1. How many letter are there
in the alfabet?
The
traditional
presentation of the alphabet
2. How many speech sounds
are there in the English language?
(The minimum
number of pure or uncombined phonemes.)
REF: http://www.unifon.org/number-phonemes.html
3. How many different spelling
patterns are used to represent each of
those
basic sounds? How many ways can you spell <DAY>?
REF:
www.unifon.org/dewey.html www.unifon.org/ei-18ways.html
4. a. Are there any letters
in the alphabet that are always sounded
the same way? Are there any letters associated
with one and only one sound?
b. If
so, which? www.unifon.org/polyvalence.htm
5. a. How many letters can
be silent? eg, [e] is
silent in <private>.
b. Is
there any letter than is never silent? ghost
letters
6. a. Are there any sounds
that are always spelled the same way?
b. If
so, which?
7. a. What sound has the
greatest number of possible spellings?
b. What
consonant has the greatest number of possible spellings?
www.unifon.org/
8. What letter can be
pronounced in the greatest number of ways?
(Not
counting when it is part of a letter combination like 'th')
www.unifon.org/dewey.html
9. The letter sequence
[E-A-T] can be pronounced as in eat, great, sweat.
a. How
many different sounds can be spelled with <ough>?
b. Give
an example of each
10. Did
you know that most major languages in the world, even French, have improved
their
writing systems in the past 150 years? In the
past 150 years, name 5 languages that
a) have had sweeping changes in their writing systems
b) have had small but important changes in the past 150 years.
11. What are the top five
reasons people give for why English spelling
can never be changed? REF: bad
arguments
12. In the English
writing system
a. How many letters are used to represent vowels?
b. What pure vowels have no representation?
c. How many pure vowels are there in English speech?
13. a. When did the English
first notice the lack of correspondence
between pronunciation and spelling.
b. When did they first propose a spelling reform?
14. Name three great English
lexicographers [dictionary writers]
who thought English spelling needed reforming and who tried
to make some reforms themselves?
15. Name a dozen eminent
people who have advocated
English spelling reform.
16. How many different
ways do children spell scissors? (Rough guess)
a. How many
possible ways are there to spell this word? /siz@rz/
[Ellis calculated it by multiplying [# ways to spell S] x [# for i] x [#
for z]...
b. What is
theSee most common way that children
misspell scissors?
c. Which is
sillier, the misspelling or the lexical spelling'?
17. How many 'contradictory
facts' do children have to accept in learning present day English spelling,
according to Sir James Murray, compiler of the Oxford English dictionary?
18. Name as many principles
of education that you can which are contradicted when children have to
be taught to spell English.
19. Do we learn about the
history of our words from their spellings?
[
See
the etymological argument for keeping our present system of spelling].
20. How do people in other
countries with updated writing systems learn about the history of the words
in their language?
Credits:
[The 20 questions quiz was first suggested by Valerie Yule]
The questions were reviewed by the sssweb sub committee [Bett,
Haliday,Huchins, Schwartz]
Sponsor:
The lead baloon society: supporter of
lost causes
References:
Gregersen, Edgar A. [2000] Compromise Spellings and World
English. Journal
of the Simplified Spelling Society 27 - 2000/1
Links
Linguistic resources
Linguistics Quiz
Orthographic Challenge
 
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phonemic transcription
systems for English
