And Rosta, On 30/10/2011 12:08:
> Herman Miller, On 30/10/2011 03:55:
>> I think you'd need to evaluate each word on a case by case basis. I'd
>> use FOOT for "root" to distinguish it from "route" (if the latter is
>> pronounced with GOOSE as opposed to MOUTH). "Either" is unambiguous
>> whether spelled with FLEECE or PRICE, so either spelling would be
>> acceptable.
>
> I think I'd use Option 2 for these 2, because they're two
> unsystematic to be worth the learning-cost of Option 3.

"two unsystematic" > "too unsystematic"

>> One drawback of having a distinct spelling for BATH (and similar
>> cases) is that speakers of dialects that don't distinguish BATH from
>> TRAP (or LOT from PALM, or LOT from CLOTH, or NORTH from FORCE) will
>> have trouble remembering which one to use when.
>
> Regardless of how you handle cases like BATH (variation in lexical
> incidence), variations in phoneme inventory are going to give rise to
> lots of cases where words somebody pronounces the same are spelt
> differently, which is why I'd said that the diaphonemic spelling
> system is hard to learn.

"hard to learn" > "hard to learn to write (but easy to learn to read)".

--And.