Logomacy
Between logomachy and logomancy . . .

Language Log: More on Spelling Reform

I’ve been meaning to get around to this for a while, but on reading Bill Poser’s take on spelling reform, I think that the objection that Via de Argilla raises that historical spelling (or at any rate a not-completely-phonetic spelling) alleviates regional variation is more potent than Poser allows.
Take, for instance Language Log’s discussion of NEW-clee-er vs. NEW-cue-ler
While a reformed English spelling might very well get away with eliminating kn, which nobody pronounces with the k anymore except to be funny¹, I think that if a completely phonetic spelling system were pushed through there would be genuine problems of the newcleeer/newcueler variety. One variant would be pushed out, and suddenly it’s just another non-phonetic system.
I’m not sure that care in creating the writing system will really solve these problems.

Apropos of hapax logomena, logomacy is one. Or at least it was until a handful of other bloggers used it as the proper name for this blog. As it stands, all google hits on logomacy point to this site or a site referring to this one.

As the subtitle of the blog hints logomachy and logomancy are words you can find in dictionaries: logomachy is arguing or disputing about words or a battle of words, while logomancy is divination by words. And logomacy, which sounds like it ought to mean something, is just a pun on my name that falls lexically between the two.