OK, it's finally Friday. The English spelling that needs fixing is not the trivial inconsistency between US and UK. It's the pervasive internal inconsistency within the language itself. Steel vs. steal vs. stele. Say what?
Why was the latest North American National Spelling Bee a multi-hour special on ESPN? Because learning to spell in English is an arduous ordeal that takes years just to succeed passingly well. And to be a star requires a special talent that may be as uncommon--though hardly as well paid--as world class sport. I had a Finnish linguistics professor who (unscientifically) estimated that Spanish speakers have a few years advantage over English speakers in learning to read and write their native language. And Finnish speakers have a further advantage over Spanish speakers. Finnish spelling is so rigorously regular, according to my prof, that it's common in English Language class to answer a fellow student's spelling question by pronouncing an English word as if it were Finnish. That allows the asker to write the word unambiguously and get on with her life. This why English spelling needs fixing. . . JO.Skip Robinson Southern California Edison Company SHARE MVS Program Co-Manager 626-302-7535 Office 323-715-0595 Mobile [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Hunkeler Peter (KIUB 34)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent by: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> 06/23/2006 12:00 AM Please respond to IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> To [email protected] cc Subject Re: Mainframe Limericks... >If somebody could just fix the d*mn spelling. ;-) Which one? The American or the Britisch? Peter Hunkeler ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
