Re: Knowing when to use "it's" and "its"

On Jul 1, 12:48 pm, "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jul 1, 4:59 am, Iain <iain_inks...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



On Jun 30, 4:18 pm, "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jun 30, 10:47 am, Iain <iain_inks...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jun 30, 12:53 pm, "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jun 30, 5:13 am, Ruud Harmsen <realemailons...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:59:55 -0700 (PDT): Iain
<iain_inks...@xxxxxxxxxxx>: in sci.lang:
What would you do with English spelling, given Academy-Francais
powers?

Keep it as it is.

Throw out the mistakenly introduced "etymological letters" like the b
in debt and the s in island.

Why not, by the same token, also throw out false phonetical letters,
such as by changing "tear" to "teer"?

Because (to take your example of <ea> vs. <ee>) they represent
historically different vowels that happened to merge in what came to
be the standard language, but there are to this day varieties of
English in which the words that are spelled differently are pronounced
differently.

It is a huge advantage of English spelling that it is not directly
connected to any particular variety of English, so it can be written
and read by any English-speaker throughout the world no matter how
they pronounce the written words.

This happy state of affairs came about because English spelling pretty
much got fixed by the early 18th century, just _before_ English
started spreading around the world in a really big way with lots of
local varieties cropping up, each with their own sound changes that
changed and sometimes merged the early-18th-century pronunciations
they were based on.

My reason not to do this is that the very deed of changing English
spelling, shatters the worldwide tradition of fixed spelling.

What kind of organisation would be capable of co-ordinating such
changes? Would this be a job for the Commonwealth?

Which accommodates only a minority of the world's English-speakers?

Yes but doesn't it span most of the Commonwealth Spelling?

??

And anyway, since when does such government interference have any
effect on general usage?

Via primary education.

~Iain
.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: Knowing when to use "its" and "its"
    ... English in which the words that are spelled differently are pronounced ... local varieties cropping up, each with their own sound changes that ... spelling, shatters the worldwide tradition of fixed spelling. ... Sort of. ...
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  • Re: Knowing when to use "its" and "its"
    ... English in which the words that are spelled differently are pronounced ... local varieties cropping up, each with their own sound changes that ... Sort of. ... What is this "Commonwealth spelling" you've mentioned twice now? ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Knowing when to use "its" and "its"
    ... English in which the words that are spelled differently are pronounced ... they pronounce the written words. ... local varieties cropping up, each with their own sound changes that ... shatters the worldwide tradition of fixed spelling. ...
    (sci.lang)