Re: [frogs] Discourse on the Consumption of Dog Food

[Anthony W. Youngman]

In message <address@hidden>, Jonathan Kulp 
<address@hidden> writes
> Graham Percival wrote:
> >  IMNSHO, one of the first rules of an (alphabetized) written
> > language should be that every single word should be pronouncable
> > by a complete novice after 10 hours of study.  Or maybe 5 or 20...
> > but you get the idea.
> >  Cheers,
> > - Graham
>
> 100% right.  I have no idea how anyone learns English as a 2nd 
> language.  In both Spanish and German (and probably many other 
> languages, but these are the ones I know best), once you learn the 
> rules of pronunciation you can pronounce any word that's put in front 
> of you (or butcher the pronunciation in a consistent way), and with a 
> bit of experience deduce the spelling of just about anything said to 
> you.  Not at all possible with English.
Actually, rule 1 is "If it's a word that isn't a genuine English word, 
don't apply English rules". As I said, once you take that into account, 
you only need 30 or so rules to cover the most common 50 THOUSAND words.

So don't expect to pronounce words like Einstein, kitsch etc. You will 
get away with words like "char" (for tea) that have been properly 
anglicised. I take Graham's point that KNOWING which words you're 
supposed to apply rule 1 to may be a challenge :-)

That's the downside of English being such a promiscuous language... :-)

Cheers,
Wol
--
Anthony W. Youngman - address@hidden