Lets Abandon Spelling!

[Hahayoudied 3]

Well, the government could have forced companies to produce text books that are in 1337 speak or Net speak, and force teachers to teach those crap to students.

Then things are going to get boiling...

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: Hahayoudied Yeah, pass a law that forces people to speak in Net speak or 1337 speak and see what will happen...quote>

How exactly does one "speak" in |337? It's a strictly typographical phenomenon.

I mean, you wouldn't pronounce "H3y! |00k 47 m3!" any different than "Hey! Look at me!" when spoken verbally.

Chatspeak is somewhat different since you could actually say/pronounce expressions like "rofl" and "omg", but things like "what r u doing?" or "I want 2 party" wouldn't really change verbally.

...though, things like ":)" and "<3", would be annoying since you'd have to say "colon close parentheses" and "less than three".

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: Duke87

Originally posted by: Hahayoudied Yeah, pass a law that forces people to speak in Net speak or 1337 speak and see what will happen...quote>

How exactly does one "speak" in |337? It's a strictly typographical phenomenon.

I mean, you wouldn't pronounce "H3y! |00k 47 m3!" any different than "Hey! Look at me!" when spoken verbally.

Chatspeak is somewhat different since you could actually say/pronounce expressions like "rofl" and "omg", but things like "what r u doing?" or "I want 2 party" wouldn't really change verbally.

...though, things like "" and "<3", would be annoying since you'd have to say "colon close parentheses" and "less than three".quote>

 

I say "Less then three" all the time.

[Patricius Maximus 236]

Well, the government could have forced companies to produce text books that are in 1337 speak or Net speak, and force teachers to teach those crap to students.

Then things are going to get boiling... quote>

Yes, and then no one would understand the Netspeak, and the parents would resist the change, and continue to teach in English. Basically chaos in education.

[toxicpiano 125]

that sounds doubleplusgood HAY GUYS SEE WHAT I DID THERE

[IDS2 3,346]

OMGZ ZOMGZ L13K 015 15 50 C001!

I get "lol" all the time or "omg man" really shows who has a life and who doesn't...

[Godzillaman 21]

LOL or ROFL are really the only abbreviations I use...does that make be a bad person?

[jammy 0]

English is unnecessarily difficult but it has been around for 100s of years, if new spellings are going to be introduced then it will be done over time. Some words in American English make more sense than British English mind, for example color, in the UK its colour... why on earth do we need the 'U'? and the word Estrogen in brutish English has an O slapped on the front to make Oestrogen but pronounced with an 'e' sound, why?

[jammy 0]

also students sitting there end of year exams are allowed officially to use email language in their papers if they are running out of time, which makes sense in a way but its kind off dodgy in another sense.

[toxicpiano 125]

Originally posted by: jammy English is unnecessarily difficult but it has been around for 100s of years, if new spellings are going to be introduced then it will be done over time. Some words in American English make more sense than British English mind, for example color, in the UK its colour... why on earth do we need the 'U'? and the word Estrogen in brutish English has an O slapped on the front to make Oestrogen but pronounced with an 'e' sound, why?quote>

because we are really great

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: toxicpiano

Originally posted by: jammy English is unnecessarily difficult but it has been around for 100s of years, if new spellings are going to be introduced then it will be done over time. Some words in American English make more sense than British English mind, for example color, in the UK its colour... why on earth do we need the 'U'? and the word Estrogen in brutish English has an O slapped on the front to make Oestrogen but pronounced with an 'e' sound, why?quote>

because we are really greatquote>

Real answer- it has to do with the origin of the word. With the "oestrogen thing, it's thus:

Words derived from ancient Greek later transliterated into Latin often used the æ and œ characters (known as "digraphs") to represent those sounds. In English we don't have those characters in our alphabet anymore and as such words which contained those characters in old times have had it expanded out to ae and oe, respectively, in British spelling. American spelling has decided to simplify this in many cases, usually by dropping the a or o. Hence why you have differences such as:

cesium / caesium

esophagus / oesophagus

pedophile / paedophile

diarrhea / diarhhoea

although in some cases the extra a or o remains in American spelling, such as:

archaeology

aesthetic

phoenix

subpoena

With the -or / -our thing, those are words which came from Norman French, and were thus borrowing from French phonetics which demeanded the presence of the u despite it being virtually silent. And again, American English decided the u was unnecessary and thus dropped it to simplify things.

Most differences between American and British spelling you can thank Benjamin Franklin for. He recommended the modern American spellings as simplifications. Then the revolution happened and all of a sudden Americans were looking for ways to differ themselves from the British to give themselves their own identity. The different spellings thus became very popular and soon took over. This "we gotta be different" mentality is also the key reason why cars in America drive on the right (well, then it was horses and carriages). Britain drove on the left. We decided we had to be different. So on the right it was. And it's stuck to this day that way.