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I will probably get a lot of flak about this, but why not combine the often used together words "with the" into "withe" which is pronounced similarly, and it much shorter and easier to write?
I am sure there are other candidates for such concatenations, which are bound to show up especially in the world of Twitter and SMS messages.
PS. English is my 2nd language.
It is not exactly true that with the and withe are pronounced in the same way (compare /wɪð ði/ and /wɪð/). Also, withe is an English word that means "a tough flexible branch of an osier or other willow, used for tying, binding, or basketry."
Both of these facts have probably contributed to preventing with the from being shortened into withe.
If you are asking why other words are not shortened in a similar way, then there is no answer. English, like any other natural language, is not changed because a group of people meet to decide what to change in the language.
With and the are used frequently and not always together. So combining them in this way means a reader has to recognize with, the, and withe. It would seem to me that this would make reading much harder.
Another thing to consider is that concatenating two words into one would require many English speakers to retrain themselves in standard reading. I have always considered the point for using proper grammar and spelling to make it as easy as possible for the reader or listener to understand what it is you want to say.
Turning "with the" into "withe" and other similar situations would interrupt normal reading flow.
For non-native speakers, in addition to learning the differences between "there" "they're" and "their" or "bear" (the animal) and "bear" (to carry a burden,) learning another set of shortened/combined words would make English more difficult to learn fluently.
"Because". ;-)
But it's a good idea, though I'd priotitize on a lot of other words, and among them would be eliminating apostrophe from some more often used concatenations. And there is an easy way to accomplish such changes. Just start doing it in real communication and hope it catches on, especially widely read groups. If it hits the mainstream, dictionarys will incorporate it. (Do not try it in english studying, where you'll get points knocked off for unapproved (wrong) usage.) And look at "Ebonics" as an example. ie babydaddy. Predominantly black American english speakers creating their own lingo and they cross into common usage. Language is a living, changing communication.
