I almost feel like English should start from scratch with spelling, There are basically no consistent rules at all. I think we should assign spelling to kindergartners who actually follow the rules of English and spell things like they should be spelled.
Quinoa -> Keen-wa
Ballet -> Baal-Eh
Design -> De-zine
etc.
Prescribed languages are so boring. English is a glorious chaotic fun practical mutt of a language. It’s a language that gleefully creates, adopts, adapts, mutates, and discards words and grammar and spelling and sentence structure to fit the speaker/writer’s needs. A language whose most-loved authors tend to be the ones who break grammatical rules on a whim. A language whose most revered poet, the Bard himself, damn near invented half the modern English lexicon. (It’s my firm belief that Shakespeare would have loved modern rap music. It’s right up his alley, it’s his kind of word play.)
How the hell such a fun and flexible language came from class-obsessed tradition-obsessed bureaucracy-obsessed England of all countries is the real mystery.
I am once again calling for death to the academie francaise.
Are you saying that changing spelling is a good idea or a bad idea? I can’t tell.
I think it’s a great idea, if the type of work in question calls for that sort of creativity.