Alternate History Challenge: Change English!

Kingpoleon

Banned
Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to make a small butterfly that results in the English language being changed. This needs to be done no earlier than 1751. If this is not enough time, feel free to say so via PM. Thank you if you choose to accept this challenge!
 
Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to make a small butterfly that results in the English language being changed. This needs to be done no earlier than 1751. If this is not enough time, feel free to say so via PM. Thank you if you choose to accept this challenge!

Daniel Webster decides to make different reforms to English than he did OTL. English, or at least of the American kind, is markedly different than OTL as a result.
 
The English language, like any other language, is constantly changing as new words are added. Lots of words we know today we're around even 10 years ago. Language is also very abstract, a word could very well be easily changed by how an inventor is feeling on that paticular day.
 

Kingpoleon

Banned
"Lots" or a dozen? I'm aware it's constantly changing, hence why I asked for a small butterfly as I believed it possible.
 
Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to make a small butterfly that results in the English language being changed. This needs to be done no earlier than 1751. If this is not enough time, feel free to say so via PM. Thank you if you choose to accept this challenge!

Franklin's idea for a phonetic alphabet gains support among the Founding Fathers as a way to further differentiate America from the the British, leading to the creation of an American equivalent of the Académie française, which promulgates a standard dialect of American English in the early 1800's. The difference between "Standard American" and OTL American English gradually increases from there, as the butterflies do their work.
 
Last edited:
What about having the "American" English becaming the "Main" lanuage eg. no more "u" in words that dont have them like Color and Honor. And have the American nouns over the English, Fries instead of chips, elevator instead of lift ect.

This can be done before 1751, by having the colonies more populated then the British Isle and having colonist, traveling to Britain more easily.
 
What about having the "American" English becaming the "Main" lanuage eg. no more "u" in words that dont have them like Color and Honor. And have the American nouns over the English, Fries instead of chips, elevator instead of lift ect.

This can be done before 1751, by having the colonies more populated then the British Isle and having colonist, traveling to Britain more easily.
British English being "main" has less to do with American colonial population, and more to do with half the world having been ruled by the British, who imposed their education on them.

Even then, a lot of American variants are becoming more popular all over the world (and conversely, some Britishicisms are gaining popularity in the US).

Another issue, of course, is that there was not and never will be just one English dialect. Someone from Appalachia speaks a very different dialect from someone in Los Angeles, who speaks differently than someone from Glasgow, who sounds different from someone in Delhi, who sounds different from someone in Sydney, and so on and so forth.
 

Kingpoleon

Banned
Althistorization. There I made a new word. English is changed. Fixed That For You ;)
This wins. Sorry guys. Wait, this is the pre-1900 forum. Unless one of your ancestors made that word up before 1900, this doesn't count. Nice try though.
 
Top