[bradrn]

Phonetic spelling is useless when you’ve got more than one dialect. For instance, consider the word ‘castle’. Is this [kæsɫ̩], or [kɑːsl̩], or [kɑːsu] (as it is for me), or something else entirely? Having an orthography which is not purely phonetic avoids this problem.

[sergeykish]

Terry Pratchett plays a lot with language, and it is funny

> “Mr Vimes," said Mrs Winkings, "ve cannot help but notice that you still haf not employed any of our members in the Vatch..."

> Say 'Watch', why don't you? Vimes thought. I know you can. Let the twenty-third letter of the alphabet enter your life.”

I am not a native English speaker, yet I decifer everyone execept gargoyles:

— e cuns uk ere um-imes an awks oo ugg

[bradrn]

Huh, what a coincidence — I just re-read Thud! a couple of weeks ago! An excellent illustration of my point that phonetic spelling is highly dialect-dependent.

(Oh, and don’t worry; I’m a native English speaker, and I can’t understand Pratchett’s gargoyles either.)