Writing systems come into being and change because of a mix of cultural,technological, and practical forces. People who have learned to read and write in acertain way, no matter how inconvenient or hard it is, are usually not ready tochange their habits. Most writers don't like writing changes. In all countries wherepeople can read and write, there is a strong social and political mainstream thattries to force writing to be the same (for example, by making sure students learnthe difference between "right" and "wrong" spelling). But there are also groups ofwriters who try to get away with as much as they can in their writing.For example, tone diacritics are often said to be the correct way to write inYoruba, even though many people who use Yoruba spelling seem to be finewithout them. There are some homographs when the tone diacritics are taken out(Olmyw 2013: 44), as the people who want the rules to be official have pointedout. But writing systems and the languages they represent are usually full ofhomographs and homophones, which are not a problem at all for people whospeak the language. Even more important, writing is not just a tool for gettingthings done; it is also a way to show social affiliation. People will be more likely toaccept you as a valuable member of their group if you know the rules for writing.This is true whether you are writing a job application or a text message. Even aftermore than a century of trying to standardize the writing systems, there are still alot of different ways to write in everyday life (Olmyw, 2013). This is a goodexample.
