough or enough....!
I hope this doesn't catch on....its bad enough trying to decipher (deesighfur) text talk.... :roll:

Edit:

Ghoti....I pronounced it goati

on second thoughts...isn't that a goatee..!!

[jsantell]

I think the following quote sums up the problem. English is a mishmash of dozens of other languages.

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."
--James D. Nicoll

[Ron Andrea]

Bill Cosby offered the following analysis to the NAACP in 2004:

'They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk:

Why you ain't,
Where you is,
What he drive,
Where he stay,
Where he work,
Who you be...

And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk.

And then I heard the father talk.

Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.

In fact, you will never get any kind of job making a decent living. People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around. The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal.

These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids. $500 sneakers for what??

And they won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.