... and my beef with the Simplified Spelling folks.
"Tsar" transliterates the pronunciation of the Russian word more accurately.
BUT... My preference is "Czar".
Why?
Because "Czar" retains an orthographic hint to the etymology: "Caesar".
This is the root of my beef with folks who advocate for a "simplified" English spelling. English is admittedly a horrible language for "phonetics" - if you've not heard a new, strange word spoken, there's a pretty good chance you won't be able to "sound it out" based on its printed form.
Nevertheless, the current spelling likely represents an ancestral phonetic representation, and preserves clues to the word's history.
In addition, if we were today to decide to spell all English words phonetically, we would not solve the problem. Two issues present themselves:
- 1. Whose pronunciation do we adopt? ("You say toe-mah-toe and I say toe-may-toe.")
- 2. Do we revise the spelling again in 20 years when the common pronunciation has changed? (... and it will!)
Note: I've no idea why I decided to write about this... I was watching a History Channel program about the Russian Revolution, and the mention of the Czar set me off.
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If u see our spelling as something of an icon, glorified by its illustrious (or otherwise) past, enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteI see it as a reading and riting tool. As such it needs to be effectiv in what its meant to do, ie, help us learn to read and rite.
It doesnt. It makes the learning mor difficult. About a fifth of our students and adults find it so difficult they giv up on literacy.
Like a carpenters tools, it needs updating, upgrading, and to be kept in prime condition.
Lets fix it!
Russ, some of us take this subject as seriously as math, & the weakness I find in your workings is the word 'likely' - a bad guess.
ReplyDeleteI don't find that we say 'Czar' or 'Tsar,' but in fact 'Zar.' The only problem I have with that is that it uses a hard symbol for a soft sound, but that's something else again.
And you may say 'tomayto' till the cows come home, but it still looks like the pronunciation of someone who discovered tomatoes in a book (written in imperfect traditional English spelling) rather than in America.
Pronunciation is a red herring. The main problem with the spelling system is the lack of internal consistency: ferry, merry, berry but very, met but debt etc.
ReplyDeleteEtymology is fascinating but first you have to be able to read - a frightening amount of us fail to do that.