1) HOW TO SELECT THE BEST NEW SYSTEM
(Edit 2021)
(Edit 2021)
A system has been chosen by the English spelling Society. It is sad that a system that is less intuitive and logical has been chosen, but it is worth mentioning that the president of the society who initiated the competition won. Coincidence? Who was the committee charged to judge?
My recommendation for an impartial selection of a system (May 2008)
In a nutshell, I envisage hundreds of groups of random university students to do the selecting. The way I envision the selection of a new system is that a linguistic professor for each advanced educational institution (we could select all institutions or we could select institutions in a random fashion) would be in charge of answering questions related to linguistic questions posed by the diverse students (this is a project opened to all kinds of students, not just linguistics or arts' students). I --or others-- would create a PUBLIC website in which I --or others-- would present the code of the spelling reformers using a very uniform and specific format for all, allowing students to compare schemes (advantages and disadvantages). The format could be something that should be discussed with all individual reformers who would like to showcase effectively their spelling scheme. Students would analyze the schemes, critically, and discuss the worthiness of each scheme, as part of some kind of a paper (perhaps). After class discussions or group discussions would hopefully be part of the course (or of the meetings). If this could be part of a legitimate university course, then this could be a plus for everyone. Students would feel they would be working for something useful and earn credits towards their degrees. Linguistic professors would hopefully feel the same way. At the end of the course or discussion, students would be voting (online and paper version for control) for one or two schemes they like. The votes of all students would be analyzed and schemes that are winners would be declared winners. We (spelling schemers) could vote on one voting scheme, as it is found in traditional election systems (https://en.wikipedia.org/
2) HOW TO FIX THE SYSTEM WITH ALL OF THOSE DIFFERENT DIALECTAL ACCENTS?
Many languages have had reforms (spelling reform) and many were successful. The better ones did not expect current learners to learn the new system. Moreover, today, we have computers, smart phones, AI,… In other words, many paradigms have shifted. In fact, many paradigms have shifted in the last decade or two and at increasing speed. Are the naysayers keeping up with those? Are they shifting with the shifts? I don’t think so. Their paradigm has not shifted. It is the old arguments given again and again. Why are they so reticent? No one who loves to read this will be asked to learn a new system, as I will explain. Why would they want to subject others —including kids— to mental torture because the reality is that the MAJORITY of kids struggle, the MAJORITY of citizens struggle, the MAJORITY of foreigners struggle. While the naysayers love exceptions, the evidence is there: no matter how you look at it, it is a mess. (This neurological research might explain why some people are reluctant. It is not so much the people as it is how some brain works! To be sure, people whose identity is shaped because they know English and can earn a living might have an even stronger reaction, but I will prove that there is nothing to be feared about. Change can be a win-win proposition if done with respect and intelligence.)
But, how could we do it? There have been a few attempts to try to reform the English spelling system. The most serious one came to an abrupt end 100 years ago. President Roosevelt had initiated. His friend, Carnegie, who had been delegated the task of looking into it, believed that we should not force people to spell and read differently as his board had decided. He preferred a more informal and timid reform where people could decide to adopt the changes or not. (Simplified Spelling Board - Wikipedia) Purists, vested interest groups (publishers), and political games did the rest. (German and French reforms of recent times have suffered similar fates. By trying to appeal to the general population, by making minimal changes, they opened themselves to criticisms for being superfluous or a lot of trouble for nothing.) The main issue, however, is the idea of forcing people to adopt the changes or hoping that people will do. All of this would make a holder of an MBA laugh as both approaches are ineffective. In the case of English, there might be a cultural aspect to this as well. The British culture is know for their ability to manage adversity by keeping a stiff upper lip and avoiding reality by going to bars, as this question demonstrated: What are some dark sides of the UK? Not sure if having to learn to spell and read such a complex system is one of the reasons for these types of behaviours, but it might make them less interested in changing matters.They are proud of their culture and their language, like most people are. That is to be admired, of course. But, this is not about culture. It is not about language per se. It is about a spelling system. Times have changed. Times are changing. There is Quora and we can discuss things. Today, we also know more about management of changes. People are texting now. Computers were introduced 30 years ago and everyone seems to have a smartphone in their hands now. One billion Chinese are soon to be a force to be reckoned with. Which international language are they going to speak? Chinese? Many paradigms have shifted. Not sure what is going to be the tipping point. But, things have evolved.
One of the ideas (which is closer to Carnegie's thinking) is that we should NOT try to “force” people who know the current system to learn the new one. However, we have pushed that idea to its extreme. It is our contention that no one, unless they wanted to, should learn to spell using the new system unless they desire it. It is our contention that the key to making a reform work should be to introduce it methodically and slowly in schools first and only in schools. That does not mean that we would introduce bits of the new spelling system to all grades. It will be ALL of the new spelling system starting with the Grade 1 kids, as a wave. Of course, this plan would need to be approved by the government and the people. There will be a congress next year during which a group of linguists and professors at the English Spelling Society will decide which is the system(s) that they recommend. I believe we should use a system that is based on a general dialect that has some, but not all the features of any of the dialects. I am talking about the vowel diaphonemes found on this page. I am including a reformatted sample to give an idea. The multiple dialects that the original chart has have been removed because the idea is that the diaphonemes will be used as the pronunciation guide to be used with whatever spelling system will be chosen. This could be a cooperative process where all representatives of a major dialects could pick one phoneme that they would like to use to make that diaphonemic lingua franca. So, if England were to be chosen as #1, it could chose that “trap” words will now be pronounced with the /ae/ and spelled with an “a” as “trap” and another repr. from another country (#2) could request that “bath”/”father” words (if the /a:/ is used) will not be spelled baeth/faether (faedher)), and so on and so forth. Btw, this is one diaphoneme that would require an agreement on as it has 2 possible phonemic representations. All others are straightforward. The match with the new spelling system (whatever it is) will be 1:1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_chart_for_English_dialects
Beyond that, it is our view that a reform should take place in all schools once teachers have been trained. It should be starting with a group that has not learned to read and write: 6 year old kids. The rest of the school children would be taught the old system. It might be wise to start teaching these children bits of the new system. Again, the government will look at the recommendations and decide what they feel is best. The next year, the second cohort of new grade 1 kids would start school learning the new system while the older Grade 1 would move into Grade 2, continuing to learn to read and write using the new system. Tablets will be given/lend to all students (school and home) to access information from the internet or other sources, except that this information would be instantly transcoded when they need it, like it happens with Google translate. I think that by the time this happens, most tablets will be very inexpensive for schools so that all students will have one. (Dana Smith felt free tablets should be given to needy families, but I think these should be loaned like textbooks are/were.) They will be like those textbooks that were given to us at the beginning of the year. Btw, transcoding is much faster and more accurate than translating. Eventually, after a few years, some of these cohorts will be taught the basics of English 2.0: how to read street signs, store signs,… They would not learn how to spell using English 1.0, but they will learn to decode a basic set of words and, especially towards the end of their schooling, how to read English 1.0 words of their trade. There might be a need for them to have a slightly different accent depending on how standardized English 2.0 will be, which might depend on which countries decide to participate in the reform. This reform will take 12 years to works its way out, but it will take years to make it occur. Convincing the population will take years and then politicians more years. But, if and when it is approved, the 12 years will give even more time for society to get ready. Free transcoders (programs that can transcode between English 1.0 and English 2.0) will be available for all. This will be very simple to do. In fact, some reformists have made some of them. When these cohorts exit the school system, they will try to find work like all students or they will go to university. Books and manuals should be available in both codes. This should not be so hard for publishing companies and digital copies of these should available for download into tablets. We would hope that by that time students’ books would all be the digital type. Again, these are recommendations.
Will a reform be perfect? Is anything perfect? Is the English spelling system now perfect? Why are those lovers of perfection in love with imperfection? There are thousands of imperfections now and they are fine with those? Be coherent! The system will no doubt be much easier to learn and to teach. That is self-evident, as demonstrated earlier. Something is simpler to learn than something that is complex.
Will some dialects need to re-align some of the pronunciation of a few words? Probably unless they want to develop their own English 2.0 or unless their kids can be bilingual in both Singapore English which pronounces some words that have a short /a/ as /E/ and the new English 2.0 (an international version). I believe kids have that capacity. Up to them to pronounce it the way they want. We would suggest they teach in school the right way and enforce the change in the media. When there is 250 years of laissez-faire, it is necessary to take extraordinary measures, but it will be up to Singapore and other dialects to align themselves with the diaphonemic spelling that is as impartial as one can make it. Accents will be preserved in many instances though, but they will less … pronounced in some cases. But, bad should not be spelled “bed”. Multiple spellings of words could be allowed, but whenever it is feasible. IN some sense, a re-alignment will nt be bad for those “rogue” dialectal words and speakers. It will allow to be understood by more people in the Commonwealth. Is it that bed? I mean “bad?
But, there are many excuses given to not change things. Please, follow this link to see how those could be dealt with.
3) Iezi Ingglish
The diagram below was a draft.
2) HOW TO FIX THE SYSTEM WITH ALL OF THOSE DIFFERENT DIALECTAL ACCENTS?
Many languages have had reforms (spelling reform) and many were successful. The better ones did not expect current learners to learn the new system. Moreover, today, we have computers, smart phones, AI,… In other words, many paradigms have shifted. In fact, many paradigms have shifted in the last decade or two and at increasing speed. Are the naysayers keeping up with those? Are they shifting with the shifts? I don’t think so. Their paradigm has not shifted. It is the old arguments given again and again. Why are they so reticent? No one who loves to read this will be asked to learn a new system, as I will explain. Why would they want to subject others —including kids— to mental torture because the reality is that the MAJORITY of kids struggle, the MAJORITY of citizens struggle, the MAJORITY of foreigners struggle. While the naysayers love exceptions, the evidence is there: no matter how you look at it, it is a mess. (This neurological research might explain why some people are reluctant. It is not so much the people as it is how some brain works! To be sure, people whose identity is shaped because they know English and can earn a living might have an even stronger reaction, but I will prove that there is nothing to be feared about. Change can be a win-win proposition if done with respect and intelligence.)
But, how could we do it? There have been a few attempts to try to reform the English spelling system. The most serious one came to an abrupt end 100 years ago. President Roosevelt had initiated. His friend, Carnegie, who had been delegated the task of looking into it, believed that we should not force people to spell and read differently as his board had decided. He preferred a more informal and timid reform where people could decide to adopt the changes or not. (Simplified Spelling Board - Wikipedia) Purists, vested interest groups (publishers), and political games did the rest. (German and French reforms of recent times have suffered similar fates. By trying to appeal to the general population, by making minimal changes, they opened themselves to criticisms for being superfluous or a lot of trouble for nothing.) The main issue, however, is the idea of forcing people to adopt the changes or hoping that people will do. All of this would make a holder of an MBA laugh as both approaches are ineffective. In the case of English, there might be a cultural aspect to this as well. The British culture is know for their ability to manage adversity by keeping a stiff upper lip and avoiding reality by going to bars, as this question demonstrated: What are some dark sides of the UK? Not sure if having to learn to spell and read such a complex system is one of the reasons for these types of behaviours, but it might make them less interested in changing matters.They are proud of their culture and their language, like most people are. That is to be admired, of course. But, this is not about culture. It is not about language per se. It is about a spelling system. Times have changed. Times are changing. There is Quora and we can discuss things. Today, we also know more about management of changes. People are texting now. Computers were introduced 30 years ago and everyone seems to have a smartphone in their hands now. One billion Chinese are soon to be a force to be reckoned with. Which international language are they going to speak? Chinese? Many paradigms have shifted. Not sure what is going to be the tipping point. But, things have evolved.
One of the ideas (which is closer to Carnegie's thinking) is that we should NOT try to “force” people who know the current system to learn the new one. However, we have pushed that idea to its extreme. It is our contention that no one, unless they wanted to, should learn to spell using the new system unless they desire it. It is our contention that the key to making a reform work should be to introduce it methodically and slowly in schools first and only in schools. That does not mean that we would introduce bits of the new spelling system to all grades. It will be ALL of the new spelling system starting with the Grade 1 kids, as a wave. Of course, this plan would need to be approved by the government and the people. There will be a congress next year during which a group of linguists and professors at the English Spelling Society will decide which is the system(s) that they recommend. I believe we should use a system that is based on a general dialect that has some, but not all the features of any of the dialects. I am talking about the vowel diaphonemes found on this page. I am including a reformatted sample to give an idea. The multiple dialects that the original chart has have been removed because the idea is that the diaphonemes will be used as the pronunciation guide to be used with whatever spelling system will be chosen. This could be a cooperative process where all representatives of a major dialects could pick one phoneme that they would like to use to make that diaphonemic lingua franca. So, if England were to be chosen as #1, it could chose that “trap” words will now be pronounced with the /ae/ and spelled with an “a” as “trap” and another repr. from another country (#2) could request that “bath”/”father” words (if the /a:/ is used) will not be spelled baeth/faether (faedher)), and so on and so forth. Btw, this is one diaphoneme that would require an agreement on as it has 2 possible phonemic representations. All others are straightforward. The match with the new spelling system (whatever it is) will be 1:1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_chart_for_English_dialects
Beyond that, it is our view that a reform should take place in all schools once teachers have been trained. It should be starting with a group that has not learned to read and write: 6 year old kids. The rest of the school children would be taught the old system. It might be wise to start teaching these children bits of the new system. Again, the government will look at the recommendations and decide what they feel is best. The next year, the second cohort of new grade 1 kids would start school learning the new system while the older Grade 1 would move into Grade 2, continuing to learn to read and write using the new system. Tablets will be given/lend to all students (school and home) to access information from the internet or other sources, except that this information would be instantly transcoded when they need it, like it happens with Google translate. I think that by the time this happens, most tablets will be very inexpensive for schools so that all students will have one. (Dana Smith felt free tablets should be given to needy families, but I think these should be loaned like textbooks are/were.) They will be like those textbooks that were given to us at the beginning of the year. Btw, transcoding is much faster and more accurate than translating. Eventually, after a few years, some of these cohorts will be taught the basics of English 2.0: how to read street signs, store signs,… They would not learn how to spell using English 1.0, but they will learn to decode a basic set of words and, especially towards the end of their schooling, how to read English 1.0 words of their trade. There might be a need for them to have a slightly different accent depending on how standardized English 2.0 will be, which might depend on which countries decide to participate in the reform. This reform will take 12 years to works its way out, but it will take years to make it occur. Convincing the population will take years and then politicians more years. But, if and when it is approved, the 12 years will give even more time for society to get ready. Free transcoders (programs that can transcode between English 1.0 and English 2.0) will be available for all. This will be very simple to do. In fact, some reformists have made some of them. When these cohorts exit the school system, they will try to find work like all students or they will go to university. Books and manuals should be available in both codes. This should not be so hard for publishing companies and digital copies of these should available for download into tablets. We would hope that by that time students’ books would all be the digital type. Again, these are recommendations.
Will a reform be perfect? Is anything perfect? Is the English spelling system now perfect? Why are those lovers of perfection in love with imperfection? There are thousands of imperfections now and they are fine with those? Be coherent! The system will no doubt be much easier to learn and to teach. That is self-evident, as demonstrated earlier. Something is simpler to learn than something that is complex.
Will some dialects need to re-align some of the pronunciation of a few words? Probably unless they want to develop their own English 2.0 or unless their kids can be bilingual in both Singapore English which pronounces some words that have a short /a/ as /E/ and the new English 2.0 (an international version). I believe kids have that capacity. Up to them to pronounce it the way they want. We would suggest they teach in school the right way and enforce the change in the media. When there is 250 years of laissez-faire, it is necessary to take extraordinary measures, but it will be up to Singapore and other dialects to align themselves with the diaphonemic spelling that is as impartial as one can make it. Accents will be preserved in many instances though, but they will less … pronounced in some cases. But, bad should not be spelled “bed”. Multiple spellings of words could be allowed, but whenever it is feasible. IN some sense, a re-alignment will nt be bad for those “rogue” dialectal words and speakers. It will allow to be understood by more people in the Commonwealth. Is it that bed? I mean “bad?
But, there are many excuses given to not change things. Please, follow this link to see how those could be dealt with.
3) Iezi Ingglish
Go to iezi Ingglish for a better system and solutions to all of the issues that people raise.
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