PeterMollenburg wrote:Well I disagree. English is known for being notoriously unpredictable with regards to the written system being a representation of phonetics. Take -ough for example...
This just one way to the same goal. Have you never heard people mispronouncing French even though they know how to read? One has to learn e.g. that the 'eu' sound of
il y a eu doesn't sound like the 'eu' anywhere else it is employed e.g.
peu, heureuse, pneu. There are plenty other like examples.
PeterMollenburg wrote:As taken from the above site (I'm sure there are many online to be found), as an example, ough has 9 different ways in which it can be pronounced:
[i]The letters ‘ough’ can be pronounced 9 different ways in English. ‘ough’ can be pronounced as [ʌf] in rough, /aʊ/ in plough/u:/ in through, /oʊ/ in though, /ɔː/ in thought, /ə/ – in thorough /ˈθʌr.ə/, /ɒf/ in cough, /ʌp/ in hiccough and /ɒk/ in lough.
Yes, the deviation away from the Germanic cognates, easy to locate in Dutch/German along with the shifts. Cough=kuch, rough=ruig, through=durch, plough=ploeg... All showing how ough was originally pronounced. English didn't have a spelling reform to cure the deviations over time, yet everyone manages when they learn the exceptions. It's not like French doesn't have awkward exceptions people have to learn. This thing about English being chaotic is vastly overblown.
PeterMollenburg wrote:The reason that English spelling and pronunciation are variable and challenging for learners is because English is not a phonetic language.
Many other languages are ‘phonetic languages’. This means that each letter makes a particular sound – this makes learning the pronunciation easy.
A great argument for Esperanto really.
PeterMollenburg wrote:Anyone trying to convince me that French is less predictable or equally unpredictable when attempting to pronounce words from their written counterparts is not going to win me over.
See above.
PeterMollenburg wrote:I have my doubts about this statement. I believe it's more to do with economics, (geo) politics and whatever the trend is in pop culture (think Netflix, think Hollywood, think music) and I think if French were in the same position as English is (including being spoken in many more countries), then everyone would be learning French.
That's a rather circular argument. 'If French was in English's position...' yet 'French is not in English's position because it doesn't have the geopolitical power..' It's sort of unwinnable in that if one shows that people just don't take it up, the default explanation is always 'because of geopolitical power'.
In any case the view that some languages are just easier isn't subjective. Depending on the base language of course. It's not a leap of faith to see why Dutch people and Germans and Perhaps Scandinavians would be more inclined towards English (as they are) than French or Italian.