Protest against...spelling bees.

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Wahad

Wahad

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100603/ap_on_re_us/us_spelling_bee_protest

WASHINGTON – The nation's capital always draws its share of protesters, picketing for causes ranging from health care reform to immigration policy.

But spelling bee protesters? They're out here, too.

Four peaceful protesters, some dressed in full-length black and yellow bee costumes, represented the American Literacy Council and the London-based Spelling Society and stood outside the Grand Hyatt on Thursday, where the Scripps National Spelling Bee is being held. Their message was short: Simplify the way we spell words.

Roberta Mahoney, 81, a former Fairfax County, Va. elementary school principal, said the current language obstructs 40 percent of the population from learning how to read, write and spell.

"Our alphabet has 425-plus ways of putting words together in illogical ways," Mahoney said.

The protesting cohort distributed pins to willing passers-by with their logo, "Enuf is enuf. Enough is too much."

According to literature distributed by the group, it makes more sense for "fruit" to be spelled as "froot," "slow" should be "slo," and "heifer" — a word spelled correctly during the first oral round of the bee Thursday by Texas competitor Ramesh Ghanta — should be "hefer."

Meanwhile, inside the hotel's Independence Ballroom, 273 spellers celebrated the complexity of the language in all its glory, correctly spelling words like zaibatsu, vibrissae and biauriculate.

While the protesters could make headway with cell phone texters who routinely swap "u" for "you" and "gr8" for "great," their message may be a harder sell for the Scripps crowd.

Mahoney had trouble gaining traction with at least one bee attendee. New Mexico resident Matthew Evans, 15, a former speller whose sister is participating in the bee this year, reasoned with her that if English spellings were changed, spelling bees would cease to exist.

"If a dictionary lists 'enough' as 'enuf,' the spelling bee goes by the dictionary, therefore all the spelling words are easier to spell, so the spelling bee is gone," Evans said.

"Well," Mahoney replied, "they could pick their own dictionary."
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I wish these people would put effort in trying to learn rather than trying to dumb down the rest of the world. I can get if you're a dyslexic that these words spell trouble for you (pun completely intended), but I doubt these people are doing it for the dyslexics. Sigh.
 
Piotyr

Piotyr

Ahh, the old adage of "We can't let anyone feel inadequate, so we have to cater to the lowest common denominator so everyone can succeed at everything."
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

Well English does have the worst spelling rules of any western language. There are too many relics from previous conquerors and spelling shifts over the last 1000 years of the language. It would be sad to lose the history that is contained in the language, but the spelling of English words is just too capricious.

Look up George Bernard Shaw's 'ghoti' is a fine example of how wrong the spelling conventions can be.
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
That's true, but the other problem is that people don't really teach spelling rules. They just sort of say, "this is how you spell ______" and never explain why. So the person has nothing to refer back to when faced with a word based on the same rule.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

But I love the english language! I don't even know why, but all the complexities and variations in how words of different roots are spelled are all enjoyable to me. I can't imagine enjoying reading as much as I do without that.

Besides, enuff and enough sound very different in my head. I realize that if I were to speak them aloud, they would be pronounced the same way, but the way my mind processes them is very different. I realize it's fully in the context of my education, and growing up learning how words are spelled today (as opposed to the alternative spelling they're offering) but both of those words evoke a very different mental response.
 
drawn_inward

drawn_inward

While I think that English is kind of ridiculous and too complex, I don't think catering to the lowest common denominator is ever a good idea.
 
Null

Null

There is a better use for these people. Like filling that giant sinkhole in Guatemala. Or finding that treasure floating west of Acapulco.
 
Morphine

Morphine

sixpackshaker said:
Look up George Bernard Shaw's 'ghoti' is a fine example of how wrong the spelling conventions can be
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fish.
I read that book too, it had a lot of interesting facts about english grammar and spelling, it also talked about how there actually was an intent of changing most of this rules some years ago to try to make it easier for children to learn how to read and write, fact was, it was actually harder for them when making the transition to the normal spelling.
 
North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Staff member
Well, you can always blame the Dutch. We discussed the difference between the written and pronounced forms of words in English in a great course called History of English - a basic course for English Philology, booyah ;) Apparently part of the issue was that when first printed books were coming out in English, the printers were professionals from the Netherlands, who apparently spelled English - still in flux at the time, considering the many ways for instance Shakespeare signed his name - according to Dutch grammar.

Of course, our professor was just giving us an interesting bit of trivia, but it shows how much the shift into printed word influenced language use: the language of the Book of Common Prayer and King James Bible became the norm, even though it was nowhere close to phonetic spelling.

Besides, language is constantly shifting. Now there's bra where there was once brassiere, cab instead of cabriolet, and so on and so forth. Not to mention the Great Wovel Shift in the English Language, which shifted the way wovels are pronounced in modern English, away from the Norman French-influenced Middle English.

For shits and giggles, here's some Old English (pre-Norman Conquest):


And here's some Middle English (from Norman Conquest to roughly 16th century):


Here begins the Book of the Tales of Canterbury
When April with his showers sweet with fruit
The drought of March has pierced unto the root
And bathed each vein with liquor that has power
To generate therein and sire the flower;
When Zephyr also has, with his sweet breath,
Quickened again, in every holt and heath,
The tender shoots and buds, and the young sun
Into the Ram one half his course has run,
And many little birds make melody
That sleep through all the night with open eye
(So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)-
Then do folk long to go on pilgrimage,
And palmers to go seeking out strange strands,
To distant shrines well known in sundry lands.
And specially from every shire's end
Of England they to Canterbury wend,
The holy blessed martyr there to seek


And the Middle English spelling ( the video has phonetic spelling):

Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(so priketh hem nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of engelond to caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
Man... memories. I had to memorize the intro to Canturbury Tales in Middle English back in high school. Our teacher looooved Middle English and just started speaking it sometimes.
 
North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Staff member
Cajungal said:
Man... memories. I had to memorize the intro to Canturbury Tales in Middle English back in high school. Our teacher looooved Middle English and just started speaking it sometimes.
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I think it has a beautiful sound to it. That's why I have an ME copy of the Tales myself.
 
North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Staff member
Cajungal;394701][QUOTE=North_Ranger;394697][QUOTE=Cajungal said:
Man... memories. I had to memorize the intro to Canturbury Tales in Middle English back in high school. Our teacher looooved Middle English and just started speaking it sometimes.
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I think it has a beautiful sound to it. That's why I have an ME copy of the Tales myself.[/QUOTE]

It does. :)[/QUOTE]

Plus, it's pretty damn easy for a Finn to pronounce: Midddle English spelling, having not become rigid with standardization, is pretty close to phonetic spelling - with a touch of Germanic.
 
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