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Proposed Changes to English

Duxwing

By Duxwing
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Duxwing

Duxwing

Posted
Posted

Post and discuss your changes to English here:

  1. Regularity - Fixed rules should forevermore govern the language
  2. Phonetic Spelling - Every sound should be spelled because it can.
  3. Removal of redundant letters 'c,' 'q,' and 'x'.
  4. Reordered alphabet - All vowels before all consonants.
  5. Symbolic logic - No more confusion about 'and' and 'or'.
  6. Preceding punctuation - Immediately shows readers and speakers tone.

-Duxwing

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Godot

Godot

Posted
Posted
?izunt ziz an atemt to mayk uz speek jerman.

!No, OP trais tu turn inglish into pidgin inglish ... turnin inglish into jerman wud min tu mayk inglish moar kompleks ... not les kompleks

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pebble_garden

pebble_garden

Posted
Posted (edited)

Language is a prime example of an evolutionary utility loop. Sure, it mutates in weird ways, and not all those ways are initially beneficial.

But the shaping of language is one of the most thoroughly collaborative processes in the whole of human experience. No one's in charge, we all contribute, and living languages quickly adapt in ways that are needful. Bad mutations get pretty quickly weeded out.

Trying to enforce rules on language from above is futile at best, and tyrannical at worst.

Therefore, if you want to change how the language works, start using it differently. If others find your way useful, they'll adopt the new conventions.

Edited by pebble_garden
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HeadHunter67

HeadHunter67

Posted
Posted

I thought this would be relevant:

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all.

Generally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeiniing voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez â€â€tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivili.

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

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Omicron314

Omicron314

Posted
Posted

At the very least I think we should standardize pluralization and pronunciation. To give some examples:

Fox - Box - Ox: Currently the plurals of each of these are foxes - boxes - oxen, which makes no sense. We should make the plural of ox "oxes" to be standard with the rest of English spelling.

Similarly: Louse/Lice - Mouse/Mice - House/Houses - grain of rice/rice: The more logical solution would be to replace the words lice and mice with "louses" and "mouses". We could also call a grain of rice a "rouse" and the plural "rouses".

One last pluralization one: Moose/Moose - Goose/Geese: Again, if we are looking to make everything standard, these words should become "moose/mooses" and "goose/gooses".

As for pronunciation, there is one that really gets on my nerves:

Active/Passive: Currently these are pronounced act-iv and pas-iv, but supposedly a vowel-consonant-e combination makes the first vowel "say its name". According to that rule (which is true in most English words), the above words should be pronounced act-eye-v and pas-eye-v. Alternatively their spellings could be changed to "activ" and "passiv" to reflect their pronunciation.

I think that these changes would make English an easier language to learn, facilitating global trade and diplomacy. Alternatively we could all adopt Esperanto, but I have no idea how standard that language is.

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The Jedi Master

The Jedi Master

Posted
Posted
enforcement of y'all as plural second person pronoun

I read a book recently with a character that used it to refer to one person. Great book otherwise, but the constant misuse was incredibly annoying and distracting. It's a compression of 'you all', how hard is this to understand?!

And, for the record, I'm from the North. It annoys everybody.

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Duxwing

Duxwing

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Posted
Language is a prime example of an evolutionary utility loop. Sure, it mutates in weird ways, and not all those ways are initially beneficial.

But the shaping of language is one of the most thoroughly collaborative processes in the whole of human experience. No one's in charge, we all contribute, and living languages quickly adapt in ways that are needful. Bad mutations get pretty quickly weeded out.

"As it is, so it should be" is the naturalistic fallacy.

Trying to enforce rules on language from above is futile at best, and tyrannical at worst.

False: L'Academie Francaise governs French without futility or tyranny. More generally, governed communications have been extremely successful; e.g., mathematics, the metric system, computer languages, NATO codes. Spoekn language could, with our effort, become regular and phonetic without losing its richness and freedom.

Therefore, if you want to change how the language works, start using it differently. If others find your way useful, they'll adopt the new conventions.

Or we could build an English Academy in Oxford and run it like the metric system.

-Duxwing

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xcorps

xcorps

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Posted
I read a book recently with a character that used it to refer to one person. Great book otherwise, but the constant misuse was incredibly annoying and distracting. It's a compression of 'you all', how hard is this to understand?!

And, for the record, I'm from the North. It annoys everybody.

Ya'll just don unnerstan how it's dun in tha South. Ya'll don't like it wen we say Ya'll, then ya'll don haf ta lissen. Howz ya'll mom'n'them?

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