• Why The English Alphabet Is Stupid - GradeAUnderA
    105 replies, posted
[QUOTE=RichyZ;49207524]it allows it to easily be differentiated from other letters and words someone can misinterpret saying "zee" with "cee" and "sea" depending on the mode of communication[/QUOTE] Context would rule out "sea" entirely and frankly C and Z sound different enough that you'd only mix them up if you are communicating over something that makes it hard to hear. With the "so you don't mix them up logic" B and E should also have their own "Bed" and "Ed" versions.
[QUOTE=RichyZ;49207524]it allows it to easily be differentiated from other letters and words someone can misinterpret saying "zee" with "cee" and "sea" depending on the mode of communication[/QUOTE] it's always great when you have to spell something over the phone because B V D E P T G C Z
[QUOTE=dai;49207684]it's always great when you have to spell something over the phone because B V D E P T G C Z[/QUOTE] You know I never really thought about it before but when you put all those letters next to each other, saying Zed feels so fucking weird. Bee, Vee, Dee, Eee, Pee, Tee, Gee, Cee, ZED. Why is just Z different from every other letter in non-American English?
[QUOTE=TacticalBacon;49207722]You know I never really thought about it before but when you put all those letters next to each other, saying Zed feels so fucking weird. Bee, Vee, Dee, Eee, Pee, Tee, Gee, Cee, ZED. Why is just Z different from every other letter in non-American English?[/QUOTE] Well the sound is based directly off the Greek Zeta, which our alphabets Z comes from. Where the American form 'Zee' came from I'm not totally sure, though maybe it came from the Hebrew character Zeta is based off of, Zayin. [editline]29th November 2015[/editline] Or maybe some American just thought 'Zed' sounded retarded in the context of the other characters and just made it 'Zee' to fit in so the alphabet song isn't ruined at the end.
[QUOTE=ScottyWired;49207329]It is abserd in manee playsez beekoz sum langwijez ar so konsistent that 99% ov werdz kan bee speld jast baee heering it.[/QUOTE] wot if yoo hav an aksent
I'm surprised he didn't mention "gh"
sh, th and ch should become their own letters
[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;49208093]sh, th and ch should become their own letters[/QUOTE] They were at one point. ᚦ was used to represent th, but then it fell out of use and got substituted for y in words like "ye/the" because it wasn't on most printing presses. Russian still has separate letters for ch, sh, and shch, but doesn't have a th sound at all.
[QUOTE=Rangergxi;49205995]The Chinese simplified their language. English countries can do the same.[/QUOTE] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/jWY62XA.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE=Rangergxi;49205995]The Chinese simplified their language. English countries can do the same.[/QUOTE] There actually is a form of English designed for colonies in Africa and Melanesia where the Englishmen decided their language was too complicated for natives to learn. I believe it was a big thing in Papua New Guiana
in spanish Z and S sound the same. S and C too when they are with and E or an I. Q sounds like an actual C when is with an e or i. C and K sound the same. CH and SH sound the same. G sounds like a J when is with an I or an E, but it will sound normal if an U is in between. Latin-based languages are a mess
[QUOTE=Ardosos;49207105]It bothers me more than it should that british people pronounce Z as "zed".[/QUOTE] I always thought it was just a Canadian thing, but apparently it's the US that's the exception.
[QUOTE=dai;49207684]it's always great when you have to spell something over the phone because B V D E P T G C Z[/QUOTE] This is exactly why we use the phonetic alphabet at work, pronouncing this as "Bravo Victor Delta Echo Papa Tango Gold Charlie Zulu". Doesn't help when one or both people on the phone/radio have an accent either :v:
I have to admit that about 2 years ago I didn't know English reads X as Z. It was mainly because I haven't used or encounter many words starting with X and my language has specific X and Z sounds that never replace each other. The video that show me this difference was talking about HL1 Xen and they kept saying Zen.
let's finally fiks the english language
I'm sad there was no 'W', although it's more if it's pronounced it's out of place.
I'm surprised he didn't mention the word "island" Also if you removed 'x' then what would be the first unknown variable?
iirc the silent K comes from a time when it was actually pronounced.
the word iron will always baffle me
The fact that "Sean" is pronounced "Shawn" is one of the things that gets me the most but I'd imagine names are a different ballpark entirely.
[QUOTE=TacticalBacon;49207722]You know I never really thought about it before but when you put all those letters next to each other, saying Zed feels so fucking weird. Bee, Vee, Dee, Eee, Pee, Tee, Gee, Cee, ZED. Why is just Z different from every other letter in non-American English?[/QUOTE] In Finnish, we say it as Zet. Or Zeta. [editline]29th November 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=Anderan;49208975]The fact that "Sean" is pronounced "Shawn" is one of the things that gets me the most but I'd imagine names are a different ballpark entirely.[/QUOTE] No it's not though? Not exactly the same pronunciation? I'd say "Sean" almost like "Sawn" And "Shawn" just like "Shawn"
[QUOTE=oskramorir;49208310]in spanish Z and S sound the same.[/QUOTE] Not in European Spanish, where Z is a "th" sound. Just like C, as long as it's followed by an E or an I. This alphabet's an universal mess
Or maybe most people do pronounce the names (Sean & Shawn) exactly the same. I don't know I don't actually live in America/someplace where I hear the names being spoken a lot. They're similar for sure
[QUOTE=Teddybeer;49208767]It should be US English marked as traditional as UK and US English.[/QUOTE] What? The layout of this sentence is incomprehensible.
[QUOTE=Makzu;49206046]Good thing that in the finnish language words are said the same way they are written.[/QUOTE] Yep, in finnish certain letter is only tied to certain sound, produced in certain part of mouth. With complete lack of silent letters. In finnish in example vowels are 'pure' in contrast to english where vowel is often combination of two 'vowels' or sounds, starting with one sound, but the ending/continuing sound is totally different, becoming a somekind of hybrid of vowels and consonants. There are some letters in finnish alphabet which does't represent single sound, but those letters come's from loan words and doesn't orginally belong to finnish alphabet. Those letters are: C, Q, W, X, Z and Å. Those are often spelled as combination of two finnish consonants or directly replaced by another. They are often replaced with finnish letters by the way how finnish people spells them, and drop out every silent letter. Examples (alltough some of these are rare compared to the orginal form): Pizza -> Pitsa Taxi -> Taksi Zeppelin -> Tseppeliini Chernobyl -> Tsernobyl It is also possible to write words from different languages in finnish writing system that finnish person could spell them 'close enough', allthough smaller differences/tones gets destroyed in the process. This is not possible to the other direction without spelling breaking totally. Someone could try to explain better... [IMG]http://img.yle.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/article6911840.ece/ALTERNATES/w960/taksi taksijono.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE=Bynine;49208964]the word iron will always baffle me[/QUOTE] Wait, what exactly is so confusing about it?
[QUOTE=Teddybeer;49208767]It should be US English marked as traditional as UK and US English. Shit like autumn and fall.[/QUOTE] I don't know what type of English this sentence is in, but do you think you could switch to a more common variant?
Of cors, yu cud simplify a languij, but wats stopping peepl from calling yu a retard for doin so?
[QUOTE=abcpea;49207840]wot if yoo hav an aksent[/QUOTE] This is why writing English exactly how it's pronounced is impossible because we have so many different accents that say things different from each other, even within the same country. So first thing's first English needs to be standardized with the same accent before we can improve the spelling system to spell things how they're pronounced. [editline]29th November 2015[/editline] And tbh English probably will be standardized to the general American accent in a few decades anyway.
[QUOTE=riki2cool;49209308]Wait, what exactly is so confusing about it?[/QUOTE] it's pronounced "i-yern", even though the r comes before the vowel sound - that's not to mention that the o is pronounced like an e. by any logic it should either be pronounced "i-ron" (like how iran is pronounced but with a hard i) or spelled iurn/iyern/iern.
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