Small changes that can be made to The English Language to highly increase literacy.

Verb Tenses

One way to facilitate English, is to get rid of verb conjugations. In this way, we will not have to memorize how to spell the different tenses of verbs, nor would we have confusion between words like "sang" and "sung" or "swam" and "swum", or "began" and "begun".

"I am singing" for example, can become "I do sing".

"I sang" for example, can become "I did sing".

"I sing" will remain the same

and, of course, for the future tense, it will stay as "I will sing".

So with these basic words (did, do, will) we can make different tenses of verbs without actual conjugation.

Different types of sentences

Since "do" will be used for verb tenses, questions will not be formed by changed the structure of the sentence and putting "do" or "did" in front of it. Instead it will change by adding the word ", right?" at the end.

For example: "Are you here?" would become "You are here, right?"

Imperative sentences will remain the same. "Look at me!" will remain as "Look at me!" without changes. The format of Verb-Object for imperative sentences (which is already inherit in English) will not be mistaken for a regular sentence.

Sentences like "I did my homework" will become "I did finish my homework", and "I am doing the paper work" will become "I do complete the paper work".

In order to form a negation, the word "not" will come after the verb.

Sentences such as "I do not know" can remain the same, although sentences like "I am not joking" will become "I do not joke".

Who, What, When , Where, Why, and How sentences will follow the common English "Subject-Verb-Object" structure.

Example sentences:

That is who?

We are where?

You are who?

You want what? (from "What do you want?")
Compounds

In order to make the language even easier to learn, Latin and French borrowed words will be replaced with English counterparts or compounds.

Words such as "literacy" will be replaced with "readiness", and "an ascension" will become "an uplifting", "the creation" will become "the making".

alphabet reformation (optional)

This is just optional to my original idea but if we really wanted to make English easier, we would also reform the spelling.

Get rid of "x" and replace it with "ks", get rid of "q" and replace it with "k", get rid of "c" and replace it with "k" or "s" depending on if it is a hard or soft c.

x = ks
q = k
hard c = k
soft c = s

Spelling reformation (optional)

This too, is also optional to my original idea. Words should be spelled as pronounced.

a = ah (a in father)
e = eh (e in bed)
i = ih (i in sit)
o = oh (o in gold)
u = oo (oo in food)

ae = a as in cat
eo = uh as in cup
ee = ee as in eel or feel
eu = u in cute, keu would sound "Q"
ai = "ight" as in "light"
ei = ai in aid

I know there are many dialects of English, but with these basic sounds of English we can estimate to the closet sound.

peepeol will be "people"
keut will be "cute"
kaet will be "cat"
get will "get"
geit will be "gate"
kaen will be "can"
kein will be "cane"

and so on...

The two optionals are not necesary (spelling and alphabet reform) but I highly suggest the compounds / English word replacement and the simple verb tense. What do you think about this? or should I say "You think what about this?"

reply to post by arpgme

The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year phased plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short).

In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c." Sertainly, sivil servants will resieve this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with "k". Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik emthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced by "f". This will make words like fotograf" 20 persent shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent "e"s in the languag is disgrasful, and they would go.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z" and "w" by " v".

During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou", and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer.

Ze drem vil finali kum tru.


Source/writer unknown, found on the internet and never forgotten since I read it years ago.

Originally posted by LightSpeedDriver
reply to post by arpgme

 

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer.

Ze drem vil finali kum tru.

I read this about 5 minutes ago and I am still laughing. Thanks for the laugh!

You seem pretty on it but I gotta say I love the English language how it is. In all its complexities.

As if u.s. english wasnt bad enough,now euro english.you couldnt make it up!not content with flooding the country with eastern europeans,they want to tell us how to speak our own language.revolution,the only way.

reply to post by LightSpeedDriver


At least the one I proposed still looks like English (if you do not follow the spelling reformation).

Still, we can continue to use the English language with only the grammatical changes I did suggest and that still, will make the English language more easy to understand.

To make the language really easy, we can make English and isolating language.

replace -er with more, so "easier" will become "more easy"
replace -s with some, so "houses" will become "some house"


good, better, best

good, more good, most good

This will make the English language more easy to speak, for both natives and not native speakers, or should I say " home born speakers" (word borrowed from Anglish).

reply to post by arpgme

I suppose it was a little bit naughty of me but your post made me think of it.

The Dutch have recently (last few years anyway) revised some of their spellings and it leads to much confusion. I must admit that having learnt something once, I do not like to be confronted with new game rules some 35 years after I first started learning the language (!'m 41 now). To me it seems pointless, albeit possibly "correct" in a consistency sense. I could just be old and gnarly though.

It'll really confuse the foreigners too.



ETA Wasn't Esperanto developed along these very lines and for that very purpose? Big, unbig, etc?

Verb tenses sounds good and simplifies things.

Not quite sure about the different types of sentences, there are lots of ways to move words around and get some meaning across, or get across some meaning.

Compounds do start to get into more regional dialects of a language with different merging of languages going on. Hard to put any rules on it except for what people use. Also quite important in technical languages to define subtle differences.

Not sure about alphabet reformation, will have a hard time pushing that one.

As for a more phonetic spelling sounds good and will make things easier.

Originally posted by arpgme
reply to post by LightSpeedDriver

 

replace -er with more, so "easier" will become "more easy"
replace -s with some, so "houses" will become "some house"


good, better, best

good, more good, most good

This will make the English language more easy to speak, for both natives and not native speakers, or should I say " home born speakers" (word borrowed from Anglish).

I like them house they more gooder!

Speakers of Germanic and Romance languages already learn English very easily because over the years English developed into the "lingua franca" of Europe. Now one can see Swedes, Finns, Portuguese -- what have you -- speaking and writing English more fluently than "native speakers" living in North America. This has nothing to do with the lack of complexity in the English language, but rather the quality of education.

I have a small tip to offer. In this post I have avoided using a certain language feature which I believe -- while it has its place -- cheapens the language when overused. Can anyone guess what I avoided using?

The problem is that English has evloved over thousands of years from the ancient language with influences from Saxon, Norse, Norman French etc. The often quoted (possibly urban legend) is that Saxons farmed the animals, giving us cow, and Normans ate it, giving us Beef. Not really sure I believe that fully. Also, the word "Dog" seems to have appeared out of nowhere!

What you are proposing isn't actually a new idea. In fact, Esparanto is actually Latin with all the verbs, plurals etc made regular. So all nouns end O all plural nous end OJ etc. It's a brilliant system, which unfortunately, has not caught on.

For example, the phrase we all learnt in school for no apparent reason, regardless of the language you are learning:

Estas hundo sub la tablo. The dog is under the table.

reply to post by arpgme


I don't really understand how that is simpler? You are replacing the "to be" with another verb that needs conjugated anyway. In most of your examples the sentence became longer instead of shorter.

I am not multi-lingual, but I do believe many other languages are simpler than English. For instance, in Spanish you place the noun before the modifier, which makes more sense. Instead of "red car" it is "car red" or "carro rojo." That seems like a logical change.

You seem to be wanting to limit the vocabulary, but our vocabulary grows every single day with additional words adopted from other languages and additional words to describe new things or variations of old things. Vocabulary is never going to get smaller, only larger and larger and LARGER!

What we really need is a better education system and higher expectations for our youth.

Originally posted by arpgme
"I am singing" for example, can become "I do sing".

This one will be a problem:

I AM singing: this is what I'm doing right now.
I DO sing: this is what I'm capable of doing.

What could be done is drop the ing in the first sentence:
I AM SING: problem is that this means that either my name is Sing, or I embody singing.

So, so much for this working.

der is nuffink rong wiv da way we speek alweady innit stoopid yuroopeens :-)

reply to post by CynicalDrivel


And you don't even need the "do" in that case.

Just, "I sing."

I think sing, sang, sung is pretty simple really, no need to reinvent the wheel.

Now, there are some useless oddities like geese vs. meese. What the hell, who's idea was that?

More good
Most good
I did sing

Makes my ears bleed! lol

reply to post by arpgme


I am sorry. I do not see it.

The conjugations you propose already exist but for a different context I.e. I am singing. means NOW

I do sing means you do, just not right now.

You need to think of the English language in the context of time, as in fact that is what it is. (this is true, i saw it in an academic lecture)

And to be honest, all I could think of when reading your post, was the film "Idiocracy".

British Telecom becomes BT
British Petroleum becomes BP
Kentucky Fried Chicken Become KFC
So English would become??

TEL (the English Language)???

it is a relatively easy language to master, so why on earth would you want to bastardise it. As if we do not have enough trouble with computers spell checkers constantly telling you centre is wrong with that red line underneath.

I guess also you think a Thesaurus is some kind of dinosaur. PUN INTENDED

reply to post by getreadyalready


It's just because "Meese" sounds silly and was probably an old word for something to do with sock darning.

But that is the beauty of our language construct

it would be doring if everything was the same and organiSed and always followed the same rules, Like French German and Spanish

We are the rebels of the Language world!

reply to post by arpgme


Seriously I just re-read your post. This has to be some satirical effort to convince people to write and talk like scallies??

Seriously it must be?

God I hope so!!

reply to post by JakiusFogg


German, where 1 word is made from 3 smashed together. Thank God for spacing.