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Why can't we get rid of useless letters?


Road Runner

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6 minutes ago, Road Runner said:

Why can't we redo the spelling of the American language to eliminate superfluous letters?  

How many hours are wasted each day in the US typing in unnecessary letters ??   Probably gazillions.  

Why is there a "w" in sword?  Why is there an "h" in john?   :angry:

This is a very RG-ish type post.  (insert Wisers clap here)

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3 minutes ago, Randomguy said:

I always tell cashiers to round up or round down, I don't care which, I just don't want to carry pennies.

At work, if a colleague goes to get lunch, he rounds up what I owe the nearest nickel. If I go, I round his down to the nearest nickel ;)  My local party store rounds down which is great e.g. if the total is $10.04, they say $10. I like this.

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7 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

If they have a penny cup I put them in the cup, if they don't I leave them on the counter.

This... I'd be happy if pennies go away.  I have a big jar of change, mostly pennies I need to get rid of.  But the truth of the matter is I haven't put a coin in there in ages as nearly all of my purchases are with the ATM card.

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5 hours ago, Road Runner said:

Why can't we redo the spelling of the American language to eliminate superfluous letters?  

How many hours are wasted each day in the US typing in unnecessary letters ??   Probably gazillions.  

Why is there a "w" in sword?  Why is there an "h" in john?   :angry:

Why is there a "n" in "solemn" and "hymn"?

Why is there an "h" after the "r" in rhythm?  And why isn't there a vowel between before the "m"?

Why is there an "e" in "cocaine"?

Why is there a "w" in "low", "slow" and "blow"??

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6 hours ago, ChrisL said:

This... I'd be happy if pennies go away.  I have a big jar of change, mostly pennies I need to get rid of.  But the truth of the matter is I haven't put a coin in there in ages as nearly all of my purchases are with the ATM card.

I've got a couple hundred pounds of pennies I should cash in or donate somewhere.

Maybe I'll dump them in a bellringers bucket, start pouring and tell the guy 'say when'

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3 hours ago, Road Runner said:

Why is there a "n" in "solemn" and "hymn"?

Why is there an "h" after the "r" in rhythm?  And why isn't there a vowel between before the "m"?

Why is there an "e" in "cocaine"?

Why is there a "w" in "low", "slow" and "blow"??

You're causing a riot to change the English language...in writing vs. speaking it. They are 2 different things, related but different.

Just imagine speaking Chinese and writing it...which the word sound absolutely have NO relationship to the ideogram. That's why it's so hard as an adult to learn, speak and write Chinese fluently with a strong, broad vocabulary. Imagine building  written vocabulary based on putting 2 word ideograms that make up 1 final word meaning...based on ancient historical development of pictorial symbols!

We are lucky some of the European languages have letter combinations that represent sound or phonetics.  

-----From someone who was drilled in English language as 2nd language when she was 5 yrs. old and up.  I was drilled in English language phoenetics and enuciation as well as spelling from a very young age in a manner some of you may take for granted. 

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12 hours ago, Road Runner said:

Why can't we redo the spelling of the American language to eliminate superfluous letters?  

How many hours are wasted each day in the US typing in unnecessary letters ??   Probably gazillions.  

Why is there a "w" in sword?  Why is there an "h" in john?   :angry:

I don't know but I loved the argument between the dog Brian and the baby Stewie on Family guy about whether to pronounce the "h" in "what," "where," etc.

One of our Presidents, I think Teddy Roosevelt, endorsed an organization that wanted to spell words as they sound.

Part of the problem is our descendants would go to England and wouldn't be able to reed the sines.

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6 hours ago, MickinMD said:

I don't know but I loved the argument between the dog Brian and the baby Stewie on Family guy about whether to pronounce the "h" in "what," "where," etc.

One of our Presidents, I think Teddy Roosevelt, endorsed an organization that wanted to spell words as they sound.

Part of the problem is our descendants would go to England and wouldn't be able to reed the sines.

Was that the famous Cool Whip episode?

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YLanguage changes in response to user preferences. Just start leaving out letters, others will follow, then some liberals arts college somewhere will advocate for your marginalized group of the phonetically oppressed, the New York Times will run a feature story and series of opinion pieces, Fox News will counter with anti-immigration or anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim spin, the moderate liberal majority will be mobilized in what appears to be a quick win, ending in the transformation you seek.

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5 minutes ago, roadsue said:

YLanguage changes in response to user preferences. Just start leaving out letters, others will follow, then some liberals arts college somewhere will advocate for your marginalized group of the phonetically oppressed, the New York Times will run a feature story and series of opinion pieces, Fox News will counter with anti-immigration or anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim spin, the moderate liberal majority will be mobilized in what appears to be a quick win, ending in the transformation you seek.

Wh t a g e t i ea Roa sue.  Let'  tart tod y.  I pr pose th t a l p sts t day lea e out let e s.  I  mi ht n t b  pe f  t at fi st b t  e h ve to s art so ew ere.

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5 minutes ago, Kzoo said:

Wh t a g e t i ea Roa sue.  Let'  tart tod y.  I pr pose th t a l p sts t day lea e out let e s.  I  mi ht n t b  pe f  t at fi st b t  e h ve to s art so ew ere.

The brain does a good job filling in missing letters using context and some guesswork. 

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I have been getting rid of useless letters in my father in-law’s office. He saved everything. He had letters from social security, friends, banks that he hasn’t had an account at for 40 years. He had file cabinets crammed full of letters. I have been trying to be careful and not toss anything important. I finally found a folder full of letters he wrote to my mother in-law while he was a missionary in Siberia right after the Soviet Union broke up. It looks like he wrote to her every day. I read some of his letters and they were beautiful. I saved the whole folder. I don’t consider those useless letters.

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1 hour ago, Longjohn said:

I have been getting rid of useless letters in my father in-law’s office. He saved everything. He had letters from social security, friends, banks that he hasn’t had an account at for 40 years. He had file cabinets crammed full of letters. I have been trying to be careful and not toss anything important. I finally found a folder full of letters he wrote to my mother in-law while he was a missionary in Siberia right after the Soviet Union broke up. It looks like he wrote to her every day. I read some of his letters and they were beautiful. I saved the whole folder. I don’t consider those useless letters.

I have a tote of letters and documents from my grandpa. Even though he lived 500 mikes away, he has a diploma from the business school here. I never knew that until then. He worked for the postal service and kept meticulous logs of what he did on a particular day. When I saw one from the right time frame and it looks like my dad talked to him a couple days after I was born! 

We have a close family link to Woodrow Wilson. My day has seen a photo of Woodrow and my great grandfather together on horses when they were young men. However the exact link is not known among the following generations. We do know great grandfather received a letter inviting him to Woodrow’s funeral from Mrs Wilson. As I was going through the tote, I found a letter from my great aunt asking if my grandpa was in possession of the letter. Allergies from the dust kept me from looking deeper that day. I will try again some  time. 

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11 hours ago, BuffJim said:

Was that the famous Cool Whip episode?

I think so, I just remember laughing my butt off over the wh vs w pronunciation.

I began noticing that some people put the h into wh words. Actually, I guess it's technically a "dipthong" with "wh" together because the w and h sounds a made virtually together. Even Linda Ronstadt, with her laid-back Southwestern accent (she say's "cain't" instead of "can't" etc.) sings "when," etc. with the "h" instead of "wen," etc. in most of her songs - except "When will I be loved," one of her early recordings, where it's barely noticeable.

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