Why isn't everything spelled phonetically?

[Teh_Poet]

Seriously, it would make learning a new language a lot easier. Why not?

 

[Dekstar]

Because that would mean re-writing every language that doesn't already work phoenetically...

I suggest you start with latin and work your way down..

 

[MarcoPollo]

Beecuz Its stooped

 

[Teh_Poet]

Because that would mean re-writing every language that doesn't already work phoenetically...

I suggest you start with latin and work your way down..

I'm not suggesting that we start now, but why wasn't it like that in the first place?

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Because spoken(as opposed to written) language come first, and writting started more pictorally...I would assume. Also evolution in language changes things a lot. For instance, English pronunciations have changed a lot, as well as spellings. Is also had a lot of grammer and volcabulary from other languages.

We could do it like the Chinese. They use lithograms (I think thats the word) basically, its a symbol of some kind which has different pronunciations in different languages, but always carries the same meaning. Numbers would be a good example (and the only one I tihnk) of this in European language. So people all over china speak different languages, but their writting can be understood by all people who read Chinese, regardless of whether they speak Mandarin, Cantonese or whatever.

 

[Dan]

don't you mean fownetically

 

[Absinthe]

Because then you'd lose a lot of grammar rules that are crucial in making sense of written text.

 

[RakuraiTenjin]

Because then you'd probably have to say a lot of writing out loud before you understood it

 

[Laivasse]

English is a much more flexible and diverse language for not being phonetic. Do you really want to see the back of excellent words like Phlegm and Diarrhoea?

Learn a language like Japanese if you like phonetics. They only have 5 vowel sounds and as a result they sound stupid when speaking any other language.

 

[Solver]

It's impossible to properly do phonetic spelling in English. English has more than 26 sounds, so using combinations of letters for different sounds still sucks.

But you do get other languages where stuff is mostly written phonetically.

 

[mortiz]

Because you wouldn't be able to differentiate between words, i.e.

phonetically phonetically phonetically phonetically, phonetically phonetically phonetically?

see, you have no idea what I meant by that sentence.

 

[The Mullinator]

There have been artificial languages created often based on European languages (english being one of them of course) where everything is spelled phonetically.

Personally I would like to see an artificial language become dominant since they really can be designed as easy to learn and extremelly flexible. Current languages have too much history behind them which really does limit them.

 

[Dan]

Because you wouldn't be able to differentiate between words, i.e.

phonetically phonetically phonetically phonetically, phonetically phonetically phonetically?

see, you have no idea what I meant by that sentence.

phonetically phonetically phonetically!

 

[Qwert93]

Why is your name teh_poet? Why not teh_riddle or something?
Same reason.

 

[xcellerate]

spanish is written foe-net-tick-lee, english is really i think the only language that is so far from it. Besides if we wrote the way we spoke youd never understand. For instance, we have a korean sprinter on our track team and after he ran i asked him "whudga run" and he goes "what?" so i said, "what-did-you-run".
Or a better example, same guy wierd enough, he had to leave class early for another meet, and he stands up and starts walking out. The teacher says:
"where you going"
he says, "to a meet for a track"
and the teacher says "when"
so he says "3:10",
"no...when"
confused he responds, "3:10, in like 25 minutes"
"no," the teacher says raising his hands above his head and shaking them, "win!"

 

[KoreBolteR]

the world should have one language..

but what one shall we pick?

 

[xcellerate]

i say swahili

 

[Razor]

I wish you would all just stop moaning and learn English and get it over with, sooner or later, the world will have to move to English, might as well make it sooner.

 

[MarcoPollo]

even though english is one of the hardest languages to learn, it is the most diverse.

 

[spookymooky]

i say swahili

Its all about that African clicking language. I really want to learn that!

 

[f|uke]

Why isnt phonetically spelt phonetically?

fonetikly

 

[Ames]

Why isnt phonetically spelt phonetically?

fonetikly

And where did you go to for the last month?

 

[Dan]

goonie goo goo

 

[SimonomiS]

Lets start a revolooshun!

 

[Pesmerga]

down with the pronunsiashuns!

 

[Teh_Poet]

even though english is one of the hardest languages to learn, it is the most diverse.

Only people who learned english as their first language have told me that. Most secondary english speakers have no problem picking it up.

 

[Kebean PFC]

English was easy as a first language and most of the people i know that are ESL don't have a problem, unless you start to use slang.

 

[xcellerate]

seriously english is a very simple language, in my dorm we have russian, korean, chinese, african, and cuban all of who said english wasnt really that hard. Then the wife of the ESL teacher (English as a Second Language), speaks 6 languages and can read 3 more told me (last night in fact) at dinner that english was in fact fairly simple compared to the other languages she had to learn. She said arabic was the hardest.

Spanish is defintly harder i believe, take the verbs for instance. Lets take "to go", in english: I go, You go, He goes, we go, they go. Easy right? In spanish "ir": voy, vas, va, vamos, vais, van. Wow, none of them are the same, and they are diffrent for every tense too: iba, ibas, iba, íbamos, ibais, iban, fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fuisteis, fueron. So for one verb, there are 19 diffrent spellings for it, for just 3 tenses. There's about 16 tenses.

Thats just my take on the matter.

 

[Recoil]

I wish you would all just stop moaning and learn English and get it over with, sooner or later, the world will have to move to English, might as well make it sooner.

Dream on, after the Chinese take over Madarin will be the new world language

(Dutch is pretty phonetically btw)

 

[Razor]

English is one of the most simple languages to learn in the world and is the most wide spred, you can not get by in today's world without knowing English to some degree.

The reason no language is done phonetically is that their are so many languages all mixed into so many other languages. Todays English has evolved from old English which evolved from French and German and Latin...so...

 

[Danimal]

And where did you go to for the last month?

That is what I want to know, F|uke.