Words you didn't know how to say or spell

[hotdogPi]

German reformed in 1996. Modern spelling reforms still exist.

[CtrlAltDel]

German reformed in 1996. Modern spelling reforms still exist.

Of course. There was a similar reform in French. It is telling though that neither of these reforms was adopted without controversy. Moreover, some of the more extreme aspects of these changes were rolled back, and even then, adherence to the new spelling is still not universal. To this day, many people, schools, and publishers ignore the changes altogether.

[formulanone]

Maybe capitalism is the answer here, and we just need some big corporation to start handing out reseets instead of receipts and we'll finally get it fixed.

...more likely to be some app called: reCpt

Post all of yr xxxpnzes inta reCpt and we'll handl the aDminiRation and payout$ for U!

[webny99]

we should really be questioning why we're having two consecutive vowels to begin with. "Reseeve" and "reseet" would make more sense.

Don't "reseeve" and "reseet" also have two consecutive vowels?

Think it's safe to say he meant two different consecutive vowels.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Of course. There was a similar reform in French. It is telling though that neither of these reforms was adopted without controversy. Moreover, some of the more extreme aspects of these changes were rolled back, and even then, adherence to the new spelling is still not universal. To this day, many people, schools, and publishers ignore the changes altogether.

There was a minor reform of Spanish in 2010 which mainly affected acutes, but also proposed unifying the names of W and Y into those used in America (Doble U, literally "double U", and ye respectively). In Spain these are called V doble (literally "double V", since it looks like that) and I griega (literally "Greek I", since it resembles an upsilon), and the new names didn't catch well, so they reverted that.

[SEWIGuy]

Again, I think the idea that the United States would welcome and adhere to some overhaul of the English language is fooling themselves.

Case in point...the metric system.

[1995hoo]

Again, I think the idea that the United States would welcome and adhere to some overhaul of the English language is fooling themselves.

Case in point...the metric system.

There have been some attempts at adjusting spelling before. I read an article once that talked about how Theodore Roosevelt was big on a "simplified spelling" movement that would have, for example, changed words that end in an "-ed" to end with a "-t" ("dropt" or "chopt" or "flopt," for instance) and that end in a "-cks" sound to end with "-x" ("rox," "sox," "blox"). I think there was more to it and I'm sure a Google search could find further information, but I don't recall the rest.

[STLmapboy]

Maybe capitalism is the answer here, and we just need some big corporation to start handing out reseets instead of receipts and we'll finally get it fixed.

...more likely to be some app called: reCpt

Post all of yr xxxpnzes inta reCpt and we'll handl the aDminiRation and payout$ for U!

I had a stroke trying to read that.

[GaryV]

Of course. There was a similar reform in French. It is telling though that neither of these reforms was adopted without controversy. Moreover, some of the more extreme aspects of these changes were rolled back, and even then, adherence to the new spelling is still not universal. To this day, many people, schools, and publishers ignore the changes altogether.

There was a minor reform of Spanish in 2010 which mainly affected acutes, but also proposed unifying the names of W and Y into those used in America (Doble U, literally "double U", and ye respectively). In Spain these are called V doble (literally "double V", since it looks like that) and I griega (literally "Greek I", since it resembles an upsilon), and the new names didn't catch well, so they reverted that.

French uses the same derivation to get the names for W and Y.

[US 89]

Again, I think the idea that the United States would welcome and adhere to some overhaul of the English language is fooling themselves.

Case in point...the metric system.

Keep in mind also that the US is far from the only major country that speaks English - you've got the UK, Canada, Australia, and several other smaller countries. This is probably not a US problem - I can't see the UK taking part in a major spelling reform, either.

I don't think we will ever see a true English spelling reform (at least in our lifetimes). With other European languages like French or German or Spanish, there is a single governing body that decides how that language is spelled. English doesn't have that (and if even it did, there's no way there would be just one), so any spelling reform that does happen can't really come from above. It has to be of the "just see what catches on" type.

[Scott5114]

I could see a situation where California mandated a spelling reform and taught it to all of their students. Elsewhere, it'd be ridiculed, but when those students started taking over at all the tech firms and media companies, everyone would be exposed to it to the point that old American English just looked wrong.

Then again...sería más fácil si usáramos un idioma que no tuviera una ortografía idiota.

[CtrlAltDel]

Then again...sería más fácil si usáramos un idioma que no tuviera una ortografía idiota.

Eh, Spanish has its limits too, what with the b's and v's that are pronounced the same and the h's that appear for no essential reason, in addition to the c's and g's that change pronunciation based on the letter after and u's that are pronounced or not depending on the letter before.

So, if we're going to go with a new language just based on the fidelity of its orthography to its pronunciation, we gotta think outside the box and go with Esperanto or maybe Lojban.

[US 89]

Spanish, however, has the advantage that you'll always know the pronunciation of a word from the spelling. And except for the lack of difference between B/V and the silent H, the opposite is also true. This thread exists because neither of those statements are true for English.

[Ned Weasel]

Denouement

https://youtu.be/ap9g2vR32Vg?t=114

[CtrlAltDel]

Spanish, however, has the advantage that you'll always know the pronunciation of a word from the spelling.

Well, it's not quite always. There's little things here and there, like Texas and México, although you will also see Tejas and Méjico. Also, apparently, there are words with a pronounced h, such as hámster. You could call these loan words, and you would be right, but they still go against the general rules.

And except for the lack of difference between B/V and the silent H, the opposite is also true.

This isn't quite true either. You can't tell between je and ge, and other similar combinations, and depending on where you are, ll is indistinguishable from i or y, etc., etc.

Just for the record, I agree with your overall point, but just to reiterate my own: if we're going to change the language of the country — a huge undertaking to say the least — to avoid inconsistencies in spelling, we might as well pick a language that avoids any inconsistencies at all.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Regarding Texas and Mexico also being spelt Tejas and Méjico, the former reflect that in the past the J was written X instead (thus making that letter way more common that it is now). Anyway, my favorite place name is the Mexican state of Uajaca. Oops, it's spelt Oaxaca, but its pronounciation approximates what I've written.

[lepidopteran]

There have been some attempts at adjusting spelling before. I read an article once that talked about how Theodore Roosevelt was big on a "simplified spelling" movement...

Is this why on some circa-1900s maps you'll find Pittsburgh spelled as "Pittsburg"?

[CtrlAltDel]

There have been some attempts at adjusting spelling before. I read an article once that talked about how Theodore Roosevelt was big on a "simplified spelling" movement...

Is this why on some circa-1900s maps you'll find Pittsburgh spelled as "Pittsburg"?

Maybe. The spelling without the h appears to have been a principle adopted by the Board on Geographic Names in about 1890 as part of its mandate to create a unified system of names throughout the country. The list of principles is as follows:

[GaryV]

So it should be "Newyork", "Losangeles" and "Sanfrancisco"?  And just "Oklahoma" and "Kansas" (no "City")?

[CtrlAltDel]

So it should be "Newyork", "Losangeles" and "Sanfrancisco"?  And just "Oklahoma" and "Kansas" (no "City")?

Clearly, the board got drunk with power and needed to be overthrown. 

[webny99]

This is slightly different than the thread's original premise, but when I was younger I used to think the phrase "might as well" was "minus-while".  I had a good laugh at myself when I figured out what people had really been saying all along, but in most contexts, "minus-while" actually makes a lot of sense!

[formulanone]

There's a few words I constantly misspell on keyboards but always know how to spell if I write or speak out the letters. For some reason, I'll almost constantly type I-before-O in words like "foil" or "point".

Yes, I have a few of these too. "Shield" and "foreign" seem to get me every time no matter how often I've used them.

I just looked this again; I usually type the "I" key with my middle finger and the "O" winds up getting tapped with my ring finger.

The difference between the lengths of those two fingers interferes with those typing reaction times, which is the excuse I'm going with.

[7/8]

This is slightly different than the thread's original premise, but when I was younger I used to think the phrase "might as well" was "minus-while".  I had a good laugh at myself when I figured out what people had really been saying all along, but in most contexts, "minus-while" actually makes a lot of sense!

As a kid, I thought it was "my as well", which doesn't make sense either .

I didn't learn how to pronounce "albeit" until high school. I only saw it written down, and I thought it'd be pronounced all-BITE.

[1995hoo]

This is slightly different than the thread's original premise, but when I was younger I used to think the phrase "might as well" was "minus-while".  I had a good laugh at myself when I figured out what people had really been saying all along, but in most contexts, "minus-while" actually makes a lot of sense!

There are certain people who think "should have" and its contraction "should've" are supposed to be spelled "should of" (which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever if you think about it for even a few seconds).

[andrepoiy]

maintenance (for a while i kept spelling it maintainence)