Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 21:45:36 -0700 (MST) From: Wes Peters <softweyr@xmission.com> To: Marco Molteni <molter@logic.it> Cc: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: The Language Barrier [Was: Could FreeBSD be ...] Message-ID: <199711180445.VAA11230@obie.softweyr.ml.org> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.971117160131.1262A-100000@dumbwinter.logic.it> References: <Pine.BSF.3.96.971117002710.5225A-100000@andrsn.stanford.edu> <Pine.BSF.3.96.971117160131.1262A-100000@dumbwinter.logic.it>
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Marco Molteni writes:
> Strange, isn't it? I, as a non-native english speaker, find english
> spelling pretty simple! Also, I heard that in the USA you take something
> like "spelling contests" in the schools. Sounds really strange to me.
Yes, this is quite common in the US public schools. My second grade
year (7 years old), I missed only one spelling word the entire year and
still did not win; a girl named Laurie Van Skyhawk did not miss that
one. I've remebered her name for 30 years now, it made such an
impression on me.
> Regarding the verbs, you should have a look at french, or italian, or
> german ;-)
I have - french and german at least. Ugh! English is kind of weird due
to the dichotomy between the old english (germanic) roots and the modern
english latinate words. With a few bizarre exceptions, like the "ough"
Jordan mentioned, english spelling is straightforward. Most modern
english words are spelled like they sound, which makes it possible to
learn the few thousand exceptions by rote if it is important to you.
Very few english words are pronounced so differently from how they are
spelled that it is impossible to figure out how to do a creditable job
of saying them.
The exceptions to this rule in my experience come from poor attempts to
spell european or "native american" names phonetically. For instance, I
live in the shadows of the Oqquirrh Mountains (yes, that is really how
the name is spelled). What the idiot that came up with that was trying
to spell was "ochre." Similarities include the towns of Tooele, Utah
(pronounced "TOO-ill-ah") and Puyallup, Washington ("POO-yawl-up").
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
http://www.xmission.com/~softweyr softweyr@xmission.com
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