You were ok with Thier then?“Thiere” ….case in point
Nearly half of adult Canadians struggle with literacy.
- Thread starter DesRicardo
- Start date
I've always thought that an International phonetic alphabet would be a good idea.
Some of the letters would be the same as those in the Latin alphabet we use, but there are language sounds in other languages that don't appear in English, like the French nasal N in 'bon', or the 'horking' H sound in Yiddish 'chutzpah'. There are, however, a limited number of sounds used in speech, and it wouldn't be difficult to make a symbol for each.
If signs/ literature, etc. were written in the predominant language(s) of a country or region, and also in the phonetic alphabet, anyone who could speak a language could also read it, and anyone who could read the translated version in the phonetic alphabet could say what they read. Something similar to 'google translate' with the translated text appearing in one's own language, in the applicable foreign language, and in the phonetic text could effectively be a universal translator.
I doubt that wyzemc is 'Grace', because wyzemc uses paragraphs, upper case and punctuation.
Also the misuse of apostrophes. I see them used in the plural form of words almost every day.You only have to look as far as Internet forums (like this), social media or places like kijiji or FB marketplace to know basic literacy (reading interpretation, grammar and spelling) is declining. For example I’m shocked at the number of ads selling something where the name of the item is misspelled, even when the name of the thing is boldly displayed in the photo. Don’t even get me started on there/their/they’re and your/you’re….
My parents were both new to Canada and when they met, neither could communicate fluently because they were born in different countries. Their solution was “lingua franca”. A unique blend of language that to this day my brother and I still use in many of our conversations.
