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our spelling totters between the phonological and the etymological - From the perspective of a non-native speaker, that's putting it very mildly. Spelling and pronounciation are connected by exceptions, sprinkled with a few rules  .
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Spelling and pronounciation are connected by exceptions, sprinkled with a few rules.
I love this definition and plan to plagiarize it!
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I love this definitionI agree it has a memorable ring to it, AnnaS, but can we "connect" anything "by exceptions"? Exceptions more often disconnect than connect, in my experience, altho in most cases, that is lamentable. P.S. I was tempted to argue that anarchy is connected by exceptions. But, in that case, exceptions are the rule. 
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Exceptions more often disconnect than connect
An exception is a 1:1 connection, whereas a rule is a 1:n connection, in database parlance.
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While studying Sanskrit, I came up with Jim's rule of thumb: in Sanskrit grammar there are rules, exceptions to the rules, and exceptions to the exceptions, which bring you back to the rules. The weird thing is that English could adopt an easier orthography (just as Chinese could use an alphabetic or syllabic writing system), but nobody can agree about the proposed system's particulars. English spelling reform is like squaring the circle: many have tried it, none have succeeded, and lots of us think it's impossible.
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ah-oo-t
*******
Frum what I can tell... spellin' reform izn't something one theorizez about, it's something one *duz.
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a rule is a 1:n connection, in database parlance
It depends on which meaning you ascribe to "rule".
Where anarchy rules, exceptions are the rule.
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Where anarchy rules, exceptions are the rule.
But only in the context where rules are 'the norm'. Would we otherwise call it chaos? or something not comparative (if there is such a thing)?
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Where anarchy rules, exceptions are the rule.
Here we reached the slippery slope of paradoxes. They usually arise from confounding logical levels. Anarchy can only be said to "rule", if we look at the situation from a higher logical plane. As the classical story of the lying Cretan shows, any number of paradoxes can be generated.
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Re: anarchy rules: "would we otherwise call it chaos"?
Agreed, Musick. Anarchy is the antithesis of "the rule of law".
One definition I consulted describes "rule" as "governing power".
In a state of anarchy, there is no governing power. Power doesn't reside in any single place or in any myriad of places, but power, at least brute power, does "govern" individual outcomes, however arbitrarily and unpredictably it may be exercised.
If power exercised arbitrarily by individuals everywhere is "governance", perhaps anarchy can rule, and chaos can reign, after all.
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