Re[2]: spelling- just do it!

[doug montalbano <doug_montalbano -at- CC -dot- CHIRON -dot- COM>]

On 8/17, Lori A. Moreland" <lamorela -at- CLE -dot- AB -dot- COM> makes

> a gift of my opinion ... About "simplified spelling" <snip>

     She exhorts us,

 >Just learn how to spell! All you have to do is memorize some rules. It's so
 >easy! When I learned French, no one was there to simplify spelling for me. I
 >had to remember circonflexes, accent agues, extra letters that did not
 >necessarily equal sounds, etc. Not easy, but I did it for love of language.

>So, just do it! When I read that passage about Ben, I was too busy telling my
 >brain that "sole" was the wrong spelling of "soul", and that it had nothing to
 >do with shoes. Cognitive noise!

     I heartily agree.  I'd like to add to this discussion that many deaf
     people are excellent spellers (they fingerspell many English words).
     Although English grammar does trip them up (they can't hear the
     patterns to build cognitive models), they have no trouble recognizing
     a  word by its *shape*.  I think there's also been some cognitive
     research done in this area -- can't remember who, but it might be
     Ursula Bellugi at the Salk Institute in San Diego.

 Doug Montalbano  <>  Technical Writer  <>  Chiron Corporation
 Doug_Montalbano -at- cc -dot- chiron -dot- com  <> (510) 601-2862 (voice/TDD)
I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those
deaf-mutes.  That way I wouldn't have to have any goddam stupid
useless conversations with anybody.  If anybody wanted to tell
me something, they'd have to write it on a piece of paper and
shove it over to me.  They'd get bored as hell doing that
after a while, and then I'd be through with having conversations
for the rest of my life.  Everybody'd think I was just a poor
deaf-mute bastard and they'd leave me alone.
         _The Catcher in the Rye_