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Asklemmy @lemmy.ml ericbomb @lemmy.world 1 yr. ago

You can change the spelling of one word in the English language to match how they are pronounced. What word do you pick?

I'm picking "Colonel" needs to be respelled to match how it's pronounced.

Try to pick a word no one else has picked. What word are you respelling?

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396 comments

I just wish we spelled things in a more German-'esk' fashion. They use K more appropriately. Examples such as "panik" and "akkordeon" for accordion. I find their spelling to be more straightforward and sensical.
- German has the awesome ability to just shove words together to make new words and the language accepts it. It's unambiguous (so I understand).
  
  This is another great opportunity to promote a book that I enjoyed as a fan of language:
  
  Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don't Rhyme―And Other Oddities of the English Language
  
  Interview with the author here (got me to buy the book):
  
  In 1920, a Dutch writer named Gerard Nolst Trenité published a poem in English titled The Chaos, designed to draw attention to English spelling and pronunciation — and all the confusion its absurdities have let loose upon the world. It begins “Dearest creature in creation; Studying English pronunciation; I will teach you in my verse; Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse” and ends: “Hiccough has the sound of ‘cup’…. My advice is—give it up!”
- Panik is a whole mood.

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