Summary
10 December 2012
Learning a language is often tricky, particularly when it comes to spelling new words. "The Spell As You Pronounce Universal Project" (SAYPU) wants everyone to spell words the way they are pronounced - and for the world to spell in Latin script.
Reporter:
Karen Zarindast
Would reading become easier if all letters were pronounced in the same way?
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Report
School children in English-speaking countries have difficulty spelling words such as 'people' and 'friend'. They contain the odd vowels which are not pronounced. SAYPU suggests it is about time we started spelling what we pronounced and not just in English, but in all languages. Say, for instance, the word 'oui' - or 'yes' in French - would be spelled WEE and the word 'Leute' in German - meaning 'people' - as LOITE. The director of Logos Capital, Jaber George, who is launching the programme today, insists their aim is to help raise worldwide literacy levels by making spelling easier.
"One of the reasons why, in some cultures and in certain languages, there is higher illiteracy rates than in others is because of the difficulty in learning how to read and write, and by having, actually, a phonetic alphabet, then you don't have this problem anymore; everyone will be able to read and write much more easily. So Esperanto, basically, is to have a single language spoken by everyone; here, what we are trying to do is just to have all these languages written using the same alphabet."
Even though there might be linguists out there frowning at the project already, Jaber insists their programme won't undermine the beauty and the playfulness of words and languages. They aim to create their own dictionary of words from around the world. And if you are so inclined, you could log in and add a word or two from your part of the world.
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Vocabulary
- vowels
sounds represented by the letters a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y in English
- pronounced
said out loud
- literacy
the ability to read and write
- phonetic
said the way it is written
- Esperanto
a universal language that was created to make it easy for everyone to learn to speak in the same way
- linguists
people who study language
- frowning at
expressing their disapproval about
- undermine
destroy or weaken
- playfulness
sense of fun
- so inclined
keen to do something
