I honestly never knew what diacritics were until this post! I've always called them by their professional names: tick mark thingie, squiggle, monkey tail, etc. lol
English, in general, is one giant anomaly. I pity anyone trying to learn it because there are more exceptions to the rules than there are actual rules. As I'm learning Spanish, I caught myself one day thinking "this is so difficult, there's all these exceptions with various phrases." In reality, it's starting to become clear that it's more likely ENGLISH which is already following stupid exceptions, making Spanish seem out of the norm.
I agree with you, though. Diacritics would definitely make learning to read and pronouncing new, unfamiliar words much easier.
When I was learning how to read, my school taught "phonograms." It sounds similar to what your daughter is learning, except it taught each sound a letter (or group of letters) could possibly make. For instance,
"a" = ah, aye, awh (bath, take, bra)
"ough" = oh, ooh, ooph, awph, ow (though, through, rough, cough, bough)
I found phonograms to be one of the most (annoying at the time but) valuable things I ever learned in school. That, and the Shurley Method, which is probably why I'm so good at writing/grammar now.
Anyway, thanks for geeking out over grammar with me! :)
Haha, I didn't know they were called that, until I started researching the article, I just thought they were called grammatical accents, or somesuch thing :-). Though I do like thingie and monkey tail lolz.
I find Spanish pretty easy for rules, and they do seem instinctive, even things like por and para, I seem to just know, without knowing why. Also the Spanish are so laid back, that they don't seem to care if you butcher their language!
If you want to twist your head up with rules, try German; I have asked German people what the rule is for using Der, Die und Das (the three words for the), not one of them has been able to give me an answer. I've asked some pretty clever ones too!
Man, phonograms sounds so much better than phonics, although maybe they will kind of morph into something similar as she gets older...who knows? I don't know what the Shurley method is, I'll look that one up, and see if I can use it to help my daughter along.
Always a pleasure to meet a fellow grammar geek :-) :-)
Cg
That's really good to know. I'm sure I'll verbally slice and dice my Spanish for a while before really getting the hang of it.
German sounds intense! For your reasons and also how angry it sounds in general lol. Reminds me of this video:
Both phonograms and the Shurley method made me want to rip by grade school hairs out at the time, but I am super grateful for all that education now. Hopefully you can find some useful lessons for your daughter! It's stuck with me like not much else has.
If you ever want to geek out on grammar some more, you know where to find me! ;)
Hahaha, I've just seen this! Love it! I tell you though, once you get past the angry sound of German, it is incredibly practical, just like the people.
For instance, the first example; aeroplane, in German; fleugzeug literally translated, means, fly thing.
Ill = Krank
Hospital = Krankenhaus (ill house)
Ambulance = Krankenwagen (ill wagon)
Toy = spielzeug (play thing)
and the list goes on!
Though in the video they say that sorry is entschuldegung, which is more excuse me.
Sorry is actually es tut mir leid (it gives me pain)
Favourite German word: Die Wirtschaftforderungsgesellschaft :-D The Economic Development Agency
Gotta love those crazy Germans!
Will defo come and find you for some more grammar geekery!
Cg