German spelling is messy, too. We have five concurrent systems for a long vowel (not optional): 1. Double the vowel (aa, ee and oo only), 2. put a silent "h" behind it (all vowels), 3. do not double the consonant after it, 4. put a silent "e" after it (only ie and ee, in place names also ae and oe) or 5. end position (always long. Diphthongs in German are seen as long, though they aren´t. We could have it as simple as the Hungarians have (accent for length).
German spelling is messy, too. We have five concurrent systems for a long vowel (not optional): 1. Double the vowel (aa, ee and oo only), 2. put a silent "h" behind it (all vowels), 3. do not double the consonant after it, 4. put a silent "e" after it (only ie and ee, in place names also ae and oe) or 5. end position (always long. Diphthongs in German are seen as long, though they aren´t.
We could have it as simple as the Hungarians have (accent for length).
Great video