Even small problems in orthography are very difficult to fix.
Slovak is a phonemic Slavic language; sounds and letters have almost 1:1 relationship. The greatest exception to this rule are the letters “i” and “y”, which correspond to exactly the same sound. That means, reading is easy, but to write correctly, you need to memorize a lot of rules. For example, in words of Greek origin, the letter “ι” is transcribed as “i”, and “υ” is transcribed as “y”, despite the same pronounciation in Slovak—but of course, unless you speak Greek, your only way to use this rule is to memorize those words. And the rules for words of Slavic origin include a lot of memorization, too. Realistically, after learning all those rules, you need to read a lot, and hope that your brain will magically provide you the correct version when needed.
Which makes it a great system for recognizing people who remember obscure rules and read a lot!
The reasonable solution would be to simply start writing “i” everywhere. (Plus fix some other irregularities that depend on the “i/y” distinction.) So the kids of future generations would not have to spend two years at elementary school memorizing these rules and exceptions.
Except, when you look at the text written with “i” everywhere, the emotional reaction is that it feels stupid. It feels like written by someone who is not really good at writing, because they can’t remember the rules and don’t read a lot. The idea that this should become the official version of the language feels offensive. To put it bluntly, it’s like you are asking all people to write like retards. Of course most of them will refuse!
Even small problems in orthography are very difficult to fix.
Slovak is a phonemic Slavic language; sounds and letters have almost 1:1 relationship. The greatest exception to this rule are the letters “i” and “y”, which correspond to exactly the same sound. That means, reading is easy, but to write correctly, you need to memorize a lot of rules. For example, in words of Greek origin, the letter “ι” is transcribed as “i”, and “υ” is transcribed as “y”, despite the same pronounciation in Slovak—but of course, unless you speak Greek, your only way to use this rule is to memorize those words. And the rules for words of Slavic origin include a lot of memorization, too. Realistically, after learning all those rules, you need to read a lot, and hope that your brain will magically provide you the correct version when needed.
Which makes it a great system for recognizing people who remember obscure rules and read a lot!
The reasonable solution would be to simply start writing “i” everywhere. (Plus fix some other irregularities that depend on the “i/y” distinction.) So the kids of future generations would not have to spend two years at elementary school memorizing these rules and exceptions.
Except, when you look at the text written with “i” everywhere, the emotional reaction is that it feels stupid. It feels like written by someone who is not really good at writing, because they can’t remember the rules and don’t read a lot. The idea that this should become the official version of the language feels offensive. To put it bluntly, it’s like you are asking all people to write like retards. Of course most of them will refuse!