Comments on: The future of English http://futurismic.com/2008/04/25/the-future-of-english/ Presenting the fact and fiction of tomorrow since 2001 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:03:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Paul Raven http://futurismic.com/2008/04/25/the-future-of-english/comment-page-1/#comment-14206 Paul Raven Sat, 26 Apr 2008 08:26:00 +0000 http://futurismic.com/2008/04/25/the-future-of-english/#comment-14206 Some good thinking here, folks - thanks for all chipping in. Oh, and Jeremy - "... the moment English switches, we immediately fracture into several dialects that may not be completely mutually intelligible." Have you ever travelled in the UK? I only have to take a six hour train ride to see my mother for the local dialect to be nearly a foreign language! :) Some good thinking here, folks – thanks for all chipping in.

Oh, and Jeremy -

“… the moment English switches, we immediately fracture into several dialects that may not be completely mutually intelligible.”

Have you ever travelled in the UK? I only have to take a six hour train ride to see my mother for the local dialect to be nearly a foreign language! :)

]]> By: Clifford W. Dunbar http://futurismic.com/2008/04/25/the-future-of-english/comment-page-1/#comment-14205 Clifford W. Dunbar Sat, 26 Apr 2008 06:24:11 +0000 http://futurismic.com/2008/04/25/the-future-of-english/#comment-14205 I think we see "alright" because of the tendency of English toward agglutinization plus parallelism with "already". A preference for either spelling has nothing to do with phonetics as neither form is more or less phonetic than the other. If you do prefer one form over the other, you'll need to look deeper into your reasoning than pronunciation. I'm not crazy about a strictly phonetic approach to written language. I don't want to pick up a novel by a an author from Australia, for example, and try to decipher the meaning from region-specific pronunications. Same goes with authors from other exotic places, such as Britain, South Africa, and Boston. The Chinese ideograph system has survived so long because it is a useful link between the many dialects of Mandarin and Cantonese. It is even used in Japanese and Korean. People who don't speak the same language can get some ideas across in writing. I think a writing system based solely on sound is not as workable as the systems we currently see. And maybe that's why we see it only rarely (like in Hebrew for example, but even there you have to deal with the diacritics). Spanish is often touted as an example of a phonetic language, but I have strong reasons to disagree with that.... but I'm wandering off the topic now. I think we see “alright” because of the tendency of English toward agglutinization plus parallelism with “already”. A preference for either spelling has nothing to do with phonetics as neither form is more or less phonetic than the other. If you do prefer one form over the other, you’ll need to look deeper into your reasoning than pronunciation.

I’m not crazy about a strictly phonetic approach to written language. I don’t want to pick up a novel by a an author from Australia, for example, and try to decipher the meaning from region-specific pronunications. Same goes with authors from other exotic places, such as Britain, South Africa, and Boston. The Chinese ideograph system has survived so long because it is a useful link between the many dialects of Mandarin and Cantonese. It is even used in Japanese and Korean. People who don’t speak the same language can get some ideas across in writing. I think a writing system based solely on sound is not as workable as the systems we currently see. And maybe that’s why we see it only rarely (like in Hebrew for example, but even there you have to deal with the diacritics). Spanish is often touted as an example of a phonetic language, but I have strong reasons to disagree with that…. but I’m wandering off the topic now.

]]> By: anonymouse http://futurismic.com/2008/04/25/the-future-of-english/comment-page-1/#comment-14204 anonymouse Sat, 26 Apr 2008 04:43:35 +0000 http://futurismic.com/2008/04/25/the-future-of-english/#comment-14204 There's also the problem of who gets to decide the appropriate phonetic spelling. There’s also the problem of who gets to decide the appropriate phonetic spelling.

]]> By: Geno Z Heinlein http://futurismic.com/2008/04/25/the-future-of-english/comment-page-1/#comment-14201 Geno Z Heinlein Sat, 26 Apr 2008 02:09:36 +0000 http://futurismic.com/2008/04/25/the-future-of-english/#comment-14201 Rodney wrote: "... but I’m pretty sure if phonetic spelling was done right, a person wouldn’t have to be aware of all the standards to spell correctly." What would we use to replace spelling as a quick and easy way to estimate someone's literacy and education? Rodney wrote: “… but I’m pretty sure if phonetic spelling was done right, a person wouldn’t have to be aware of all the standards to spell correctly.”

What would we use to replace spelling as a quick and easy way to estimate someone’s literacy and education?

]]> By: Jeremy http://futurismic.com/2008/04/25/the-future-of-english/comment-page-1/#comment-14200 Jeremy Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:45:13 +0000 http://futurismic.com/2008/04/25/the-future-of-english/#comment-14200 French has the same problems that English does. An archaic spelling system that was artificially frozen (or at least considerably slowed down) centuries ago. The French did it by government-appointed committee, English did it by societal pressure and dictionaries. Where we're going is the big question. Personally, I don't think we'll move to completely phonetic system in our lifetime, not unless nanobots start keeping us alive for centuries. Our archaic system means that there's a history to every word, and it's often visible right there. Not to mention, the moment English switches, we immediately fracture into several dialects that may not be completely mutually intelligible. We'll wind up a globalized version of Italian and diverge from there. I've never red Zindell, might have to add him to the stack. French has the same problems that English does. An archaic spelling system that was artificially frozen (or at least considerably slowed down) centuries ago. The French did it by government-appointed committee, English did it by societal pressure and dictionaries.

Where we’re going is the big question. Personally, I don’t think we’ll move to completely phonetic system in our lifetime, not unless nanobots start keeping us alive for centuries. Our archaic system means that there’s a history to every word, and it’s often visible right there. Not to mention, the moment English switches, we immediately fracture into several dialects that may not be completely mutually intelligible. We’ll wind up a globalized version of Italian and diverge from there.

I’ve never red Zindell, might have to add him to the stack.

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