When one went on one's Grand Tour......

When one went on one's Grand Tour at the age of 19, one lodged with an Old Harrovian.

One does want despewuttly to avoid blowing his cover.

I was lucky enuff to spend two months in Florence, Tuscany, Italy.

Florence is a charming woman and a wonderful city. Home of the Italian Renaissance.

One attended letchings at the Brutish Institute there.

I nearly read one of the books in the splendid libwawy, which overlooks the River Arnold.

Well - anyway the point one was wanting to make was that it was quite a shock for me to note quite how entirely PHONETIC the Eyetie lingo actually iz.

As are many others. It was only living in these warmer climes that brought it home.

Some Italian women would burst into tears over how hard they found English spelling.

BURD - WURD - SURCH!

BURD - WURD - SURCH!

TURD! :D

Bird, Word, Search!

All very different spelling - all very much the same sound!....

For things like this and the tears of frustration and anger that English-learners have to somehow transcend when they are met with looks of perplexity I HAVE PUT THIS BLOG HERE!.....

:)

More Homophones

PIECE           PEACE (PAX)
REIGN          RAIN
POOR            POUR
PAWS            PAUSE
MORE            MOOR
SLIGHT         SLEIGHT

English SPECIFICALLY has too TOO many HOMOPHONES!

English SPECIFICALLY has too TOO many HOMOPHONES!

FAR MORE THAN OTHER LINGOS!

DO YOU AGREE?

1) PROFIT PROPHET (Greek)
2) DUAL (Latin)  JEWEL
3) TOO TO TWO ( 3 there - I like doing things in three ;)

One solution is - extra terms/terminology -
WHICH ENGLISH IS ALRDEADY UNIQUELY RICH IN!!!!!

SUGGESTIONS for the above :

Profit Foreteller
Twofold Jewel
Also Duo AD :) (3 Different Altogether!)


...........

The allegation of the NO CHANGE Brigade is such things are CLEAR BY CONTEXT - indeed this is true as the same thing happens in many other languages of course.

HOYEVER - as they say in Northern Ireland - the combination of this phenomenon with the fenomenon of illogical and INCONSISTENT spelling (often due to the origins in older languages like Ancient Greek) calls - I think - for MORE flexibility NOT less.

To console English Speakers - in France and elsewhere there are PRESCRIPTIVE Academies of languages........
In the English-speaking world The NOW VAST O.E.D. is and always was DESCRIPTIVE.

Languages evolve anyway.

Italian for example was literally once Latin.......

..................

And so it goes on

like the great MISISIPI - sorry Winston!....




Dyslexia ROOLS UK.

Dyslexia ROOLS UK.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "DYSLEXIA" WHILST THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE EXISTS IN ITS PRESENT FORM.

"DYSLEXIA" DOES NOT EXIST.

If you disagree then you probably are an English speaker.

Why not chose a different language to speak and write in?
Maybe ...say Spanish.

Do everything in Spanish and THEN tell me if you still have "Dyslexia" (according to someone else) or think you do yourself.

"Orwell Day" is today - 21st January!

George Orwell died today in 1948.

George Orwell wrote of the English language in 1941

(in "The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius.")

that the spelling system "DEFIES ANALYSIS.".....

Oddly enough/enuff :) in his strong views regarding the future of the English language - which he of course cared about  - he does not seem to mention the possibility of spelling reform.

In this famous essay he makes recommendations about what he thinks would help its better development :
"Politics and the English Language" :

Politics and the English Language

He would certainly be against change by Diktat. That's a safe bet!

An irony of history!

The living language that is closest to English in human History is Dutch. [Also Frisian is particularly close].
An irony of history is that Dutch is extremely phonetically spelt.

De levende taal die het dichtst bij Engels in human Geschiedenis is Nederlands.
De ironie van de geschiedenis is dat Nederlands is zeer fonetisch gespeld.

PERHAPS we could let this fact inspire us IF we were of the opinion that our wonderful language were in any need of reform.

:)