Today I learned +

[Bohandas]

You could change the letter, but you'd still need a new letter to represent the sound, given how extremely important it is to common words in the English language (and is distinct from other sounds), so it'd be a bit of a pointless change.

The idea is to replace it with two "u"s (or two "v"s in the rare cases where that would be more appropriate)

 

[Staffan]

The idea is to replace it with two "u"s (or two "v"s in the rare cases where that would be more appropriate)

Uuhy uuould you do such a thing?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The idea is to replace it with two "u"s (or two "v"s in the rare cases where that would be more appropriate)

That seems superficially to be truly idiotic as a concept and absolutely 100% certain to be actively counterproductive to understanding of and correct pronunciation of English, given w is only ever, ever, ever, ever pronounced that way when describing the letter and at all other times has a sound that is largely unrelated to an English "u" or "uu" sound (it's more similar to that sound in some other languages). And vv isn't even a sound in English! This sort of absolute shenanigans is why ITA caused so many problems!

Like, that's intentional sabotage of your language for the sake pointlessly getting rid of an incredibly widely-used and important letter solely because it offends some aesthetic sense. Unless one can propose a genuine upgrade, the lesson of ITA and countless other linguistic crime sprees is that academics should never be allowed to mess with language. Understand them? Explain them? Sure, awesome. Make or suggest changes? Absolutely not.

 

[Bohandas]

Uuhy uuould you do such a thing?

I don't like ligatures

 

[Rabulias]

The W is needed for its unique sound. If you really want to streamline the English alphabet, get rid of Q (K can handle its sound) and C (its sounds get divvied up between S and K).

 

[MoonSong]

The W is needed for its unique sound. If you really want to streamline the English alphabet, get rid of Q (K can handle its sound) and C (its sounds get divvied up between S and K).

These are trivial, if you want to streamline English spelling, get rid of the "ea" combo.

 

[Rabulias]

These are trivial, if you want to streamline English spelling, get rid of the "ea" combo.

Streamlining spelling? Now that is crazy talk!!

 

[overgeeked]

You could simply use the International Phonetic Alphabet. But that's more about pronunciation than spelling. Good luck getting people even in the same US state to agree on how words should be pronounced...to say nothing of Australia, England, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, Scotland, and Wales.

There are about 34 consonant sounds in English, but only 19 consonant letters plus y and w.

There are about 18 vowel sounds in English, but only 5 vowel letters plus y and w.

Streamlining spelling? Now that is crazy talk!!

Learning other languages, especially those with a consistent connection between spelling and pronunciation, is wild. What do you mean the "o" always makes the same sound? That's crazy talk.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Good luck getting people even in the same US state to agree on how words should be pronounced

The American version of “Praline” seems difficult for people outside of Louisiana.

 

[Ryujin]

The W is needed for its unique sound. If you really want to streamline the English alphabet, get rid of Q (K can handle its sound) and C (its sounds get divvied up between S and K).

But then you need a CH sound.