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Re:English is a pictographic language with 26 radicals by ajb on Monday August 21, 2023 @05:37AM (#37207210)
A good description

Another amusing one is Mark Twain's plan:

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*
Re:English is a pictographic language with 26 radicals by cprecioso on Monday August 21, 2023 @05:59AM (#37207356)
I can't decipher what "doderez" is in the passage "bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez"
Re:English is a pictographic language with 26 radicals by DemocracyFTW2 on Monday August 21, 2023 @06:40AM (#37207634)
G. "Tattergreis"
Re:English is a pictographic language with 26 radicals by kwhitefoot on Monday August 21, 2023 @06:05AM (#37207398)
Dodderers. People who dodder.
Re:English is a pictographic language with 26 radicals by yorwba on Monday August 21, 2023 @06:03AM (#37207383)
Re:English is a pictographic language with 26 radicals by DrIronstein on Monday August 21, 2023 @06:04AM (#37207393)
Reminds me of Lord Timothy Dexter's book 'Pickle for the knowing ones'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pickle_for_the_Knowing_Ones
Re:English is a pictographic language with 26 radicals by ajb on Monday August 21, 2023 @06:28AM (#37207547)
Amazing: After receiving complaints about the lack of punctuation, Dexter published a second edition in 1805, this time containing pages full of punctuation in the appendix. He tells the readers to "peper and solt it as they plese."

Amusing though these are, they illustrate why spelling reform is hard in English: spelling correctly has become a status marker, and any changed spelling looks not merely wrong, but also stupid and deserving of contempt.

Re:English is a pictographic language with 26 radicals by teddyh on Monday August 21, 2023 @06:57AM (#37207794)
Not Mark Twain! It was written in 1971 by M. J. Shields¹. It has since been frequently mis-attributed to Mark Twain, who only wrote about a similar topic in 1899².

1. <https://allhomosapienswelcome.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/iorx-...>

2. <https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70/pg70-images.html#cha...>

Re:English is a pictographic language with 26 radicals by ajb on Monday August 21, 2023 @09:41AM (#37209476)
Ah! Thanks for the correction.
Re:English is a pictographic language with 26 radicals by TheLoafOfBread on Monday August 21, 2023 @12:53PM (#37212182)
Very similar to "What if English Were Phonetically consistent?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8zWWp0akUU

Re:English is a pictographic language with 26 radicals by kreig on Monday August 21, 2023 @02:25PM (#37213437)
Funny, the last part reads a lot as if it was written phonetically by a Spanish speaker.