Look what Mark Twain wisdom I just received as inter-post message

[Ecthy]

A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling
by Mark Twain

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped
to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer
be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained
would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2
might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the
same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with
"i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all.
Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear
with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12
or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants.
Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi
ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz
ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli.
Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud
hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

[civman2000]

Completely readable, surprisingly.

[Ecthy]

It does get a bit weird at the end, but if you read it through you automatically replace those consonants...

[Barnabas]

I think this was inspired by spanish spelling,

And yes, english spelling makes no sense, I dont think it could even be called phonetic, since often you cant tell how to pronounce a word just by reading it.
But now, we are in the year 2006 it is a global langauge, it is too late to reform it.

[snoopy369]

English is fairly phonetic, though certainly with far more exceptions than others.

Perhaps this is why english-speaking countries have done so well in the world... we have to be really smart to learn how to read, and thus our brains are worked much harder during our youth

[Qilue]

Originally posted by snoopy369
English is fairly phonetic, though certainly with far more exceptions than others.

Perhaps this is why english-speaking countries have done so well in the world... we have to be really smart to learn how to read, and thus our brains are worked much harder during our youth

There might be some substance to this point. Consider Finns and their over complicated language. Inflicting that language on a small child probably affects their intelligence as well.