Re: Camion Code, new phonemic writing system

From: JoAnne Marie (jmarie@filnet.fr)
Date: Mon Aug 23 1999 - 00:39:16 EDT


Peter: (Aug. 20) If English were written
       phonetically, with different spellings in Australia, NZ, India,
       Singapore, Kenya, US, Canada, England, etc. (and all that
       multiplied many times by the many different dialects within
       those countries), the language - spoken and written - would not
       have 1% of the current status that it has in the world today.

and on Aug. 22 (P.C.): You might be able to come up with a way of using CC
to write
       English such that every English speaker can read and write it,
       but the fact is that language changes. 300 years from now, our
       descendents would be having this same argument over getting rid
       of the difficult-to-learn, arbitrary spellings based upon CC
       and replacing that impediment to functional literacy with
       something else.

(JM) Are you trying to have it both ways? First that (phonemic writing) is
far too variable, and then that it (would become?) far too fixed (rigid)?
I don't see why it couldn't keep pace with the 'evolution' of English.

>(JM) I'm not sure what you mean by iconic

(PC) That meaning of a linguistic sign is somehow suggested by the
       form, or that there is some correlation between variation of
       form for a set of signs and the corresponding variation in
       meaning.

(JM) I prefer to think of the Camion Code as 'featural'; I also discovered
the term 'glotto-gtaphic' which seems to me to fit the bill :-)

JoAnne Marie, jmarie@filnet.fr
CV, Phonetics and Poetry on:
http://www.filnet.fr/perso/jmarie



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