英
文很容易拼寫錯誤，其他語言也好不到哪去。為什麼不進行改革，讓拼寫更容易些？這篇文章的觀點是：有權力和能力改變拼寫規則的人，已經掌握複雜的不規則拼寫，最需要簡化拼寫規則的底層民眾卻沒有發言權。所以看似複雜的拼寫邏輯，實際上是一個門檻：掌握了複雜拼寫規則的人，更容易和其他人區分開來，從而勝任高位。
現在問題來了：為什麼美國前總統特朗普推特屢屢出現拼寫錯誤，比如說unpresidented，甚至是不存在的Covfefe？是他粗心大意、想製造新聞、還是為了和底層民眾打成一片？歡迎文末留言分享您的觀點。
K
EEPING SCHOOLS closed has DEVESTATING effects” on children， America’s Republican Party tweeted from its official account， before hastily deleting the post amid mockery。 It’s not just American conservatives who stumble with their spelling even when writing about education。 Replying to a parliamentary query， the head of the schools inspectorate in Spain’s Balearic Islands misspelled “recoge” （“to collect”， among other things） as “recoje”。
mockery：嘲笑；愚弄 comments or actions that are intended to make sb/sth seem ridiculous
stumble：（不順暢地）說，讀，演奏 to make a mistake or mistakes and stop while you are speaking， reading to sb or playing music
inspectorate：視察團；檢查團an official group of inspectors who work together on the same subject or at the same kind of institution
Writing systems flummox people around the world。 These days many in China use the roman alphabet to find and enter the complex Chinese characters on phones and computers， meaning they increasingly cannot write many characters without help。 French children fear the dictée， an exercise in which they must write down a passage read aloud by teachers。 And many who haven’t mastered the notoriously difficult spelling system of English are publicly humiliated in the ritual of the school spelling bee。 Rare is the system that seems elegant， accurate and well-suited to its language。 （Korean’s Hangul script is one； it is so beloved that an annual Hangul Day commemorates its invention。） Why aren’t illogical writing systems ever reformed？
flummox：使困惑；使糊塗to confuse sb so that they do not know what to say or do
dictée：法國聽力聽寫
ritual：程式；儀規；禮節；（尤指）宗教儀式a series of actions that are always performed in the same way， especially as part of a religious ceremony
Every language’s sounds can be described with the International Phonetic Alphabet （IPA）， a collection of symbols that covers the phonemes—basic units of sound—in every known tongue。 Any given language uses just a subset of these， usually several dozen or so。 Memorise a few squiggles and you can write any word you can say， and say any word that you read， accurately。
phoneme：音位，音素（區分單詞的最小語音單位，英語 sip 中的 s 和 zip 中的 z 是兩個不同的音位）any one of the set of smallest units of speech in a language that distinguish one word from another。 In English， the in and the in represent two different phonemes 。
subset：分組；小組；子集a smaller group of people or things formed from the members of a larger group
squiggle：（寫或畫的）彎彎曲曲的線條；潦草的筆跡a line， for example in sb‘s handwriting ， that is drawn or written in a
But the IPA is a modern invention； prior writing systems arose in chaotic circumstances。 For instance， English’s messy spelling came from a confluence of factors。 The Latin alphabet was pressed into service for a Germanic language； then the Normans conquered England and brought French spelling customs。 As spelling norms were still settling， the English vowel system underwent a major change called the Great Vowel Shift。 Scribal errors muddied things further。
chaotic：混亂的；雜亂的；紊亂的 in a state of complete confusion and lack of order
confluence：（事物的）匯合，匯聚，彙集the fact of two or more things becoming one
conquer：佔領；攻克；征服to take control of a country or city and its people by force
An update seems sensible。 But a counter-argument made by traditionalists is that， by reflecting etymology， spelling reveals important information。 Early English scribes put a “p” into receipt to make clear its connection to Latin’s receptus， even though the letter was silent。 That “p” also usefully links the word to receptive and recipient， which “reseet” would not。 Interesting as etymology can be， however， it is hardly so crucial as to require painfully counterintuitive spellings unto eternity。 Most people do not know that the English words whole and health come from the same Germanic root （roughly meaning “undamaged”） as holy。 No one would propose respelling them as “hole” and “holth” to advertise the association。
etymology：詞源學the study of the origin and history of words and their meanings
scribe ：（印刷術發明之前的）抄寫員，抄書吏 a person who made copies of written documents before printing was invented
eternity：永恆；永生；不朽 time without end， especially life continuing without end after death
Other arguments for inertia are more compelling。 One is regional variety。 English， American， Irish， Scottish and other accents differ widely—no new arrangement could possibly reflect them all。 Another is simply that pronunciations are always shifting， albeit gradually。 Even a successful reform would only buy time； in two centuries many spellings would look odd again， because their pronunciations will have changed anew。
inertia：缺乏活力；惰性；保守 lack of energy； lack of desire or ability to move or change
albeit ：儘管；雖然 although
anew：重新；再 if sb does sth anew ， they do it again from the beginning or do it in a different way
Modest tweaks might work better than drastic revisions； they need not create a perfect or timeless system， merely one easier than today’s。 But even small changes are hard to push through。 Some years ago a limited German reform—which included replacing the ß character with “ss” in some contexts—produced a national uproar before it finally settled in。 The types of sweeping change needed to make English regular might be socially unacceptable。 Where root-and-branch orthographical reform has been implemented it has usually been in autocracies， like Turkey in the 1920s， when Kemal Ataturk replaced the Arabic script with a revised Latin one—or， indeed， Mao Zedong’s simplification of Chinese characters in the 1950s。
tweak：稍稍調整（機器、系統等）to make slight changes to a machine， system， etc。 to improve it
root-and-branch：完全；急進地；徹底的［地］ completely or thoroughly
A big reason spelling systems never seem to get overhauled in more liberal societies is that those in a position to change the rules have learned the old ones。 Put another way， the type of folk who were once good at spelling bees now run the world。 Those who would benefit most from reform， meanwhile， hardly have a voice， being either children or illiterate adults whom politicians can safely ignore。 For the broad middle who muddle through， technology has made it easier to hide what they don’t know。 It seems the illogical systems are here to stay。 In which case， politicians had better learn to spell-check their tweets。
overhaul：檢修；大修；改造an examination of a machine or system， including doing repairs on it or making changes to it
illiterate：不會讀寫的；不識字的；文盲的not knowing how to read or write
muddle through ：矇混過關；混過去；胡亂應付過去 to achieve a degree of success without much planning or effort
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截止時間：2021年4月18日19：00。
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素材源自網路，僅供學習參考。文章內容不代表本人觀點。