Comments on: Do We Need New Spelling?

By: --Deb

--Deb — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 02:36:06 +0000

Of course, that shoe repair sign was using misspellings on purpose as plays on words, which makes it completely different. It wouldn’t make life easier for non-native speakers, though! (Or, you know, people who sadly just don’t know the difference.)

By: kunk

kunk — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 02:24:34 +0000

I just saw this somewhere: “Shoe Repair: I will heel you. I will save your sole. I will even dye for you.” And sometimes it is the other way around – different words spelled the same might be pronounced differently. I am not talking about “separate” as a verb and its adjectival counterpart, but rather things like lead/lead (metal / control/command). While these are signs of a sucky spelling/pronunciation correspondence in English, at the same time I think it is not such a big deal and that it is more than compensated for by the rest of English being totally awesome. Even I was able to learn to speak English on an acceptable level. Despite me trying, I have never really been able to follow a conversation or read an article in any other language than English and my native Czech.

By: This, dat…whateva! | First Impressions

This, dat…whateva! | First Impressions — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:21:03 +0000

[...] Deb Boyken points out in one of her blog posts: We don’t want to make spelling too hard for everyone, so let’s just drop the standards so [...]

By: Mansi Bhatia

Mansi Bhatia — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:42:57 +0000

Hi Deb,
Very well-written post. I just referred to it in one of mine: http://mansibhatia.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/this-dat-whateva/

Thanks,
Mansi.
.-= Mansi Bhatia´s last blog ..This, dat…whateva! =-.

By: This, dat…whateva! « First Impressions

This, dat…whateva! « First Impressions — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:21:07 +0000

[...] Deb Boyken points out in one of her blog posts: We don’t want to make spelling too hard for everyone, so let’s just drop the standards so [...]

By: J

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:01:50 +0000

I'm not a skilled speller, but the idea of pandering to my foibles rather than teaching me to do it correctly is horrid. J's last blog post..Kick Ass!

By: maria

maria — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 06:59:26 +0000

I can’t even read articles like this, because they infuriate me.

There was a thread on a message board *ahem* that deteriorated somewhat and ended up being about people not spelling properly and such. So many people who DIDN’T have learning disabilities would complain that we ought not be so harsh on misspellers, think of those unfortunate ones with problems learning. Then there were people who spoke up who DID have said disabilities, and I noticed that most of their posts were more coherent and had fewer errors.

I think that standardized spelling has probably helped create a more literate society. How much more difficult will it be to learn a language when things aren’t spelled the same way? If we allow two spellings of a word, will those learning the “easy” way understand when others among us choose to spell it the “difficult” way?

(And please forgive typos, my keyboard is acting up a little.)

By: --Deb

--Deb — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:46:10 +0000

@Other Deb–I have no problem with language evolving–it has to, or it ends up dead, like Latin. New words creep or bound in, old ones drop panting along the wayside, and “flavors” in spelling DO make themselves known. All of which is necessary to keep the language healthy. But it seems like, to “adapt” to all the suddenly needed changes–you know, to keep everyone on the same page–we would need to change a LOT of words, all at once. Drop the final-e off breathe, clothe, bathe; leave out apostrophes for pretty much every contraction … just because nobody seems to know that they belong there. Changing SOME words is evolution; changing vast numbers all at once is pandering (grin).

@Melissa–It IS true. Those of us who can write more or less correctly DO look better compared to all the illiterate slobs out there. (Not that all of them are slobs, of course. The ones who are illiterate without recourse have my absolute sympathy, it’s the ones who had all the opportunities and just blew them off that irritate me.)

Oh, and I don’t get “colonel” either, but addressing a military person as “Kernel” sounds a little corny. (Get it? Corny? Like a kernel of corn? … Um, never mind. It’s still early.)

–Deb’s last blog post..Do We Need New Spelling?

By: The Dangling Conversation » If I Ran the Zoo…(Just how important are proper spelling and grammar, anyway?)

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:09:20 +0000

[...] Deb at Punctuality Rules! Using Grammar and Good Manners to Save the World. The article is entitled “Do We Need New Spelling?” I was moved to write a sufficiently long comment that I would like to expand on it a bit here. Deb [...]

By: otherdeb (Deb Wunder)

otherdeb (Deb Wunder) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:39:35 +0000

Okay, there are a couple of things going on here.

First: While the grammar geek in me screams at improper usage and spelling, the plain fact of the matter is that – for most of linguistic history – there was no standard spelling. That has only come about in the last couple of centuries, with the collections of words that eventually developed into the dictionaries we know and love.

Second: I started screaming about this back when people started claiming that it was too difficult to understand how to use a semi-colon; I saw that as the first step down a slippery slope, and I still do.

Third: If I recall correctly, the first country to start doing away with punctuation in addresses – and in print in general – was Great Britain, so I find it difficult to swallow when someone from there now complains that spelling is too difficult.

Fourth: Anyone who thinks the primary aim of the American education system was really to educate people well is fooling themselves. It was designed to shape a very diverse group of people into a relatively homogeneous workforce. It succeeded in doing that for a while, but is not even succeeding at that small aim these days, sadly.

Fifth: I do realize that what seems to me to just be laziness might very well be a real difficulty with learning the rules. I work in a school (and, no, I am not a teacher) where most of the student body are immigrants or the first generation children thereof, and I can understand the difficulty a lot of these kids have with English (even our watered-down American version). In fact, though, many of these kids are illiterate in their native languages as well. And since I do not believe that all of them were born stupid, I’m not sure how this can be dealt with.

Did I want to sit and parse sentences as a kid? Heck no. Am I now glad I had to? Absolutely. However, the sad fact is education has become even less about education than about making kids feel good about themselves. My questions are: If it will hurt a kid’s self-esteem to fail a subject or lose at a gym activity now, how much more will it destroy his or her self-esteem to not be able to get a job that pays more than being a counter-person at a fast-food joint? In a society moving ever more rapidly toward information services and technologies, how will a person who cannot effectively communicate survive?

Standard spelling and grammar evolved for the same reason manners did: to ease interactions between people of a society. Should we toss that away just because it might be difficult for some to master? I think not.

(For the record, I am planning to expand on this comment at my own blog, http://www.thedanglingconversation.net, later today.)