Wow, so many good ideas for separate. I thought I had it with the bookend thing, but then the “a rat” held sway but I think James takes the cake with, a good day golfing. Se(e), Par, Ate
I respond positively to some seriously strange levels of abstraction and James abstracts that. Thanks. 🙂
Now, something else that I thought of after reading the
conscience
conscientious
conscious
is just how difficult it must be for someone to learn to write English. It may be easy to speak, as Mark Twain so eloquently argued in this essay The Awful German Language, but it certainly isn’t easy to spell.
My favorite example , is earth. I know I may have just shot myself in the foot as a writer by interrupting you with the inestimable Mr. Twain but I am pushing on.
Earth sounds like Urth.
Lets see what other sounds EA make.
Tear (which one? The drop or angry paper?)
Bear (but that sounds like Mare?)
Each (which is a lot like speech.)
Lead (which one again? The followers focus or Pb?)
That is all I can think of.
blief 
Hey, you sound a little like my nephew Paul Schwink: he studied linguistics at length and has a theory that we all ought to adopt a phonetic system of spellling. If you write him, (at Eg235milk@aol.com), he will respond with his inimitable phonetic spelling.
I say inimitable because, unless you know his accent you will have difficulty decoding some of his words. He has a noticeable southern or hillbilly accent.
As for English being difficult to spell, pronounce, etc. How about French? I guess you can speak French reasonably well if you have a runny nose and don’t use a handkerchief.
But spelling? Forget it.
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To speak French you don’t need a runny nose, but one must possess a certain je ne sais quoi. Bon chance!!
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Vive la France!
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GrumpyG apparently doesn’t remember that you were fully trained by Pol in his phonetic spelling when we were back their visiting. He helped me some afterwards, but he doesn’t use email much so our exchanges finally fizzled out.
I have given much thought to the phonetic spelling theory, and decided that it cannot work because of the problems with accent. If you spell it exactly like it sounds, then you will have multiple spellings for the same word, and how confusing would that be? I think I’d rather live with multiple meanings (and/or sounds) for the same spelling.
As far as French is concerned, I think that our problems with misleading spelling was caused by the French influence on the English language. Could it be that during the French revolution, they let their linguists take over the government, so now there is nobody left who can spell the words?
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I see you are all just sitting there, waiting, baiting me, to jump into the fray regarding French. Sorry, not biting! Ha. Besides, English has enough problems itself. The Brits would say that Americans mis-pronounce virtually everything anyway. And, how can a language that includes the word phlegm be any better than a language that includes Versailles? Je vous en prie.
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Amen.
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Hey Margy and Moi: show-offs!! What in Sam Hill does “je vous en prie” mean — and while you’re at it, “je ne sais quoi”. Sounds like a coded message to me.
That last one sounds like maybe it’s referring to those mythical snowmen said to be lurking in the wilderness in these here parts.
I think the first one says something like, “why are you poking your nose into my business”
Come on girls, clue me in —- PLEASE!!!
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Hmmm, will consider it if the runny nose comment is retracted…..
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