In spite of the apparent irregularity of the English spelling system, Chomsky and Halle (1968) characterize it as “near optimal”. We investigate this assertion using computational techniques and resources. We design an algorithm to generate word spellings that maximize both phonemic transparency and morphological consistency. Experimental results demonstrate that the constructed system is much closer to optimality than the traditional English orthography.
['Garrett Nicolai', 'Grzegorz Kondrak']
English orthography is not "close to optimal"