Anglonics

[LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU]

About the report on English becoming the "official" language of the New
Europe and the suggestions about spellings to standardize phonetics:
Those at least I assume were meant in jest, but is the rest         
of the report?
 
If the report is true, then GB Shaw is rejoicing in heaven.  He wanted a
simplified standard spelling and proposed one, noting the famous
example that using phonetic inscriptions from different contexts, it
is possible in English that "ghoti" spells "fish".
 
And there was the pragmatic Noah Webster, who tried to clean up English
by elminating the "u" from such words as "colour" and "humour" and
introduced the "j" to stand for "g" in such transformations as
"gaol"="jail".
 
Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)