Hello everybody.
How would you rank Germanic languages (English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic) from that with the most consistent spelling to that with the most inaccurate one?
For example, I know that Danish has something like 35 vowels (this is why "A 15-month-old Croatian child understands approximately 150 words, while a Danish child of the same age understands just 84 on average." http://www.krusekronicle.com/kruse_...es-irritable-vowel-syndrome.html#.U3Hn4vl_uBQ) and the spelling is not so consistent ([æ] [ɑ] and [a] can be written with /a/ or /e/, [ɛ] with /e/, /æ/ or /i/, [ɔ] with /o/ or /å/, [o] with /o/ or /u/, [ø] [œ] and [ɶ] with /y/ or /ø/, the soft d (transcribed as [ð̞ˠ̠]) that sounds like an [ɫ], silent h (before v), d (after l, n, r) and e (after r), non-initial /p/ /t/ /k/ are pronounced [d] [g] and /v/ /r/ and /g/ as [ʊ̯] [ɐ̯] and [ɪ̯]/[ʊ̯] in syllable coda).
So probably Danish language has the worst spelling system.
Is there any Germanic language which is read (almost) as it is written (like Italian or Spanish)?
The main reason why English spelling reforms were rejected is that there are too many English accents so it's unlikely to reach an agreement.
Why does nobody propose to reform Danish orthographic system (seing that it is spoken only in Denmark)?
How would you rank Germanic languages (English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic) from that with the most consistent spelling to that with the most inaccurate one?
For example, I know that Danish has something like 35 vowels (this is why "A 15-month-old Croatian child understands approximately 150 words, while a Danish child of the same age understands just 84 on average." http://www.krusekronicle.com/kruse_...es-irritable-vowel-syndrome.html#.U3Hn4vl_uBQ) and the spelling is not so consistent ([æ] [ɑ] and [a] can be written with /a/ or /e/, [ɛ] with /e/, /æ/ or /i/, [ɔ] with /o/ or /å/, [o] with /o/ or /u/, [ø] [œ] and [ɶ] with /y/ or /ø/, the soft d (transcribed as [ð̞ˠ̠]) that sounds like an [ɫ], silent h (before v), d (after l, n, r) and e (after r), non-initial /p/ /t/ /k/ are pronounced [d] [g] and /v/ /r/ and /g/ as [ʊ̯] [ɐ̯] and [ɪ̯]/[ʊ̯] in syllable coda).
So probably Danish language has the worst spelling system.
Is there any Germanic language which is read (almost) as it is written (like Italian or Spanish)?
The main reason why English spelling reforms were rejected is that there are too many English accents so it's unlikely to reach an agreement.
Why does nobody propose to reform Danish orthographic system (seing that it is spoken only in Denmark)?
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