Viliam comments on Crazy Ideas Thread - Less Wrong

22 Post author: Gunnar_Zarncke 07 July 2015 09:40PM

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Comment author: Viliam 09 July 2015 08:31:46AM *  6 points [-]

any "reformed" spelling will necessarily look like ignorant spelling

It is much easier to do a spelling reform in a mostly illiterate country, where you can defend it by saying "look, most people can't read, we need to make it easier for them". Having a monarchy or dictatorship also helps to introduce the changes quickly and everywhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reforms_of_Russian_orthography
Today I learned: Russian once had a letter for "th", but it was removed and replaced by either "f" or "t".

Comment author: garabik 10 July 2015 08:47:06AM 0 points [-]

It is much easier to do a spelling reform in a mostly illiterate country

Indeed. Look at the rejected recent German orthography reform – and the changes were (relatively) minor.

Or the messed up Slovak orthography reform from the '90s – and that was mostly a few acutes here and there.