Re: Jonathan Swift published a proposal to regulate English (22-2-1712)

Antonio Marques <no_email@invalid.invalid> wrote or quoted:

Ruud Harmsen <rh@rudhar.com> wrote:

The new system for s/ß is simpler, more consistent and easier to
learn.

Many natives claim that the long/short distinction IN THIS CASE is a matter
of spelling pronunciation, which may be welcome to nonnatives but not for
natives.

  Already the expression "the new system for s/ß" is misleading,
  because it's for "s/ss/ß". There are /three/ possible spellings
  for the /s/ at the end of a syllable one has to choose from.

  There is no rule for deciding whether to use "s" ("Aas" with a
  long /a/, "Bus" with a short /u/) or "ss/ß" ("Fraß" with a long
  /a/, "dass" with a short /a/) - this has to be memorized for each
  word. Only, if one has already memorized that a word is ending in
  one of "ss/ß", then the length of the vowel can be used to resolve
  the spelling, but since people do not want to think constantly when
  writing, I guess most have also just memorized this for each word.

  (A foreign language learner learning German also has to
  memorize for every word whether an S sound at the end is
  spelled "s" or "ss/ß". For native language pupils, Marx has
  shown that they make more errors with the news system, while
  they did nearly not make any errors at all in this regard
  [an /s/ sound at the end of a syllable] with the old system.)