2026-01-30 21:52 UTC
So, most varieties of English have around 40 distinctive sounds (phonemes). That is substantially more than the number of letters we typically use. So, new poll: if you were to design a spelling reform, how would you deal with that difference? #EnglishSpellingReform
Replies (1)
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@chronodm@glammr.us 2026-01-31 01:06
@TimPhon@lingo.lol @amyfou@lingo.lol One letter for each Proto-Indo-European consonant phoneme (including all three laryngeals), letters as in Ionic Greek with the additions of digamma, san, and qoppa, but with Byzantine cursive letterforms; *PIE short vowels marked with diacritics, long vowels marked with repurposed consonant symbols (cf. Arabic and Hebrew). All spellings to reflect the underlying etymologies; sound changes since then you just have to memorize (as in modern English, French, colloquial Arabic)