Apr 25, 2007

Children of earth, rant Against "W"

I find having to look and read anything in the nonphonetic Roman script on a day in day out basis brings up strong aggressive resistence and repulsion. "Why do I have to stand this nonsense?", a voice inside keeps asking, "This is voodoo script. Who wants to keep deciphering this to figure out that the person is greeting you and not wishing you to go to hell?" Am I dumb that I can't make out which word and meaning is meant when I hear it? Why does English have write, right, rite, wright with all these variations Does it make sense to remember not to write "r-i-t-e" or "w-r-i-g-h-t," right? I omit to mention that I in this screed stands for all the children of the earth, bar none, who have to cope with nonphonetic scripts that exhibit no pattern of any kind from the word go.

What is 'w' -- "dubble yoo" -- doing there? It has a 'd' an 'l', a'y' and an 'oo in it; so can it become a single letter? If it is to be voiced 'hvva' why not call it that ? More important, why can't people find the energy to fight the inertia on this.

There is some hope. I remember listening on Radio Netherlands to a Canadian woman who did some work in this regard... Here is her name and that of the book she wrote from Amazon: "Vexed Texts: How Children's Picture Books Promote Illiteracy by Pamela Protheroe (Paperback - 1992)"

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