Why Is The English Language Stupid?

Meister · 05-26-2010, 03:07 PM

Wish I'd stuck with English longer than I did, then I'd likely know an actual academical answer. As it is I can only make an educated guess that careful planning isn't a very big element of the natural development of communication, and also that anglophone speakers aren't much for phonetic spelling.

The Wikipedia article on English orthography seems to be a good read, though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_orthography

Also, there's an old phonetic parlor trick often attributed to George Bernard Shaw that consist of letting people guess how the word "ghoti" is pronounced.

"Fish." gh as in tough, o as in women, ti as in nation.

bluestarultor · 05-26-2010, 03:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meister

"Fish." gh as in tough, o as in women, ti as in nation.

While that's certainly an interesting take on it (seriously, that's pretty awesome XD), it totally ignores the exclusive placement of phonemes.

On phonemes, this is a pretty interesting read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoneme

05-26-2010, 03:07 PM	#1
Meister Pure joy Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Germany Posts: 10,689	Wish I'd stuck with English longer than I did, then I'd likely know an actual academical answer. As it is I can only make an educated guess that careful planning isn't a very big element of the natural development of communication, and also that anglophone speakers aren't much for phonetic spelling. The Wikipedia article on English orthography seems to be a good read, though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_orthography Also, there's an old phonetic parlor trick often attributed to George Bernard Shaw that consist of letting people guess how the word "ghoti" is pronounced. "Fish." gh as in tough, o as in women, ti as in nation.