[net.nlang] A Long Diatribe Mostly About Spelling Reform

trb (07/16/82)

It's true, it's true.  Reform of spelling of the English Language is
a lost cause.  Phonetics or other spelling changes won't work because
of the dialect problem.  Asking everyone to speak the King's English
is just as silly.  Problems of spelling and dialect don't really interfere
with communication among English speakers, it might be a bit difficult
to deal with a foreign accent at first, but you quickly become accustomed.

The problem of computers recognizing speech or written language is an
analog some people would intertwine with this discussion.  "Regular
expressions" and other such massage techniques for speech as well as text
will solve these problems for computer audio computer i/o soon enough,
to be sure.
	Andy Tannenbaum   Bell Labs  Whippany, NJ   (201) 386-6491