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there are no words to describe this...
- Entry for July 05, 2006
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This really really really annoys me!!!!Maybe it's the English major in me but it seems that this is just a step towards total laziness.
Puush for simpler speling perzists despiet lak of publick intrest
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Associated Press
Posted July 5 2006, 9:55 AM EDT
WASHINGTON -- When ``say,'' ``they'' and ``weigh'' rhyme, but ``bomb,'' ``comb'' and ``tomb'' don't, wuudn't it maek mor sens to spel wurdz the wae thae sound?
Those in favor of simplified spelling say children would learn faster and illiteracy rates would drop. Opponents say a new system would make spelling even more confusing.
Eether wae, the consept has yet to capcher th publix imajinaeshun.
It's been 100 years since Andrew Carnegie helped create the Simplified Spelling Board to promote a retooling of written English and President Theodore Roosevelt tried to force the government to use simplified spelling in its publications. But advocates aren't giving up.
They even picket the national spelling bee finals, held every year in Washington, costumed as bumble bees and hoisting signs that say ``Enuf is enuf but enough is too much'' or ``I'm thru with through.''
Thae sae th bee selebraets th ability of a fue stoodents to master a dificult sistem that stumps meny utherz hoo cuud do just as wel if speling were simpler.
``It's a very difficult thing to get something accepted like this,'' acknowledges Alan Mole, president of the American Literacy Council, which favors an end to ``illogical spelling.'' The group says English has 42 sounds spelled in a bewildering 400 ways.
Americans doen't aulwaez go for whut's eezy _ witnes th faeluer of th metric sistem to cach on. But propoenents of simpler speling noet that a smatering of aulterd spelingz hav maed th leep into evrydae ues.
Doughnut also is donut; colour, honour and labour long ago lost the British ``u'' and the similarly derived theatre and centre have been replaced by the easier-to-sound-out theater and center.
``The kinds of progress that we're seeing are that someone will spell night 'nite' and someone will spell through 'thru,''' Mole said. ``We try to show where these spellings are used and to show dictionary makers that they are used so they will include them as alternate spellings.''
Lurning English reqierz roet memory rather than lojic, he sed.
In languages with phonetically spelled words, like German or Spanish, children learn to spell in weeks instead of months or years as is sometimes the case with English, Mole said.
But education professor Donald Bear said to simplify spelling would probably make it more difficult because words get meaning from their prefixes, suffixes and roots.
``Students come to understand how meaning is preserved in the way words are spelled,'' said Bear, director of the E.L. Cord Foundation Center for Learning and Literacy at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Th cuntry's larjest teecherz uennyon, wuns a suporter, aulso objects.
Michael Marks, a member of the National Education Association's executive committee, said learning would be disrupted if children had to switch to a different spelling system. ``It may be more trouble than it's worth,'' said Marks, a debate and theater teacher at Hattiesburg High School in Mississippi.
E-mail and text messages are exerting a similar tug on the language, sharing some elements with the simplified spelling movement while differing in other ways. Electronic communications stress shortcuts like ``u'' more than phonetics. Simplified spelling is not always shorter than regular spelling _ sistem instead of system, hoep instead of hope.
Carnegie tried to moov thingz along in 1906 when he helpt establish and fund th speling bord. He aulso uezd simplified speling in his correspondens, and askt enywun hoo reported to him to do the saem.
A filanthropist, he becaem pashunet about th ishoo after speeking with Melvil Dewey, a speling reform activist and Dewey Desimal sistem inventor hoo simplified his furst naem bi droping ``le'' frum Melville.
Roosevelt tried to get the government to adopt simpler spellings for 300 words but Congress blocked him. He used simple spellings in all White House memos, pressing forward his effort to ``make our spelling a little less foolish and fantastic.''
The Chicago Tribune aulso got into th act, uezing simpler spelingz in th nuezpaeper for about 40 years, ending in 1975. Plae-riet George Bernard Shaw, hoo roet moest of his mateerial in shorthand, left muny in his wil for th development of a nue English alfabet.
Carnegie, Dewey, Roosevelt and Shaw's work followed attempts by Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster and Mark Twain to advance simpler spelling. Twain lobbied The Associated Press at its 1906 annual meeting to ``adopt and use our simplified forms and spread them to the ends of the earth.'' AP declined.
But for aul th hi-proefiel and skolarly eforts, the iedeea of funy-luuking but simpler spelingz didn't captivaet the masez then _ or now.
``I think that the average person simply did not see this as a needed change or a necessary change or something that was ... going to change their lives for the better,'' said Marilyn Cocchiola Holt, manager of the Pennsylvania department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.
Carnegie, hoo embraest teknolojy, died in in 1919, wel befor sel foenz went maenstreem. Had he livd, he probably wuud hav bin pleezd to no that milyonz of peepl send text and instant mesejez evry dae uezing thair oen formz of simplified speling: ``Hav a gr8 day!''
On the Net:
American Literacy Council: http://www.americanliteracy.com
Simplified Spelling Society: http://www.spellingsociety.org
National Education Association: http://www.nea.org
Wednesday July 5, 2006 - 07:45pm (PDT) Permanent Link | 0 Comments - Entry for July 01, 2006
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Cliff's Buffalo Theory
This is credited to an episode of Cheers in which Cliff explains to Norm the 'Buffalo Theory':
"Well you see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as
the slowest buffalo and when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones
at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a
whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by
the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain
can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive
drinking of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and
weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates
the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And
that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers."Saturday July 1, 2006 - 07:50am (PDT) Permanent Link | 0 Comments - Entry for June 25, 2006
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i'm so tired. this past week was busy and stressful and really kind of icky. training at work was boring and frustrating but my new schedule is ok. at least it's forcing me to work out. and i did a zumba class on saturday - i now have the body and dancing skills of shakira...i wish! definately felt it working on my abs/butt/thighs though, so that's good. planned for a pool afternoon but as soon as i got all oiled up, it started raining, so i just drank a bunch of strawberry margaritas inside...which was still ok, even though i spilled some on my white skirt.
Sunday June 25, 2006 - 03:18pm (PDT) Permanent Link | 0 Comments - Vacation
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i'm going to try to organize my vacation dreams in this one entry - i keep losing them and i want to remember so that when i win the lottery i'll have a whole list of places to dash off to immediately.
elounda beach, crete, greece: http://www.eloundabeach.gr/ this place is huge! a ton of restaurants and bars on the location - they all have sofas and wooden floors like decks on boats and are mostly outside (remind me of a night we ate at an outdoor restaurant in the virgin islands). premium club luxury room with heated pool - these rooms walk right in to the pool! and others have decks that go over the ocean so you could jump right in! amazing! exclusive club grand suits, maybe for some friends...
Sunday June 11, 2006 - 02:54pm (PDT) Permanent Link | 0 Comments - Entry for May 31, 2006
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the fam at the beach. had a fun time but so tired now!! i think i need more vacation...
definately have a sore throat. hope it's not strep - probably just allergies.
Wednesday May 31, 2006 - 11:07am (PDT) Permanent Link | 0 Comments
