Are you new to natural languages?
They’re highly irregular.
Appealing to speech to argue that writing should correspond is a lost cause, because look at the rest of the language!
Look at the unpronounced letters, inconsistent spellings, irregular punctuation that exists only in writing: English writing isn’t English speech, doesn’t model it accurately, never has.
They’re clearly distinct systems following different rules that only loosely relate such that writing doesn’t directly correspond to speech.
Complex irregularities are common across natural languages, so it’s weird to pick 1 small irregularity across a whole ocean of them and claim oh yeah, this part needs to be consistent.
If breaking established conventions for written English is a ploy to draw attention, then mission accomplished I guess?
At least it reflects the way the number is said. Or would you say “it would cost them dollars 1921”?
Are you new to natural languages? They’re highly irregular. Appealing to speech to argue that writing should correspond is a lost cause, because look at the rest of the language! Look at the unpronounced letters, inconsistent spellings, irregular punctuation that exists only in writing: English writing isn’t English speech, doesn’t model it accurately, never has. They’re clearly distinct systems following different rules that only loosely relate such that writing doesn’t directly correspond to speech. Complex irregularities are common across natural languages, so it’s weird to pick 1 small irregularity across a whole ocean of them and claim oh yeah, this part needs to be consistent.
If breaking established conventions for written English is a ploy to draw attention, then mission accomplished I guess?
The way the number is said? You mean
“dollars nineteen twenty one” or
“dollars one thousand nine hundred twenty one” or
“dollars one nine two one?”
“this thing costs two dollars”
vs
“this thing costs dollars two”
Am I supposed to say those quotation marks out loud or am I just supposed to know how they work when written down?
«this thing costs two dollars»
vs
«this thing costs dollars two»