Better to be a butterfly than learn English .

You know when was the best time to write in English?

Answer is astonishing. 

It was in Shakespeare's time. There were hardly coorect and incorrect spellings.

His own name had  41 spellings and he himself used 5 of them.

God forbid, we are told that root of the problem is the first bible in English language.  About 500 years ago, one was to read it only in Latin and  one can be punished for printing or keeping English version.

So the first bold step was to print it in Germany where people knew very little English.

It was a first ever book for most of the people and it became the sole primer for their reading, writing, and we are bearing the brunt today of those uncorrected prints.

In spoken English today , 

• there are some 43 sounds as against around 50 in European languages . 
• But funnily enough , there about  185 spellings for 43 sounds and children have to learn this. 
• More than 100 words have same spellings 
• About 70 English spellings have more than one pronunciation and as a result about 2,000 words become totally un-decodable! 
• There are about 100 words where pronunciation changes with their context and again , 
• about 370 words  obey the doubling rule and 
• some 380 words  disobey it and finally, 
• the silent letters are just the last straw on the camel’s back.

Generally, it takes about ten years of practice to be a good English speller or speaker. 

Now we know it and must pity them if they are still learning – or admire them if they have learnt it.   

Imagine the plight of about 250 million  users of  Facebook, MSN Messenger and Twitter and add further a few hundred  millions who use SMS or text messages on their cell phones ! No wonder the following parallel NETLINGO spellings are going around in great volume :

CUZ-Because  /  CWOT-Complete Waste Of Time /   CWYL-Chat With You Later /  CX-Cancelled / 

CY-Calm Yourself / 

CYA-See Ya / C

YE-Check your Email / 

CYL-See You Later / 

CYM-Check Your Mail / 

CYO-See You Online / 

CYT-See You Tomorrow / 

D&M-Deep & Meaningful / 

d/c-disconnected / 

DLTM-Don't Lie To Me / 

DMI-Don't Mention It / 

DNBL8-Do Not Be Late / 

DNC-Does Not Compute / 

DND-Do Not Disturb / 

...etc 

• OR

luv U, cant w8t 2C U l8r - love you, can not wait to see you later / 

which 1 of my kdz do U wnt? - which one of my kids do you want?/ 

 IM@wrk - I am at work / 

 ayt – are you there? / 

aisi – as I see it / 

 btw – by the way / 

 ILU – I love you / 

 ruf2t – are you free to talk? / 

 rntuaqt – aren’t you a cutie / 

etc, etc

With thousands of radio messages broadcast every second by aviation and military personnel round the world, with many accents too difficult for the non-natives, we have ended up with PHONETIC / SPELLING ALPHABET 

Letters

Letter	Code word	Pronunciation
A	Alfa	AL FAH
B	Bravo	BRAH VOH
C	Charlie	CHAR LEE
D	Delta	DELL TAH
E	Echo	ECK OH
F	Foxtrot	FOKS TROT
G	Golf	GOLF
H	Hotel	HOH TELL
I	India	IN DEE AH
J	Juliett	JEW LEE ETT
K	Kilo	KEY LOH
L	Lima	LEE MAH
M	Mike	MIKE
N	November	NO VEM BER
O	Oscar	OSS CAH
P	Papa	PAH PAH
Q	Quebec	KEH BECK
R	Romeo	ROW ME OH
S	Sierra	SEE AIR AH
T	Tango	TANG GO
U	Uniform	YOU NEE FORM
V	Victor	VIK TAH
W	Whiskey	WISS KEY
X	X-ray	ECKS RAY
Y	Yankee	YANG KEY
Z	Zulu	ZOO LOO

With all these headaches in spoken and written communication, one day we should not be surprised that more people will turn towards the SIGN LNGAUGE used by the hearing-impaired people. But here also there will be spelling problems. So, perhaps the best option could be "Hieroglyphs" or logograms representing words using graphical figures such as animals, objects or people, used by Egyptians some 5,000 years ago.

Or better still, would be to observe total silence as Hinduism, Buddhism and other eastern religions preach.

Or best of all would be to be born as a star or a butterfly or a flower – I suppose.

Amen!

Englsih Pronunciation - a very pleasant - but pure chaos!

A poem about English pronunciation.

“The Chaos” is a poetically explained , well-known  versified catalogue of  irregularities of English spelling and pronunciation, written by Gerard Nolst Trenité (1870-1946), also known under the pseudonym Charivarius. He was a dutch observer of English. It first appeared in an appendix to the author’s 1920 textbook "Drop Your Foreign Accent: engelsche uitspraakoefeningen." Ironically, while the pronunciation of his own surname is not obvious, he is best known in the English-speaking world for this poem.

(Recommended for Reading it Aloud):

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. 

I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer. 

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.) 

Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;  

Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,

Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;

One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.

Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet, 

Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer. 

River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour. 

Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger, 

Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury. 

Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual. 

Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late. 

Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.

We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;

Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label. 

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor. 

Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,

Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,  

 Dandelion and battalion. 
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,

Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.  

Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.  

Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work. 

Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?  

It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict. 

Finally, which rhymes with enough --
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!