SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Even though these patients could hear and speak perfectly fine, a disease had crept into a portion of their brain that kept them from processing auditory words while still allowing them to process visual ones. Patients in the study had primary progressive aphasia (PPA), a rare type of dementia that destroys language and currently has no treatment.
The study, published March 21 in the journal Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, allowed the scientists to identify a previously little-studied area in the left brain that seems specialized to process auditory words.
If a patient in the study saw the word "hippopotamus" written on a piece of paper, they could identify a hippopotamus in flashcards. But when that patient heard someone say "hippopotamus," they could not point to the picture of the animal.
(Score: 4, Informative) by hendrikboom on Monday April 01 2019, @04:47PM (1 child)
The problem with setting a new spelling is that many words are pronounced differently in different dialects. The reason for a phonetics-breaking spelling is often that it isn't phonetics-breaking in other dialects. In fact, that was originally why English has such irregular spelling. Spelling was often determined by the first printer that printed that word in a book; English had so many regional dialect that English spelling became a chimera of dialects.
In any case, the Roman alphabet doesn't really have enough vowels for even one dialect.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday April 01 2019, @07:02PM
I suppose that as we transition to using only the Unicode Emoji characters for messages and replies, the pronunciation problems will disappear within a generation.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.