DBWI: The Inglish langwij iz not reformd

[VidaLaVida]

In this dubbel blind wat if, I'd like to tak about somthing we offen take for granted theze dayz: our langwij. Az we all no, inglish spelling yoost to be way more difficult than it iz now: you had letters that weren't even pronounced, and it somtimez seemd as if there was hardly any consistency with the spelling: too many exepshuns to spelling rules and so on. Hell, "jail" used to be spelld "gaol!" How cood anybody cum up with the idea that that made sens!?

That's wy the Simplified Spelling Bord (or, if yu like, "Board") was created in the erly 20th Century. Prominent peepel in the Yoonited States like Andrew Carnegie, Mark Twain, and numerus intellectshuals cood see that Inglish was on the way to becuming the global langwij it iz now, and they new that, with the way Inglish spelling waz at the time, it wood be way too hard for peepel in foren cuntries to lern Inglish as a second langwij: the spelling didn't make sens! So they advocated making it eezier to spell, and therfor, eezier to lern.

Soon enuf, in 1906, Prezident Theodore Rusevelt (hoo particularly had trubbel with spelling back then) reely got behind the idea of simplified spelling, and that yeer, the first spelling reforms were past. It started with only 300 new spellings for different wurds, but that groo to the enormus chanjiz we no about today. I'm shur we all no wat a majur effect this has had on the rize of the Inglish langwij thruout the wurld.

But I waz just reeding that at first, ther were a lot of peepel in the Yoonited States, including the Y.S. Congress, that wer opposed to the idea of chanjing the spelling; they sed that it wood be too hard to chanj the way Inglish had ben ritten for hundreds of yeers. Wich makes me wonder: wat if theze peepel had gotten ther way, and Inglish spelling hadn't reformd?

[Turquoise Blue]

Well, you lot would have spelled it the same way as us Britons. We adamantly refuse to use that "Inglish" of yours. Its English.

[Enigmajones]

Well, you lot would have spelled it the same way as us Britons. We adamantly refuse to use that "Inglish" of yours. Its English.

OOC: Still more sensible then the Welsh accent.

[glenn67]

I guess that explains why 90 percent of immigrants to the Dominion of Canada since the Theodore Roosevelt administration were from the United Kingdom. No "Inglish" spoken in Canada.

Don't get me started on the attempts to simplify French spelling in Quebec.

[Uff Da the optimist]

As said earlier, you would write like the British.
Being Norwegian, I can only say that this "schism" between the U.S and the UK made the language harder to learn.

Our schools teach Oxford English gramatically and verbally, however almost all of our popular culture is "american" and therefore in Inglish.
However, it should be noted that Norwegian is written very similarly to it's pronounciation, and in that way Inglish is easier to learn for us.

I'm one of those who stick to Oxford English, but whenever I chat with my overseas friends the conversation is entirely in Inglish.

[VidaLaVida]

Well, you lot would have spelled it the same way as us Britons. We adamantly refuse to use that "Inglish" of yours. Its English.

I don't want to derale this thred so erly, but I hav to say: wile I respect the idea of maintaining tradishun, and wile evry cuntry has the rite to make its one decishunz, the tipical British resistans to even consider similar spelling reform is rely astounding to me. Culchural differenses ar won thing, but it's this nee-jurk attitude that I can't undurstand. If anything, American Inglish's spelling reforms ar MORE consistunt with lingwistic tradishun: in Medeeval Inglish, for instans, the spelling was literal, just like it is in present-day Inglish (for example, the American Inglish word "nite"/the British "English" word "knight," was acshually pronounced "kuh-nee-gu-t"). The argyument has ben made multipul timez, but I'll say it agen: the Inglish langwij needed to cach up to the way it's acshually spoken in modern-day reel life.


Don't get me started on the attempts to simplify French spelling in Quebec.


Boy, I'm surprizd that French didn't reform before Inglish. Wat's the titel of that Victor Hugo novul agen? "Less Mizurabless?"

OOC: In case anybody didn't know, that bit about literal spelling in Medieval English is true (mostly)

[Turquoise Blue]

Well, I can't read your Inglish. Its a terrible system, and one that damaged American English to the world. Inglish is declining, after all.

[Sior]

OOC: Still more sensible then the Welsh accent.

Twll Din Pop Saes!

[d32123]

Well, I can't read your Inglish. Its a terrible system, and one that damaged American English to the world. Inglish is declining, after all.

Mabee umung ohld peepul but us yung fohks luv Inglish. Yur "English" iz ohld and arkayik.

[Kaiphranos]

I don't want to derale this thred so erly, but I hav to say: wile I respect the idea of maintaining tradishun, and wile evry cuntry has the rite to make its one decishunz, the tipical British resistans to even consider similar spelling reform is rely astounding to me. Culchural differenses ar won thing, but it's this nee-jurk attitude that I can't undurstand. If anything, American Inglish's spelling reforms ar MORE consistunt with lingwistic tradishun: in Medeeval Inglish, for instans, the spelling was literal, just like it is in present-day Inglish (for example, the American Inglish word "nite"/the British "English" word "knight," was acshually pronounced "kuh-nee-gu-t"). The argyument has ben made multipul timez, but I'll say it agen: the Inglish langwij needed to cach up to the way it's acshually spoken in modern-day reel life.


You cood say that this makes spelling reform kind uv fewtil, az long az pronounciashun continyous to chanj--you'll hav to reform it agen in a hundred years anyway.

[Vnix]

My god, that's almost like reading 'Speak' of the Drakas!

[modelcitizen]

My god, that's almost like reading 'Speak' of the Drakas!


Wotan's tits, yo has ah poynt dear.

[modelcitizen]

You cood say that this makes spelling reform kind uv fewtil, az long az pronounciashun continyous to chanj--you'll hav to reform it agen in a hundred years anyway.


Fo fokes da do studdies, da gong tubee ah bich iznt?


Bu den dey see how we tak az wel az spel.

[modelcitizen]

Ah waz en Eengland tu yeers ahgo. Dey still yuz forks en nyvs!

[Turquoise Blue]

Mabee umung ohld peepul but us yung fohks luv Inglish. Yur "English" iz ohld and arkayik.
In Britain, the Inglish language is shrinking. Your language has to change a lot. In a hundred years, it will be obsolete.

And, by the way, I'm 17 myself. So, young people in Britain love English.

[modelcitizen]

In Britain, the Inglish language is shrinking. Your language has to change a lot. In a hundred years, it will be obsolete.

And, by the way, I'm 17 myself. So, young people in Britain love English.


I em edyukaytid, I ken reed en rite en "English" az wel az "Inglish."


"The rain in Spain fals manly in dee plain."

See?

[Vnix]

Mabee umung ohld peepul but us yung fohks luv Inglish. Yur "English" iz ohld and arkayik.


(In OTL the 'Inglish' language already exists, loads of Americans cannot even write correctly and they're native speakers! I'm Dutch for crying out loud!)


Inglish is an eyesore, while English at least looks civilized. I am therefore rather glad we - in the Netherlands - learn English at school while Inglish is not taught and highly discouraged to the point of being de-facto forbidden in education.

[ComradeHuxley]

Our schools teach Oxford English grammatically and verbally, however almost all of our popular culture is "American" and therefore in Inglish.
However, it should be noted that Norwegian is written very similarly to it's pronunciation, and in that way Inglish is easier to learn for us.
I'm one of those who stick to Oxford English, but whenever I chat with my overseas friends the conversation is entirely in Inglish.

Personally I hope they accept the only good compromise soon:

http://likethemthatdream.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/crimestop.jpg


No more ungood thoughts Comrades, let us speak the only real version of Inglish/English! ;)

[EmmettMcFly55]

OOC: I can barely read this.

IC: I'm just dropping in here to protest against this butchering of the English language. If this board used reasonable English which one can hold a reasonable discussion in, I might have actually joined it in 2009 when I first came across it (I can barely believe it's been that long since I've last been here - how time flies) rather than just concentrating on other things. And don't start about English being archaic - this board is about history, after all. It's called "alternaathisturry.come", remember?

[Cymraeg]

OOC: My inner sub-editor just had a heart attack reading this thread. :eek:

[Vnix]

OOC: My inner sub-editor just had a heart attack reading this thread. :eek:

OOC: that was my first reaction too

[modelcitizen]

OOC: Seriously, folks, reading is fundamental. Phonics. Remember.

[MattII]

Well the US wouldn't have taken that economic hit it did, having to reprint every dictionary in the country like five times cost a bloody ton, not to mention the road maps, street signs, and hundreds of billions of other books. Wouldn't have had to deal with the 'New School riots' either.

[d32123]

I can barlee reed wut yu "English" speekurz ar sayeeng.

[RandomChance]

I recall reading that one of the board members proposed the elimination of vowels. It was, of course rejected as unworkable.
--------
(Googl Translaat English-Inglish)

I rcall reedin that won o the bord members propozed th liminashun o vowls. It woz, o corse, rejeted as unworkable.

--------
Of course, Inglish is a throw back to pre 17th century English, where there was no standardisation and things were spelt pretty much as the author wished.

[Alex Richards]

It says something that even in America the sciences still use English as the standard. I think there was an initial attempt to switch to Inglish, but that quickly ended when somebody tried to reform all the Greek and Latin technical spellings and the mess almost caused an explosion at Syracuse.

[Osakadave]

Dis mes iz wut yu get wen hyu let politishunz du dis. Y kudn't kongres let a lingwist du it rait?