[chief1983]

I think you'll find there is some Celtic and Gaelic influences in English also.

Yeah, I thought so, but I wasn't as sure about that one, and I didn't rule it out specifically.  It was just far enough away on the tree that I couldn't state it for sure, but having the Scots and the Irish right next door pretty much ensures some overlap there I guess.

[Nuclear1]

Pfft, you Yur-Oh-Pee-Ins and your Romance/Germanic languages.

Want a fun language to learn? Try Arabic, where forgetting a dot turns "US armed forces" to "US naked forces"

[Mika]

Bah. Most foreign languages that I know simply much suck when it comes to the logic of pronouncing letters. The only good rule that I understand is that if the letter exists there it should be said. Otherwise you are wasting valuable space and ink. But, given the willingness of English people to change anything I find the efforts largely wasted. We should concentrate on the American brothers on this one, if we want something to happen.

That being said, the English grammar would indeed need some clarification, but it doesn't even come to close with French. German is a little bit better, but they also have letters that are silent.

Also, if ai wud rait Inglis wööds äs ai hea dem, it wud luuk laik diis.
Nice to have some general rules about this, right?

Besides, Arabic is not even the funniest language regarding misunderstandings. I again have to congratulate my own native language about the possible ridiculous situations what the foreigner can cause if he mistakes a couple of letters in the end of the word and thinks nobody will notice. It could simply change the message from informal content to incredibly odd sexual preference, for example. Which is, of course, fun for everybody!

Mika

[Mika]

"simply much suck" <- In case anyone wondered, that was intentional. Rest of grammar mistakes, no.

Mika

[Jeff Vader]

<Enkripted mesidgs>

Juu aar not tolking öbaut gramar, juu'r tolking öbaut speling.

If ai rote Inglish hau ai pronauns it, juu vud häv sirius trabul riiding it.

Thas, it's betör to juus comon, estäblishd speling forms thän start äplaing juur oun öpinions öbaut hau diferent wörds äär spelt.

<Mesidgs ends>

Hell yeah. We should all just type English the way we pronounce it. Life would be so much more exciting that way.

[Mika]

Found an interesting site about this at:
http://www.zompist.com/spell.html

If a software can pronounce about 90% of the 5000 word text correctly, English doesn't seem so illogical after all? Or maybe it does - would be interesting to see how much would the software guess correctly if it tried standard Finnish. 100% Anyone?

Mika

[chief1983]

I took 4 years of Spanish, and as much as I had a hard time grasping conjugations as time went on, the pronunciation of letters was pretty much constant.  There are far fewer silent letters in it than in English.  I would imagine that any software that can get 90% in english should be able to get 99%+ in Spanish.

[Polpolion]

I have an idea! Let's set our standards based on the progress of the weakest portion of the population in regards to intelligence! We'll completely ignore the needs of the people who really show potential, and in effect, killing any hopes of the promising group of the population, thereby forcing society to become stagnant and unproductive! Doesn't that sound GREAT?

[chief1983]

Did you just say Mexicans are unproductive?

[Polpolion]

Did you just say Mexicans are unproductive?

If you just implied that Mexicans are unintelligent, then I guess so.

[Nuclear1]

Considering that sizzler was more referring to the people who think "predicate" refers to a girl with a baby in the cooker, which could very well be 25% of the people I graduated high school with, I don't think he meant only the Mexicans.

[Davros]

Six straight years.

And you've been gay for the rest ?

[achtung]

Six straight years.

And you've been gay for the rest ?

Puns are funny.

[Flipside]

Always reminds me of when 'Hello' readers in the UK started throwing stones at a paediatrician who got stones thrown at her house because some people were too dense to be able to tell the difference in spelling between that and paedophile....

[Nuclear1]

Wait...she got stones thrown at her person AND her home, or is that a typo?

Either way it's still retarded (the stone throwing, not your post).

[Flipside]

Yeah, sorry, meant her house, she also get graffiti all over the walls.

And yes, I think 'retarded' probably describes the mentality behind it quite nicely.

[haloboy100]

Screw it all. Lets learn Shivan.

[chief1983]

I'may a igbay anfay of igpay atinlay.

[Nuclear1]

Ana jundi fy al khata joweea fee montree fee weelyit kaleeforneea. Ana amreekee. Adresoo fee feeshirs fee indeeanna

Transliteration is fun

[General Battuta]

Hey, I understand some of that! My basic Arabic has not totally deserted me!