Katie Melua Instagram – I wanna share one of the things I love about the Georgian alphabet: each letter represents every single sound in the language, which means there is virtually no way to misspell anything.
When I was learning English at the age of 8, I couldn’t understand how so many of the English letters had so many possible sounds. The problem becomes very apparent, for example, when years later I try to make a call to a phone company or an energy company and have to give the spelling of my name. To achieve the correct results I have to use the NATO phonetic alphabet: M for Mike, E for Echo and so on, which down a phone line can take up precious time before I’ve reached the reason for the call.
I know this is a niche thing to write about, but I think about it a lot, as the sound of words in my adopted language is a big part of my songwriting. Because English letters are not direct representatives of the sounds, as a songwriter I had the joy of discovering the phonemic alphabet, shown in picture 3, which thankfully does paint a more accurate picture of the sound of words.
For any language nerds out there: does anyone know why the English alphabet developed this way? And any multi-linguists out there, would you share what quirks or efficiencies your (m)other languages have?
K x | Posted on 08/Aug/2024 19:14:09
