Thread: Racist spelling bee

why is that racist?

if you're not familiar with the word and don't read it from the screen all you hear is niggas

I agree that it sounds like Niggas.
I think I might possibly have read the word once or twic myself but i am not even completely sure. How is a ten year old supposed to have heard about it?
Who here was familiar with that word?

These "spelling bees" must be something uniquely American. I really don't think they exist this side of the Atlantic. I don't quite see the point in them, although I suppose anyone who aces them is bound to do well in the English "SAT" in the future.

The point is that English spelling is absolutely awful, unlike just about any other European language. We even have jokes about spelling, such as: How do you pronounce GHOTI?

the answer is "fish": GH as in ROUGH, O as in WOMEN, and TI as in NATION.

how do you pronounce the sequence OUGH in these words: rough, through trough, drought, thorough.
all different.

how about French spelling?
how about Russian a/o, е/и, д/т, б/п, г/к, з/с ?

I don't think English spelling is all that awful, there're some principles to it which you can detect and follow

No it's the Pronunciation that is awful.
I don't find the spelling particularly hard to remember once I am familiar with a word.

But there is often no logic to how words should be pronounced. In many cases you have to have heard the word before, or look it up to know. With British surnames and names of cities it gets even worse.

In Russian, the only challenge is to know which syllable the accent should be on.
Everything else is usually quite clear from the spelling, although some words look a bit scary to pronounce - i.e. tongue twisters! This could not be said for English.
There are several examples of words that are spelled very similarly and pronounced wildly differently.

I can never remember examples about stuff like this, but here is one:

thought
though

but there are thousands more!

Then there is the situation whereby there is quite a big difference between prononunciation between British English and other variations, like American etc. But there is very little difference in spelling.

Originally Posted by Mark Twain

A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling

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.
Mark Twain

The difference between Russian and English spelling is that you can pretty much figure out the pronunciation of any Russian word when you see it spelled out. For ex., everyone knows that код and кот are pronounced the same because there is a simple pronunciation rule. But you have to look in a dictionary to find out how to pronounce rough, through trough, drought

Originally Posted by chaika

The difference between Russian and English spelling is that you can pretty much figure out the pronunciation of any Russian word when you see it spelled out.

No not completely! Sure you can read the word, but the stress might be different from what you are guessing.
There are a few examples of words which are spell identically, but mean different things depending on where the stress is. Right?

I am taking a break from my Russian studies at the moment.... but when I was doing it, i always looked up words in a dictionary with accents.
There might be some logic to where the accent goes, or some kind of "feel" which native speakers have, even for words they are not familiar with...
but I am not there yet, and I have made mistakes with this several times, including when speaking with Russian speaking people (and that is in addition to all the grammatical mistakes I no doubt make...)

Originally Posted by Hanna

No not completely! Sure you can read the word, but the stress might be different from what you are guessing.
There are a few examples of words which are spell identically, but mean different things depending on where the stress is. Right?

I am taking a break from my Russian studies at the moment.... but when I was doing it, i always looked up words in a dictionary with accents.
There might be some logic to where the accent goes, or some kind of "feel" which native speakers have, even for words they are not familiar with...
but I am not there yet, and I have made mistakes with this several times, including when speaking with Russian speaking people (and that is in addition to all the grammatical mistakes I no doubt make...)

Yes, and sometimes different forms of the same word differ only with stress. The same can be said about the letter ё.
In Russian there are situations when you must use a rule, you cannot learn the spelling. раненый/раненный, не большой/небольшой.

Originally Posted by chaika

The difference between Russian and English spelling is that you can pretty much figure out the pronunciation of any Russian word when you see it spelled out. For ex., everyone knows that код and кот are pronounced the same because there is a simple pronunciation rule. But you have to look in a dictionary to find out how to pronounce rough, through trough, drought

I will not pronounce them the same. I will pronounce "д" in "код" as a voiced sound, similarly to how it is spelled.

Originally Posted by Anixx

I will not pronounce them the same. I will pronounce "д" in "код" as a voiced sound, similarly to how it is spelled.

this is wrong pronunciation, it's inconvenient and runs counter Russian phonetic principles

vocalizing devocalized consonants sounds like an accent in Russian

Originally Posted by LXNDR

this is wrong pronunciation, it's inconvenient and runs counter Russian phonetic principles

vocalizing devocalized consonants sounds like an accent in Russian

No. Anybody I know (I live in Moscow) will pronounce them vocalized. Pronouncing "код" as "кот" would sound plainly wrong and indeed confusing.

I think it's unnatural for Russian speaker to vocalize "д" in "код". We may force this sound sometimes to distinct between these words, but in relaxed speech there is no difference in pronunciation.

had Mark Twain's plan been realized it would make English research harder for philologists and linguists because this reform would break away the spelling from the words Latin roots

за́мо́к

во вряд ли -д- не оглушается, потому что за ним следует звонкий согласный

оглушение согласных
Замена звонкого шумного согласного соответствующим по парности глухим в определенных положениях:
1) в коце слова. Оглушение конечного звонкого происходит:
а) перед паузой. Набрать букет роз (рос);
б) перед следующим словом (без паузы) с начальным не только глухим, но и гласным, сонорным согласным, а также (в) и (j). Род средний (рот), прав он (праф), рожь растет (рош), cад ваш (сат), слаб я (слап);
2) в середине слова перед глухим согласным. Гладко (глаткъ). см. ассимиляция регрессивная.

и это как раз соответствует изложенным принципам

оглушение согласных

перед звонкими согласными даже глухие тяготеют к озвончению, например как бы так и просится в каг бы, но возможно это не распространяется на все случаи сочетания слов или слов с частицами

Год за годом

http://www.bard.ru/cgi-bin/mp3.cgi?id=476.17


Блиндажи той войны все травой заросли… (

Песня из к/ф "Вторая весна")

Слова Б. Окуджавы
Музыка И. Шварца

Блиндажи той войны все травой заросли,
Год за годом затихли бои.
Ни трава, ни года эту землю спасли,
А открытые раны твои.

Припев: То полдень, то тени, то солнце, то вьюга,
То ласточки, то вороньё...
Две вечных дороги - любовь и разлука |
Проходят сквозь сердце моё. | 2 раза

Наша память не в силах уйти от потерь,
Всё с фонариком бродит в былом.
Даже в праздничный день чья то тихая тень
Вместе с нами сидит за столом.

Припев: То полдень, то тени, то солнце, то вьюга,
То ласточки, то вороньё...
Две вечных дороги - любовь и разлука |
Проходят сквозь сердце моё. | 2 раза

цитата из детской энциклопедии Аванта+, том 10 русский язык, лингвистика, стр. 105
"Буквенный облик слова "гипнотизирует", и грамотному человеку трудно поверить, что, например, в конце слова дуб он произносит [п], а не [б]".

Originally Posted by Marcus

цитата из детской энциклопедии Аванта+, том 10 русский язык, лингвистика, стр. 105
"Буквенный облик слова "гипнотизирует", и грамотному человеку трудно поверить, что, например, в конце слова дуб он произносит [п], а не [б]".

This little thing is totally not important for our students of Russian especially in Fun stuff forum. Let's drop it.