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From: ilyal@world.std.com (Ilya R Lapshin)
Subject: Re: Spelling reforms
Message-ID: <D3JFsB.5Jn@world.std.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
References: <1995Jan26.165429.296@kuc01.kuniv.edu.kw> <1995Jan28.162536.1526@midway.uchicago.edu> <3gf0sr$bqu@fido.asd.sgi.com> <D3E41E.Eq3@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Date: Sun, 5 Feb 1995 17:40:58 GMT
Lines: 38

In article <D3E41E.Eq3@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>,
Ivan A Derzhanski <iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> wrote:
>In article <3gf0sr$bqu@fido.asd.sgi.com> livesey@solntze.engr.sgi.com (Jon Livesey) writes:
>>In article <1995Jan26.165429.296@kuc01.kuniv.edu.kw> tim@kuc01.kuniv.edu.kw writes:
>>|> But the reason I don't by spelling reforms is that you can't ever
>>|> dictate how people will use language.  It don't work.
>>
>>Well, it *seemed* to work fairly well in the USSR after the Revolution.
>
>It did.  But let's recall what the Russian orthographic reform involved:
>
>(1) discontinue the practice of writing a hard sign at the end of
>   every word that doesn't end with a vowel, _j_ or a soft sign;
>(2) replace jat' by _e_ throughout;
>(3) replace fita by _f_ throughout;
>(4) replace iota and izhica by _i_ throughout.
>
>Rather straightforward, and it didn't exactly make the words irrecognisable.

Well, there was a bit more to it than what you've listed.

Plural adjective endings for feminine objects are no longer different
from those for masculine ones. (I think that the original distinction
was imposed by hypercorrecting grammarians anyway).
Ex.: Before reform Vysokije muzhchiny -- vysokija zhenshchiny
     After reform  Vysokije muzhchiny -- vysokije zhenshchiny

Final consonants of some prefixes started being spelled with better
correspondence to actual pronounciation.
Old: Razsmotret' New: Rassmotret'

There were some more changes like this, but it was enough to
prompt some Russian intellectuals of that time to consider
the new spelling "incredibly vulgar".

IRL


