Why do we have the characters X, Y, and Z? They are duplicated by other letters, and I don’t see the need for them. Take “X” for example-it is the rarest letterin the english language-an incidenceof less than 1 use per 4000 letters. And-why not drop “k” as well (it is duplicated by “c”.
Have these proposals for a simplified alphabet ever been made before? What do you think?
Interesting concept.
So x-ray becomes “eksray”.
Yep…I’ll swap one keystroke for three.
Yellow…Y becomes what?
Zebra…??
We sort of need Y and Z (Yellow and Zebra need it), but I could see doing away with X, C, and Q. Both are not strictly neccesary.
X could simply be “eks”
C uses the sounds of either S or K. Just use S or K. Examples: Kat instead of Cat. Sity instead of City.
Q(u)? Just use “kw” instead. Spell “kwikly” instead of Quickly.
from the Wikipedia article on English orthography.
Other sites of interest:
English Spelling Reform
Simplified Spelling Society
I refuse to use the word “ekstrapolate.” It looks like a nauseatingly stupid title for a death metal song. The same goes for “ekstirpate.”
Let’s examine some others, shall we?
“Eksamine.” Just… No.
“Eksylophone.” Changing a teeth-rattling pronunciation error (eks-zy-lo-phone) from verboten to de facto? No thanks.
“Ekspropriate.” It appears to be the name of some space-age material made from elk dung. Yuhumuruwurguhumurg.
“Flummoeks.” This word is no less than the rape of our mother tongue.
In short, such a change would be truly disastrous.
I think this is supposed to be the point where someone posts Mark Twain’s essay on spelling changes. Here we are (pretty sure copyright’s expired on it, but ftr I got it from here).
One big problem I see is the use of X, Y, Z, K in the world of maths, physics and chemistry
How should we name the axes of coordinate systems?
What would the new symbol for potassium be?
Why not just speak Esperanto?
Why the fu don’t we get rid of both C and K? 
Because we want to speak to more than seven people in a whole US city.
I know of only one modern language that underwent a dramatic and intentional spelling reform: Gaeilge. That was probably only possible because it was spoken by relatively few people, even in its native land.
Must be a big city to find seven. But there is hope (little):
http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/spell/index.html
Oh and this guy is hilarious because his choices are so damn poor:
So we can spell ZYZZYVA, BELNSYZ or EELNSXY on our first turn in Scrabble.
Whoops, sorry I assumed those cites were your sig for some reason.
I resent this idea!
Poutingly yours,
~OE~
I’m okay with keeping all twenty-six letters. But I would like for everyone to agree to stop pretending that w and y are consonants.
(warning - may spawn some popups)
The problem with English in my opinion is that there are not enough letters for the sounds that are made. For example, c can be a hard sound like K or an S sound.
ex. Cram-Hard C
Necessary-Soft C
Then there are silent letters, like the K in knife. Then there are words like colonel, that does not sound as it is spelled at all. Words like “through” and “enough” that have strange ‘ough’ letters that make an “f” sound. Or two letter combinations like “PH” for pharmacy and physics, when the “ph” sounds like an “f.”
The y is a sixth vowel, in words like try, fly, cry, etc. X is a pretty worthless, in scrabble we use the x to spell words like ax, axe, sex, flex or other small words. Xylophone is pretty rare to string together.
Then the English spellings.
UK USA (or correct spelling)
Neighbour neighbor
colour color
programme program
centre center
To the English, neighbor and color do not have a u in them. For example COLOUR is now sounded as COL-HOUR, instead of COL-OR. The word Programme is totally wrong, what’s the use of the extra “me”? Center is not spelled with an “re” ending either.
Tomato is pronounced TOE-MAY-TO too.
No way, amoungst other things thats just dull,
I say bring back Æ,Ð,and Þ instead !!