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submitted 11 months ago by PizzaDeposit@lemm.ee to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

I assume there must be a reason why sign language is superior but I genuinely don't know why.

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[-] milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago

I've heard that because written English is phonetic - meaning it shows how the sounds are (approximately) - then for people who have always been deaf that doesn't make the same sense, and reading words is a bit like reading a bunch of telephone numbers and remembering what they mean.

[-] Gabu@lemmy.ml 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I.e. the same as a programming language, which can be easily learned to be read at astounding speed... Also, written English is one of the least phonetic languages you could possibly find.

[-] milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago

Not really. You can still sound out the phonemes in a programming language. Perhaps if the whole thing were perl memes. And while I agree English orthography is a mess, for "not phonetic" it holds no candle to Chinese.

Maybe Chinese is a better comparison, I hadn't thought of that.

this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
141 points (98.6% liked)

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