WI English went through spelling reform within the next few decades?

WI American, Canadian, British, or "World English" in general underwent the spelling reforms that Dutch, German, Norwegian, and other languages have undergone? How radical would the changes be? Would it be worth it to change signs, streetnames? Would certain notable literature need to be retranslated into "reformed English" if the reform diverged significantly from the written English we currently know? Would certain newspapers, academic papers, literature remain in "traditional written English" and other publications written in a reformed or simplified writing style? Would the Internet determine which writing style would predominate in worldwide English communication?

For an example of one spelling reform alongside modern written English:

http://www.spellingsociety.org/news/pyoneers/py1pt1.php#ajm
 

MrP

Banned
Yeah, if it were to be changed into that, we'd definitely need a translation. That stuff reminds me of Chaucer. ;)
 
Who does this? After all, there is no Academie Anglais to regulate the language... it seems like you might end up with a situation similar to the simplification of Chinese characters- Britain has a wholly "simplified" spelling system, Canada and Australia end up using some British "simplifications" but not all, America doesn't "simplify" any...

In case you're wondering, I put "simplify" in scare-quotes because I oppose any such changes to the language, and really doubt they would have much benefit.
 

MrP

Banned
I'm kinda with Imajin here; there'd be no way to enforce it. One of the beauties of English is that it is unfettered. Granted, that does lead to crazy crap like decimate meaning almost destroy totally, but that's the price y'pay for having a language that, as Terry Pratchett once said, doesn't so much borrow from other languages as follow them into back alleys and beat them up before rifling through their pockets for spare adverbs. On the other hand, I can't really agree that English cannot be simplified. We've got multiple ways of signifying the f sound: gh, ph, f for instance. Vide here for some counterargument of the ghoti=fish thing. I've not read it, but it was on the first page of Google results and contains no obvious nudity, so I don't hesitate to link to it.

The proper word is "cannot" (or "can not", if you like monosyllabic words). :D

It makes me frown when people use "can not". We linked 'em up ages ago. God knows when, though! Well, probably Leo knows, too, but apart from the two of them...
 

Dom

Moderator
WI American, Canadian, British, or "World English" in general underwent the spelling reforms that Dutch, German, Norwegian, and other languages have undergone? How radical would the changes be? Would it be worth it to change signs, streetnames? Would certain notable literature need to be retranslated into "reformed English" if the reform diverged significantly from the written English we currently know? Would certain newspapers, academic papers, literature remain in "traditional written English" and other publications written in a reformed or simplified writing style? Would the Internet determine which writing style would predominate in worldwide English communication?

For an example of one spelling reform alongside modern written English:

http://www.spellingsociety.org/news/pyoneers/py1pt1.php#ajm

I actually find that reformed spelling more difficult to read. English is good enough as if is, leave it be :mad: :D
 
Yeah, if it were to be changed into that, we'd definitely need a translation. That stuff reminds me of Chaucer. ;)

LOL, it looks like it was written by a pretty crap 10 year old

I think if there's going to be reform, it should simply look at where differences exist between the main English-speaking countries and decide on standardisation, and this should be spelling and grammar only really. The US's pre-eminent position in computing should be discounted and they should be forced to adopt proper spellings with u's and re's :)

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Top