RE: Oxford proposes a leaner alphabet

From: Tex Texin (textexin@xencraft.com)
Date: Wed Apr 01 2009 - 20:10:31 CST

  • Next message: Hohberger, Clive: "RE: Oxford proposes a leaner alphabet"

    Thanks John, I also thought it was originated by Mark Shields in a letter to
    the Economist.
    http://www.ojohaven.com/fun/spelling.html

    I'll have to update these:
    http://www.i18nguy.com/humor/eurospell.html
    http://www.i18nguy.com/twain.html

    Surprised I haven't run across that info before.
    tex

    -----Original Message-----
    From: unicode-bounce@unicode.org [mailto:unicode-bounce@unicode.org] On
    Behalf Of John H. Jenkins
    Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 1:54 PM
    To: unicode Unicode Discussion
    Subject: Re: Oxford proposes a leaner alphabet

    It doesn't come from Mark Twain. The source of this is ultimately
    Dolton Edwards' "Meihem in ce Klasrum", which first appeared in the
    September 1946 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. The ISFDB notes
    that this is, "short and popular, so frequently retyped / copied
    online, often mutated and mis-attributed." See also
    <http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j31/satires.php
    >.

    On Apr 1, 2009, at 2:44 PM, Hans Aberg wrote:

    > On 1 Apr 2009, at 19:13, Michael Everson wrote:
    >
    >> http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1449684
    >
    > The are out late, in view of the quote below about English spelling
    > reform attributed to Mark Twain.
    >
    > Hans
    >
    > --------------
    > 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.
    >
    > Mark Twain
    > --------------
    >
    >

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