173. To Spell or Not to Spell!

(New Family photos on PLUS Blog.)

I have tuned into a Blog discussion on one of my favourite topics.....SPELLING!

I believe texting is the start of a new era, but I fear I wont be alive to see it.

TO SPELL OR NOT TO SPELL!

The proponents of spelling reform

Are certainly thin on the ground.

The conventional types seem to swarm!

I'm outnumbered, I've constantly found.

'Make it simple!' you'll all hear me cry!

Learning spelling takes years upon years!

And so many chances go by

And spelling can bring folk to tears!

My New Entrants were taught forty sounds

And with those they could write any word.

Their self-confidence just knew no bounds,

For they just wrote the sounds that they heard.

We communicate thoughts when we speak,

Making sense is the name of the game.

What if' 'weak' has the same sound as 'week'?

The context proves they're not the same.

As for dialect, if you met me,

Though I speak like the typical 'Pom',

I'd soon be as clear as could be,

When you'd worked out just where I was from.

Why should dots on a page have to last

For ever and ever unchanged?

We don't speak as we did in the past!

If we did we would sound quite deranged.

I admit I've a bee in my bonnet;

For Spelling Reform means a lot.

To conclude I will rewrite a sonnet

And it wont incommode you a jot!

(BOLD indicates l-o-ng form of vowel.)

Shal I compair the too a sumaz day? 

   Thow art mor luvle and mor temperat: 

Ruf winds doo shak the darling buds ov May, 

   And suma's les hath orl too short a dat: 

Sumtim too hot the i ov hevan shins, 

   And ofn is his gold complecshun dimd; 

And evry fair from fair sumtim diclins, 

   Bi charns, or nacha's chanjing cors, untrimd.

I promise you that most of my six year-olds could read and write the above passage. As for understanding it! Well, that's another story.

If anyone is interested in my method (and, don't forget, I introduced Traditional Orthography as soon as a child was ready, only because I had to!) I will happily send details.