[efesak]

I am from country with strongly phonetical language and you are just plainly wrong. There are minor dialects but it is considered rather as slang in compare to language taught in schools or comunicate with officials or even broader audience.

(On the other side, it is much more difficult for us to learn English and get used to that disconection between alphabet and said words. And we don't have spelling competitions :).)

[lomnakkus]

I am not wrong. My native country did this experiment about 200-300 years ago -- it failed badly, and that was with a very small population which was (geographically) widely distributed.

Trying to read (as schoolchildren) a few samples of text written in different dialects during that time dispelled any notion that it was a good idea.

Also: China (as another poster pointed out).

EDIT: Btw, if you have a good grasp of English accents, it's pretty easy to see what kind of chaos would occur in a country as small as England. (Thinking of the "north south divide" thing.)

[kevin_thibedeau]

The GP isn't wrong. Consider all of the mutually unintelligible Chinese dialects that use the exact same script.