# Are most conlangs made as a joke? Why are they not very popular? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 20, 2024, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-conlangs-made-as-a-joke-why-are-they-not-very-popular/997801 "2024-02-20T02:52:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2024, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-conlangs-made-as-a-joke-why-are-they-not-very-popular/997801/41 "2024-02-21T20:07:04Z")
The Chicago Tribune, normally a relentlessly conservative newspaper, was progressive in one way: [spelling reform](https://www.spellingsociety.org/uploaded_media/tribune-media.pdf). > THE TRIBUNE this week [in 1939] adds twenty-four words to a list of words which it long has spelled in a manner harmonizing with sane trends toward simpler spelling of the English language. > > The new selections are: > > advertisment for advertisement > analog for analogue > canceled for cancelled > catalog for catalogue > controled for controlled > controler for controller > cotilion for cotillion > decalog for decalogue > definitly for definitely > demagog for demagogue > dialog for dialogue > drouth for drought > extoled for extolled > fantom for phantom > fulfilment for fulfillment > harken for hearken > hocky for hockey > indefinitly for indefinitely > monolog for monologue > patroled for patrolled > pedagog for pedagogue > prolog for prologue > skilful for skillful > tranquility for tranquillity Some of those eventually received public approval but the paper finally relented in its crusade. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2024, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-conlangs-made-as-a-joke-why-are-they-not-very-popular/997801/42 "2024-02-21T20:21:11Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > The problem with proposals to create a “phonetic” spelling system for English is that there are many different English dialects, and some words are pronounced differently in each dialect. A phonetic spelling system is going to favor one of those dialects, and speakers of the others will have to learn a new system that to them is just as non-phonetic as the current one. - From [The Reader’s Digest Treasury For Young People 1961](https://www.amazon.com/Treasury-Young-Readers-Digest/dp/B000JVYCQS) (I still have my copy) [KAOS IN CE KLASRUM](http://www.3kranger.com/labnotes/kaos.txt) First paragraph: > You must ofter have thought English spelling > is harder than need be. Just look at words like > cough, plough, rough, through and thorough. The > great writer Bernard Shaw wanted us to change > out alphabet. Here is one way of doing it. > In the first year, for example, we would suggest > using “s” instead of soft “c”. Sertainly all students > in all sities of the land would reseive this news > with joy. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2024, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-conlangs-made-as-a-joke-why-are-they-not-very-popular/997801/43 "2024-02-22T00:49:10Z")
> [@phs3](#): > > Ok, but…if you have to learn a new system, isn’t a logographic system easier for all? If you like memorizing 10,000 characters whose pronunciation bears little or no relation to how they are written, then that’s the system for you. ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2024, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-conlangs-made-as-a-joke-why-are-they-not-very-popular/997801/44 "2024-02-22T01:33:23Z")
That’s what I get for posting while half asleep. I meant, “Isn’t an ALPHABET system easier to learn?”, of course! Doh. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2024, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-conlangs-made-as-a-joke-why-are-they-not-very-popular/997801/45 "2024-02-22T17:51:24Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > drouth for drought Google is confirming my understanding that this pronunciation for this word is “drowt”, so I’d be curious how they decided to add that ‘h’ in there. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2024, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-conlangs-made-as-a-joke-why-are-they-not-very-popular/997801/46 "2024-02-22T18:05:44Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I’d be curious how they decided to add that ‘h’ in there. BECAUSE THAT’S THE WAY IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE PRONOUNCED, DAMMIT! \ That’s the real pitfall of any orthography, whether traditionally idiomatic or “new, improved, reformed, simplified”: it always embeds a lot of unsupportable assumptions about pronunciation that the slightest dialectal variation will cheerfully demolish. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2024, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-conlangs-made-as-a-joke-why-are-they-not-very-popular/997801/47 "2024-02-22T18:10:57Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Google is confirming my understanding that this pronunciation for this word is “drowt” Wiktionary says it rhymes with “mouth” and “south”: /dɹaʊθ/ ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2024, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-conlangs-made-as-a-joke-why-are-they-not-very-popular/997801/48 "2024-02-22T19:26:06Z")
I don’t see that in [Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/drought). Wiktionary says the pronunciation in the US and UK is /dɹaʊt/ but notes that the archaic spelling “drouth” is still used in Scotland and northern England, and says “The pronunciation with /θ/ properly belongs with this now archaic doublet.” The OED agrees that the standard pronunciation ends with /t/ but that the /θ/ pronunciation is used in Scotland. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2024, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-conlangs-made-as-a-joke-why-are-they-not-very-popular/997801/49 "2024-02-22T20:06:31Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > I don’t see that in [Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/drought). [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/drouth](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/drouth) ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2024, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-conlangs-made-as-a-joke-why-are-they-not-very-popular/997801/50 "2024-02-22T20:46:04Z")
Oh you’re looking at the archaic spelling “drouth”. Yes, that was pronounced with /θ/ but that spelling (and pronunciation) is not used anymore except in Scotland and in poetry. The link I gave is to the modern word “drought”. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2024, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-conlangs-made-as-a-joke-why-are-they-not-very-popular/997801/51 "2024-02-22T20:53:05Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > That’s the real pitfall of any orthography, whether traditionally idiomatic or “new, improved, reformed, simplified”: it always embeds a lot of unsupportable assumptions about pronunciation that the slightest dialectal variation will cheerfully demolish. Perfect is the enemy of the good. To be sure, it’s probably impossible to arrive at something that will require no changes between dialects but I’d submit that there’s a lot of room to improve the phonetic qualities of written English that doesn’t make it a veritable subset of the IPA and which still gives us a shared word between dialects for 99%+ of all words. You don’t need to get that last 1%. Dictionary writers can note alternate spellings of a word, by dialect, just as they do alternate pronunciations today. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-conlangs-made-as-a-joke-why-are-they-not-very-popular/997801.md?page=2)