What Do Yall Think About Fixing English?

[M_K_Babalon]

The guy in this video talks about adding accent marks to english words.

 

[TxRad]

Oh no you don't! After seventy year,s I'm about to get a handle on the version of English I write in. Don't you dare change a thing.

 

[StillStunned]

The video misses the whole point of English. It's to confuse foreigners.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Languages don't change easily. The Chinese Communist Party at the height of its complete undemocratic power was only able to push through very very mild reforms for a written language that badly needed them and the second round of changes had to be canceled. There are a few success stories throughout history (the Korean alphabet is one IIRC) when the stars align perfectly but mostly written systems evolve, ossify, and then you're stuck with what you've got bar minor drift over the centuries.

Sure, there are a bunch of changes you could make, but English works for the multitude of native speaker who read it daily and generally they are unlikely to want to be bothered to relearn things for practically no benefit to themselves and to help foreign learners, the dylexic and so on. And of course, as soon as you consider any one particular proposal for change, a million other 'good suggestions' pop up and why one but not the others?

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I speak English as my native tongue and remember being taught how to use a dictionary to see how words were supposed to be pronounced. Is that passe today?

 

[onehitwanda]

This is like thøse peøple whø rånt åbøüt western müsæc nøtåtiøn

 

[StillStunned]

Remember this one from the early days of the web? (Pre-Brexit, obviously.)

1. Due to its widespread use on the so-called ‘Information Superhighway’, and so that growing anti-European sentiments in Britain may be reassured about the importance of Britain’s role in the European Union, the European Parliament has taken the unprecedented step of selecting one language – English – to become the preferred common language of the European Union.

2. In order to expedite this process and to speed congruence, the European Parliament has commissioned a feasability study of ways in which communications between departments of member governments can be made more effective. Its main recommendations are summarised below.

3. European officials have often pointed out that English spelling is unnecessarily complicated and illogical – for example, the different sounds of cough, plough and rough, or heard and beard. There is a clear need for a phased programme of changes to eliminate these anomalies. The programme would, of course, require administration by a committee whose members would be supplied by participating nations.

4. During the first year of implementation, it is envisaged that the soft “c” will be replaced by the more phonetically correct letter “s”. This will sertainly be resieved favourably by sivil servants in many European sities, and will insidentally render the “i” before “e” exsept after “c” rule unnesessary. The logical replasement of the hard “c” by the letter “k” will follow, due to the similarity in pronunsiation. This konkomitant step will, insidentally, not only klear up konfusion in the minds of klerikal workers, but also klarify word prosessing sinse it kompletely removes the need for one of the letters on the keyboard.

5. The sekond stage will see the digraph “ph” written as “f”. In addition to the fonetik logik of this move, words such as “fotograf” will be twenty per sent shorter.

6. The third fase will involve the removal of double letters in words. In many instanses, double leters do not afekt the aktual pronunsiation of a word. They are, however, a comon deterent to akurate speling.

7. The fourth element will be the elimination of silent “e”s from the languag. Thes ar often stal reliks of past spelings. They do litl to enhans writen English and it is antisipated that they kould be droped with eas.

8. By this point, the Komision antisipats that publik akseptans of the changes will be at a high level. It wil thus be posibl to promot som other, smaler, but stil posibly kontentious, changes. For exampl, the unesesary “o” kan be droped from words kontaining the “ou” digraf. A similar proses kuld then be aplid to other vowel and konsonant kombinashuns.

9. However, no konseshun wuld yet hav ben mad to Uropean sensibilitis. To tak kar of som of the komon difikultis enkountered by non-nativ spekers, it wuld be sensibl for the “th” digraf to be replased by “z”. Ze funkshun of ze “w” kan zen be taken by ze letter “v”, vich is, of kors, half a “w” in any kas.

10. Zis proses vil kontinu, in a kumulativ fashun. Eventuli English vil be ze komon languag ov ze Komuniti, vich vil no longer be merly an ekonomik sifer, but a kominashun ov fre pepls. Ve shal kontinu to red and rit as zo nuzing has hapend. Evrivun vil no vot ze uzer sitizens ar saying and komunkashun vil be mutch ezier. Ze Komuniti vil hav achevd its objektivs ov congrewents and ze drems ov ze pepls of Urop vil finali hav kum tru. It is hopd zat zes signifikant konseshuns vil finaly reashor ze “Uroskeptiks”!

 

[SimonDoom]

Remember this one from the early days of the web? (Pre-Brexit, obviously.)

Zis proses vil kontinu, in a kumulativ fashun. Eventuli English vil be ze komon languag ov ze Komuniti, vich vil no longer be merly an ekonomik sifer, but a kominashun ov fre pepls. Ve shal kontinu to red and rit as zo nuzing has hapend. Evrivun vil no vot ze uzer sitizens ar saying and komunkashun vil be mutch ezier. Ze Komuniti vil hav achevd its objektivs ov congrewents and ze drems ov ze pepls of Urop vil finali hav kum tru. It is hopd zat zes signifikant konseshuns vil finaly reashor ze “Uroskeptiks”!

Yikes. This reads like the script from a bad movie with Nazis: "You vill give uz ze planz, Yank, or yu vill zufer!"

No thanks!

 

[StillStunned]

Yikes. This reads like the script from a bad movie with Nazis: "You vill give uz ze planz, Yank, or yu vill zufer!"

No thanks!

That was kind of the joke.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Remember this one from the early days of the web? (Pre-Brexit, obviously.)

Even though I could read all of that, it seemed to get worse and worse by the number, I briefly thought it was turning to Russian or something.

 

[HordHolm]

I think trying to find, and then impose, some structure on a language such as English, which is spoken as a native tongue in numerous diverse environments globally, is marginally less fruitful than herding particularly recalcitrant cats.

 

[alohadave]

I think trying to find, and then impose, some structure on a language such as English, which is spoken as a native tongue in numerous diverse environments globally, is marginally less fruitful than herding particularly recalcitrant cats.

Just start using it. That's how all language shifts anyway. People start using punctuation or spelling differently and enough people follow along and it becomes a shift.

He's had other proposals like adding back in dead letters like thorn and wyn, that I don't think would go anywhere.

But some of the diacritics he's proposing here seem useful. The stress ones especially I think would help with pronunciation.

Though I don't know why we don't replace all the schwa sounds with the actual schwa symbol. Seems like it'd help with pronunciation for everyone.

 

[HordHolm]

Just start using it. That's how all language shifts anyway. People start using punctuation or spelling differently and enough people follow along and it becomes a shift.

He's had other proposals like adding back in dead letters like thorn and wyn, that I don't think would go anywhere.

But some of the diacritics he's proposing here seem useful. The stress ones especially I think would help with pronunciation.

Though I don't know why we don't replace all the schwa sounds with the actual schwa symbol. Seems like it'd help with pronunciation for everyone.

Yeah - my point was about the idea of imposing the change, presumably by some 'authority.' If it comes from the street, it'll work.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I think that as soon as you fix it, people will just break it again.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

A non-starter, I think. English is an odd language, one which while eagerly adopting words from other languages, always seems to be moving towards simplification.

Not only have we virtually dropped some letters still in common use when I was a child (in words like fæces and antennæ, cœlacanth and diarrhœa), but we have been moving to drop accents still in use (naïve, rôle, fiancée and rosé).

 

[AlexBailey]

The funny thing to me about this is how it sounds like parts of many different foreign accents.

 

[Bamagan]

Maybe people would finally stop looking at me like I'm crazy for pronouncing 'google' as 'julie'
...but probably not.

 

[R. Richard]

A language is defined by a grammar. If what is written in the language, meets the rules of the grammar, then it is in the language. If not, then it is not the language. There is no official grammar for the supposed English language. The conclusion is obvious.

 

[jhealy55]

I believe the proper use would be "All Y'all" in this context.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

The video misses the whole point of English. It's to confuse foreigners.

Definitely to confuse foreigners.

Carn't av them seppos twigging wot yez on as you's on the dog telling the trouble how as you ain't dahn the Mucky Duck honest, scoffin a ruby till yous less brahms an' can get back t'yer drum, only then you's brassic an she says you're aving a giraffe, mate.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Not only have we virtually dropped some letters still in common use when I was a child (in words like fæces and antennæ, cœlacanth and diarrhœa), but we have been moving to drop accents still in use (naïve, rôle, fiancée and rosé).

Who's this 'we', eh?

They're still teaching all those in schools round here (albeit most people don't bother making the ligatures), except circumflexes are rare now - haven't seen one on role in years, unless playing a rôle and being arch, and hôtel died out with Agatha Christie.

 

[TxRad]

I write the way people speak, which more or less throws grammar out the window.

 

[Sinstories]

I believe the proper use would be "All Y'all" in this context.

Correct, depending on where y'all are and how may of y'all there are.

My question for those in central and western PA is, what is the youns equivalent of All Y'all?

 

[ronde]

As I've stated here before, English is confusing enough even for people who speak English as their first language. A lot of the confusion is due to typesetters who changed spelling to make words shorter, changed the hand-written spelling to phonetic spelling, and in general screwed up what "rules" existed at the time. The same thing is happening today with the advent of social media and texting, and those words have worked their way into everyday conversation, except we've ended up with words like "creech", "rad", "emo" that you have to look up in some urban dictionary to understand, and "bad" and "sick" and "insane" that all mean the opposite of their originall meaning. We don't need "approved" accent marks to make it more difficult to be correct.

 

[mirafrida]

I'm 100% on board with fixing English - just as soon as everyone else is on board too, and they all agree on what needs to be fixed and how