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Comment by bmn__

1 day ago

Not enjoyable to me. It elevates the pronunciation that Shaw used into the status of the one true English and marginalises any other spoken variants, dialects all over the globe. This is presumptuous and unfair.

How about this (equally unworkable) idea to achieve the goal of fixing the disconnect: instead of reforming the spelling, reform the pronunciation. Keep the writing as it is, but pronounce it to the rules (mostly: the letter/multigraph to phoneme map) which you find naturally in the majority of the other languages that use the Latin script. One can argue over the precise details and exceptions.

The good: it makes English much more regular and amenable to learners, all English speakers more or less affected in the same way The bad: the change is drastic so that movies from the time before reform need subtitles, pronunciation will start drifting apart soon and undo the reform efforts quickly

While I agree with you I can’t imagine reforming the pronunciation of - say - “Ought to cough and hiccough through the ploughing drought”.

  • Who would have thought there were so many tough pronunciations, though? They're all weird, but hiccough reigns soughreme.

    Edit for thoroughness