Bad spelling? It's ok.

[Cen0bite]

http://news.**********/s/nm/20080807...pelling_odd_dc

LONDON (Reuters) - Embaressed by yor spelling? Never you mind.
Fed up with his students' complete inability to spell common English correctly, a British academic has suggested it may be time to accept "variant spellings" as legitimate.

Rather than grammarians getting in a huff about "argument" being spelled "arguement" or "opportunity" as "opertunity," why not accept anything that's phonetically (fonetickly anyone?) correct as long as it can be understood?

"Instead of complaining about the state of the education system as we correct the same mistakes year after year, I've got a better idea," Ken Smith, a criminology lecturer at Bucks New University, wrote in the Times Higher Education Supplement.

"University teachers should simply accept as variant spelling those words our students most commonly misspell."

To kickstart his proposal, Smith suggested 10 common misspellings that should immediately be accepted into the pantheon of variants, including "ignor," "occured," "thier," "truely," "speach" and "twelth" (it should be "twelfth").

Then of course there are words like "misspelt" (often spelled "mispelt"), not to mention "varient," a commonly used variant of "variant."

And that doesn't even begin to delve into all the problems English people have with words that use the letters "i" and "e" together, like weird, seize, leisure, foreign and neighbor.

The rhyme "i before e except after c" may be on the lips of every schoolchild in Britain, but that doesn't mean they remember the rule by the time they get to university.

Of course, such proposals have been made in the past. The advent of text messaging turned many students into spelling neanderthals as phrases such as "wot r u doin 2nite?" became socially, if not academically, acceptable.

Despite Smith's suggestion, language mavens are unconvinced. John Simpson, the chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, says rules are rules and they are there for good reason.

"There are enormous advantages in having a coherent system of spelling," he told the Times newspaper.

"It makes it easier to communicate. Maybe during a learning phase there is some scope for error, but I would hope that by the time people get to university they have learnt to spell."

Yet even some of Britain's greatest wordsmiths have acknowledged it's a language with irritating quirkiness.

Playwright George Bernard Shaw was fond of pointing out that the word "ghoti" could just as well be pronounced "fish" if you followed common pronunciation: 'gh' as in "tough," 'o' as in "women" and 'ti' as in "nation."

And he was a playright.

[Mir]

"The rhyme "i before e except after c"

Thanks for that. Anyone know any other neat little ditties, such as that one?

[dabbadmc]

But...that's just an excuse for laziness! :o

[LiUsAiDh]

Originally Posted by dabbadmc

But...that's just an excuse for laziness! :o

Quoted for truth, people will just use poorer and poorer spelling untill nobody can understand anything - or more on topic -

qft pl l js uz prr + prr splg tl nbdi cn ndastnd owt

[Tam Li Hua]

I think the English teacher in me just died a little..

[Underwater Ophelia]

This is wrong.

It just showcases how much we're devaluing education and intelligence.

[Minyaliel]

But... but... they _can't_ do that... what about us foreigners who've spent YEARS remembering the correct spelling? That's just not fair. Besides, it looks ugly.

[Strīcan]

How hard is it to spell 'dictionary'? It really is not that hard to use proper spelling.

I can't believe that the quality of many people's communication processes, not to mention some people's blood pressure, is going to be compromised in order to accommodate the laziness of little minds.

[Godslayer Jillian]

Originally Posted by Underwater Ophelia

This is wrong.

It just showcases how much we're devaluing education and intelligence.

Not education and intelligence - literacy.
People were smart before writing existed; this is not going to change. If I were to speak l33t from now on would that make me stupid?
No.
I'm not splitting hairs; let's just not assume something that isn't there.
This is bad because it's another step in neglecting literacy.

[Splintered]

All languages are essentially poor versions of other languages.

Think about it. English is a poor verison of earlier Old English languages, which are in turn a really poor version of West Germanic Languages, which is in turn a really really poor version of Germanic languages in general, which is then in turn a very crappy version of Proto-Germanic languages, finally being a very crappy version of earlier Indo-European languages!

So what makes our particular variant of the local dialect right? The number of people who speak it?

[KontanKarite]

frum naou ahn, eym gohin tew tok lik thees. Yew noh, cuz speling dohnt matur.

[Saya]

Dear god, lolspeak is next, isn't it?!

[Underwater Ophelia]

Jillian, good point.

[CptSternn]

Originally Posted by Underwater Ophelia

This is wrong.

It just showcases how much we're devaluing education and intelligence.

My thoughts exactly.

[Duane]

OW! Another blow to literacy, how can it take such punishment?!

[Renatus]

Could I borrow a chainsaw from somebody, I'm going to...um... trim some hedges.

[Duane]

*Hands Ren a chainsaw*I want it back by next Saturday.

[PortraitOfSanity]

*offers to pay to clean the bloodst..... I mean..... hedgestains.... off Duane's chainsaw*

[Underwater Ophelia]

You guys realize you aren't contributing to this at all, right?
Instead of turning this thread into another thread of nonsense, why not just talk about why it bothers you or doesn't, or how this can be fixed, or something like that?

[Renatus]

Originally Posted by Duane

*Hands Ren a chainsaw*I want it back by next Saturday.

No guarantees there are a lot of thick sku... branches, I better pick up some extra chains from the hardware store.

But me and my social studies teacher once had a good discussion about how the loss of a language leads to more violence due to lack of ability to communicate negating all diplomatic efforts between the parties. I've only heard part of it but I think the story of the tower of babble covers this same issue.

[Duane]

Well, whenever you're done with it, bring it back. The Zombies are making a comeback at my tree stump.

Yes, I realize I am not contributing anything to this thread, I sincerly apologize. I think the people who use bad grammar are just lazy, I would know, I'm one of them. I mean, why bother with perfect grammar, when you can forsake it, and take care of the "important" stuff. It's willfull ignorance! Correct me if I'm wrong Godslayer, Kontan, Ophelia.

[gothicusmaximus]

What this guy is suggesting is merely that we don't resist the natural course of language's evolution. English's fluidity and ability to change is one of the reasons for which it's survived for as long as it has.
In the scope of speech's history, standardized spellings of words is a relatively new concept-- for instance, in writing his plays, Shakespeare often simply used whatever letters he personally judged would best denote a given word.

[Underwater Ophelia]

Originally Posted by Duane

I think the people who use bad grammar are just lazy, I would know, I'm one of them. I mean, why bother with perfect grammar, when you can forsake it, and take care of the "important" stuff. It's willfull ignorance! Correct me if I'm wrong Godslayer, Kontan, Ophelia.

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, but your grammar on here is pretty good.

Anyway, the problem isn't that grammar isn't the most important part of communicating with words, it's that it'll get out of control.

i mean, typing like this isnt really so bad you can still get the point

bt dis???itsjusthrd 2 reed n u cant relly b sur whts goin on

Soon words will have much different meanings ("ignorant," anyone?), and it will get harder and harder to communicate.

[Duane]

Just one of Duane's attempt at a joke.

Oh, if only I was as intelligent as you, Ophelia.

[Underwater Ophelia]

Originally Posted by Duane

Just one of Duane's attempt at a joke.

Oh, if only I was as intelligent as you, Ophelia.

If you are mocking me I will find you and punch you.
Punch you right in the ovary.