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Fan, issue 6, February 1946
Page 3
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FAN SIMPLIFIED SPELLING --- A CRITICISM --- BY T. BRUCE YERKE As proof to all doubters that fans are the advance guard of the next step upwards in human evolution, the numerous amateur publications over the past decade have from time to time been the victim of various systems of simplified spelling. The excuse for this showmanship has always been the orthographical recalcitrance of the English spelling system. The primary and most often and heartily pressed forward system is Ackermanese, named after its originator Forrest J Ackerman. Since this is more standardized than any of the other tried over different periods, but especially since it is typical of all of them, it shall be used in this article as a prime example. A sampl uv ths sort uv smplfyd spelling is rite b4 Ur eyes now. Sumtyms it's wors than ths exmple. Other tymes it's mor rationl, pending on the stability uv th authr at th tym. While systems much more logical than the above example (which is characteristic of the entire) have been espoused by important persons, including no less a m n than President Theodore Roosevelt, with absolutely no support, this matters not to Ackerman, who continues to perturb the fan mag editors to no end with his short jargon. The worst fault of the whole Ackermanese system lies in the fact that the phonetic values given his various contradictions are based on the highly unstable phonetic values of the English originals. Thus, a reader not first thoroughly cognizant of the peculiarities of the King's English will be even more helpless when confronted with Ackerman's "English". Since the two prime objects of orthographic reform are (in order of importance) to make the language easier to learn by foreign-speaking persons and to simplify the task of writing by the native, it is obvious that Ackermanese is pretty much of a flop on the first count. Why? Let us see: One confusing trick of Ackermanese is the assignment of single letters of the English alphabet to the function in certain 3
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FAN SIMPLIFIED SPELLING --- A CRITICISM --- BY T. BRUCE YERKE As proof to all doubters that fans are the advance guard of the next step upwards in human evolution, the numerous amateur publications over the past decade have from time to time been the victim of various systems of simplified spelling. The excuse for this showmanship has always been the orthographical recalcitrance of the English spelling system. The primary and most often and heartily pressed forward system is Ackermanese, named after its originator Forrest J Ackerman. Since this is more standardized than any of the other tried over different periods, but especially since it is typical of all of them, it shall be used in this article as a prime example. A sampl uv ths sort uv smplfyd spelling is rite b4 Ur eyes now. Sumtyms it's wors than ths exmple. Other tymes it's mor rationl, pending on the stability uv th authr at th tym. While systems much more logical than the above example (which is characteristic of the entire) have been espoused by important persons, including no less a m n than President Theodore Roosevelt, with absolutely no support, this matters not to Ackerman, who continues to perturb the fan mag editors to no end with his short jargon. The worst fault of the whole Ackermanese system lies in the fact that the phonetic values given his various contradictions are based on the highly unstable phonetic values of the English originals. Thus, a reader not first thoroughly cognizant of the peculiarities of the King's English will be even more helpless when confronted with Ackerman's "English". Since the two prime objects of orthographic reform are (in order of importance) to make the language easier to learn by foreign-speaking persons and to simplify the task of writing by the native, it is obvious that Ackermanese is pretty much of a flop on the first count. Why? Let us see: One confusing trick of Ackermanese is the assignment of single letters of the English alphabet to the function in certain 3
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