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A spelling bee where contestants are given a difficult word to spell, and instead of
spelling the word as it is in the dictionary, come up with a simplified spelling. A panel
of linguists determines if the provided spelling is close enough in pronunciation to the
original word to be acceptable—if
it's not, the contestant is out.
If the word is acceptable, it is then given a score based on what it would be worth in
Scrabble (so less common letters are worth more points). The next contestant may
either request a new word to spell, or may “challenge” and attempt to further
simplify the previous word. If the contestant provides an acceptable word with a
lower score, the challenged contestant is eliminated. If the word is not acceptable, or
scores the same or higher, then the challenger is eliminated.
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Annotation:
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I can't see this being much of a challenge. Given any
word, the simplest reasonable spelling is fairly self-
evident. |
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The scrabble points thing works against you. Spelling reform would alter letter frequency which is the basis for scrabble letter values, so the advantage is with the status quo. |
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Scissors wins, but sisorz is easier to spell, so no reform. |
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The simplespelling may be self-evident, but it will be differently evident to everyone depending on their accent or dialect. For example, Sisorz is manifestly unacceptable, Sizuz is much closer. Still loses on scrabble points though. |
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Avoiding uncommon letters is a way of simplifying,
though. It's better to repurpose letters for multiple
sounds where possible, since that way if you're trying
to spell a word and you aren't sure if a letter should
be an “s” or a “z”, you can go with the “s” and
you're more likely to be correct. |
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So in that sense “sisorz” isn't really an improvement
over “scissors”, but “sisers” is. Hmmm. Seems to me
that making words easier to spell doesn't necessarily
make them easier to pronounce when written.
Interesting. |
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//Scissors wins, but sisorz is easier to spell, so no reform.// |
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No points for anyone. "Sisorz" would logically be pronounced with a
soft "s" in the middle (to rhyme with "pisserz", or "vicorz"). "Sisers"
would logically have two soft s's to rhyme with "dicerse". |
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"Sizrz" or "sizuz" would be logical but unfamiliar. "Sizzerz" would win,
and would also score the most scrabble points (except I don't think
there are three z's available). |
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In any case, if you're going to reform the language, you would do far
better to start by using the phonetic alphabet - otherwhys thair wil
orlwayz bee rume four argyoumeant. |
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Another advantage of using the phonetic alphabet is that it makes it
perfectly clear that regional accents are simply wrong. |
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//I can't see this being much of a challenge. Given
any
word, the simplest reasonable spelling is fairly self-evident.// |
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//No points for anyone.// |
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