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I myself was born and bred in Lancashire and have always lived here so I definitely have a very broad Lancashire accent. I used to hate my accent but now I have learnt to live with it. Everywhere I go people can always tell where I originate from because my accents so strong. My sister moved to Yorkshire more than twenty five years ago but she has still kept her Lancashire accent and people hearing her on the phone say I sound just like her. Have you a regional accent?

Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, German, Korean, Turkish, Indonesian, French, Dutch . . . every other major language in the world has had reforms of its writing system in the past century - except English. So it can be done.

save paper, time, -->money...

Funnily enough (or enow as they so often wrote in the 14th century) my friends & I were discussing this the other day. After much debate we decided that English wasn't yet ready for a complete overhaul.

I like the way individual words show their history & I do not believe that their spelling has glided far enough from their formal register pronunciation to warrant a spelling reform. Usage tends to take care of itself w/out necessitating spelling changes.

Because English is such an elastic language it makes sense to have a slowly evolving standard as a common ground. Should we pursue a phonetic line, whose pronunciation should we use? Spelling reforms have not been universally successful. The Swedish reforms of the 1910's worked because they removed obsolete spelling (ie people read one word and almost said another aloud) the ones from the '50's failed because they caused confusion and disagreement across declensions. Likewise Nynorsk was such a compromise between dialects that everyone struggles. Standard Irish makes little sense, one has to memorise the cases because the links between them are no longer obvious. Portuguese has done a good job of reform.

I think wholesale spelling reforms only take once the grammar won't bear the words anymore & I think English is along way off this. Meanwhile spelling will slowly evolve as it always is.

im currently listening too wicked and have the other 2 too listen to afterwards. im finding it easier than reading a book as im a very slow reader. but i still prefer a book and could even see my self with the book and the audio version.

I listen to audio books at night. I bought myself an under-pillow speaker so it doesn't disturb my partner. I find that it is less stressful on the eyes - a major cause of insomnia, for me, anyway (watching TV late at night and using a computer has a similar effect) - and so I fall asleep easier, especially because the sound blocks noises from the house that would normally keep me awake. I listen to anything I can get, though its mostly sci fi or fantasy stuff - Anne McCaffrey, David Eddings, Christopher Paolini, though I do get annoyed with the readers pronunciations of names sometimes!

scone all the way...it is spelt scone therefore pronounced scone!

I've always said scone and I don't care whether that's the right pronunciation or not. My husband says scon and I always say no it's scone. I think it's just what you were brought up to say.

This morning I counted 21 attempts to post an opinion on the pronunciation of the word scone (a life and death matter, obviously). In the end, I decided I had other things to do with the day and had to leave my pearls of wisdom unposted. Can anyone beat 21 attempts? Or does anyone get anywhere close?

I am either equal or beyond your 21 attempts for one of the topics I really wanted to comment on but was never allowed. It is frustrating because I think of all the opinions I have wanted to put here, the one that wouldn't work, was the one that I cared the most about. I went back yesterday to try it and it wouldn't work and I haven't yet tried today but I won't hold my hopes too high. I am guessing that should I come across another such topic I shall encounter the same problems! I might have to try and trick them by sending thought waves that say I hate the topic just to get my opinion to be accepted. With that in mind I shall make attempt number 22 on my nemesis, wish me luck and all the best on your next attempt too, may we both have some success soon :)