Nu-English: A Simpler English Language for the Future

Preface

This book was a very long time coming. For decades, I’ve been waiting for someone in authority to seriously revise the modern English language, correcting all its faults and, as most of its users already know, there are lots of them.

English is not truly phonetic – there are no universal exception-free spelling rules in written English to agree with spoken English all the time. In other words, one cannot be sure of how to spell a spoken word and how to pronounce a written word the first time either is encountered.

All vowels and several consonants in written English have more than one sound in spoken English, so the symbols used in writing do not adequately cater for the sounds involved. Thus there can be ambiguity in correctly interpreting meanings, especially for learners.

There are lots of silent and unnecessary letters in written English words, which serve no useful purpose and could and should be removed.

English has irregular grammar rules for commonly used words, especially its irregular verbs. And for virtually every rule, there are exceptions which have to be learned by heart.

English has absorbed many of its spelling rules and grammar rules from languages of multiple invaders over the centuries, so English is a composite language.

Similar faults exist in other modern languages, so the problems aren’t limited to English alone.

However, English is already the language of choice in modern business, global trade, science and technology development, international communication, computerisation and information transfer, international transport and other areas.

It is fast becoming the closest thing we have to a universal language for humans in all nations and is the main language of choice for those with a non-English-speaking background learning a second language.

Now is a good time to remove any current defects to enable easier learning and therefore even wider use of the language. So that is what I have set out to do by writing this book.

Introduction

Opening comments

English is already the de facto standard language of modern business, international trading, global communication and dialogue. This has arisen partly from the introduction of computers, the internet and email services with databases and information in English, globalisation and use of the so-called ‘qwerty’ keyboard with relatively few keys.

Some of the Asian languages may have large populations of speakers, but require learning up to 5,000 or more symbols instead of the 26 in English.

English therefore is one of the strongest contenders for becoming the future world language for everyone. Now is a good time to remove any current defects to enable easier learning and therefore wider use of the language. Defect examples include its irregular spelling when matched against pronunciation and its irregular grammar rules for commonly used words, especially its irregular verbs.

I have thought a lot over several years about what revisions would vastly improve English and have finally put them into this publication for use by the whole world.

This book is written in current English so that communication of its several messages for the future of the language can be facilitated and understood by the population at large.

It is not written in a highly academic style that would not appeal to the general population, but all the messages are conveyed in a simple conversational style that should be understood easily and, hopefully, eventually adopted.

It is intended as an online book and/or a paperback book to suit all current and future generations.

As an example of the new language and how easy it is to use, the preceding three paragraphs are repeated in bold text immediately below but written under the new rules. The reader should be able to understand almost all of it fairly easily:

This buuk iz riten in kurent Inglish soe that komounikaishon ov its seveural mesajez foa thee fyootou ov thee langwij kan bee fasilitaited and undeustuud bii thee popyoolaishon at laaj.

It iz not riten in ai hiili akademic stiil that wuud not apeel too thee jeneural popyoolaishon, but oul thee mesajes aa konvaid in ai simpel konveusaishonal stiil that shuud bee undeustuud eezilee and, hoepfuulee, eeventyouralee adopted.

It iz intended az an on-liin buuk and/ou ai paipeubak buuk too soot kurent and fyootou jeneuraishons.

This book takes a fairly scientific approach to the language and attempts to:

remove silent letters;

refine the written alphabet to reduce ambiguity of use for certain letters;

make the spelling of written English more phonetic, so it reflects the sounds of spoken English;

define the standard rules for spelling and grammar and eliminate exceptions to these;

standardise formatting rules, especially for verbs (unfortunately the worst exceptions to the standard verb formatting rules, i.e. the worst of the irregular verbs, occur with the most commonly used verbs), but also for other parts of speech, such as plurals for nouns; and

simplify the rules for links between different parts of speech, e.g. pronouns and verbs.

It even comments on similar modifications to the French and German languages, especially formatting rules for verbs, gender of inanimate objects and gender agreements between nouns and other parts of speech. These comments or ones with similar intent would be relevant to other foreign languages besides French and German.

Style and contents

I have tried to write this book in a straightforward manner in simple everyday current English language, which should be easy to follow and I have included many examples of the changes suggested in both text and tabular formats.

Chapter 1 includes general comments on current English and indicates where improvements could and should be made.

Chapter 2 focuses on suggested changes to the English alphabet to provide a direct correspondence between the 44 sounds in spoken English and the set of unique unambiguous symbols to use in written English. The principles outlined in this chapter are then applied throughout the rest of the book.

Chapter 3 deals with improved spelling rules using the symbols introduced in Chapters 1 & 2 and again the principles outlined in this chapter are then applied in all following chapters.

Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 deal with simpler standardised rules for forming the different tenses and other agreement aspects of verbs. Chapter 4 discusses regular verbs, while Chapters 5 and 6 deal with groups of irregular verbs and Chapter 7 is especially focused on key common very irregular verbs.

The rules for nouns, pronouns and adjectives are discussed respectively in Chapters 8, 9 and 10. Chapters 11, 12 and 13 then address adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions and interjections respectively.

Chapter 14 comments on similar suggested rule changes in French, while Chapter 15 comments on suggested changes in German.

Chapter 16 then summarises the previous chapters in a set of dot points mainly for English, but also for French and German, and then makes some final comments.

In most of the 40 tables, where a current word or letter in the body of one or more columns is suggested to be changed, it is presented in italic font and the revised word or letter is presented in bold font in the body of another column or columns. Other explanatory information in the body of columns is in regular font.

My only reward for this service to humanity may be an honorary PhD from any interested and appreciative university.

Chapter 1

General Comments

Continual evolution of languages

The reader should remember that English, like all languages, is continually and gradually evolving, with:

addition of new words, e.g. ‘astronaut’ was introduced to describe space travel, even when it only existed in science fiction literature before the actual space travel was possible;

new meanings and uses of existing words, e.g. ‘gay’ once only meant ‘happy’ but nowadays it can also refer to homosexual behaviour;

introduction of foreign words and phrases for general use in English, e.g. the French word ‘ballet’ became the English word ‘ballet’, with the same pronunciation as the French word which has a silent ‘t’;

removal or obsolescence of words e.g. the personal pronoun ‘thou’ has disappeared from general use except for religious texts;

changes in spelling, pronunciation, punctuation & grammar, e.g. the American English spelling of the word ‘color’ and the original spelling of ‘colour’ used elsewhere; also e.g. the American English spelling and pronunciation of their four-syllable word ‘aluminum’ and the original spelling and pronunciation of the five-syllable word ‘aluminium’ used elsewhere; also e.g. removal of the period from the previous word ‘Mr.’ as an abbreviation for the word ‘Mister’ to form the modern word ‘Mr’ instead.

For these reasons, some of the data in the various tables and text in this book may have recently changed or may change in the very near future without any reference to or influence from this book. So future readers are to take this into account, but are encouraged to accept that the general principles expounded in the book are still valid for the vast amount of the data presented.

English homophones and homographs

In English there exist many pairs (or triples) of words which may be confusing to tell apart because of certain aspects which tend to link them together by sound or by spelling, even though the individual words have different meanings. Words in these pairs (or triples) of words are called homonyms. Homonyms are of two types – homophones or homographs.

Homophones are words which sound the same but are spelt differently and have different meanings. Homophone examples include: ‘to’ (common preposition) – ‘too’ (very much) – ‘two’ (the number 2); ‘one’ (the number 1) – ‘won’ (to succeed); ‘gate’ (opening part of fence) – ‘gait’ (walking manner); and ‘meat’ (flesh for eating) – ‘meet’ (join); these words require other words in speech to tell them apart.

Homographs are words with the same spelling but with different meanings. Homograph examples include: ‘minute’ (60 seconds) – ‘minute’ (very small [and pronounced differently]); and ‘pole’ (long stick) – ‘pole’ (magnetic pole) – ‘Pole’ (native of Poland); these words require other words in speech or in writing to tell them apart.

This aspect of English is not addressed further in this book.

Influence of other languages on English

Modern English is a melding of many other languages, both ancient and modern, including letters, words, spelling, pronunciation, punctuation, grammar and customs derived mainly from Germanic, French, Latin & Greek languages. This is partly due to invasions of England in the past by the Romans from Italy, the Angles, Saxons & Jutes from Western Germany & Denmark, the Vikings from Scandinavia, Denmark and Northern Germany and the Normans from France.

All of these invasions saw foreign languages displacing or adding considerably to the native languages in use before in the British Isles. Examples of these old native languages surviving to the modern age are the Irish Gaelic spoken in Ireland, the Scottish Gaelic spoken in parts of Scotland, the Welsh spoken in Wales and the local language spoken in Cornwall.

At times, Latin was the official language and at other times, French was the official language for the British Isles, but the common people still retained the Old English language in everyday life. Eventually, Old English became the official language, but by this time it had absorbed many words from foreign sources, and this evolved into Modern English. Like all modern languages, English continues to be expanded with new words and words from foreign languages.

English is the only one of the top ten major languages spoken today that lacks a worldwide regulatory body with power to promulgate spelling or other changes to it. Maybe it is time to establish such a body to manage the principles embodied in this book, and any others which arise in the future.

English as the de facto world standard language

English is the de facto standard language of modern business, international trading, global communication and dialogue, which has arisen partly from the introduction of computers, the internet with its many databases and information sources in English, globalisation and the heavy use of the so-called ‘qwerty’ keyboard with a relatively small number of keys.

Languages such as those of some of the Asian nations may have large populations who speak those languages. But those languages are not based on a relatively short alphabet of letters from which all words are formed, and instead they require learning up to 5,000 or more symbols which serve as pictures of words or syllables to construct communications.

English therefore is one of the strongest contenders for becoming the future world language for everyone. Now is a good time to remove any current defects in it to enable easier learning of it and therefore wider use of the language. For example, its irregular spelling when matched against pronunciation and its irregular grammar rules for commonly used words, especially its irregular verbs.

Transition period for changing English

If the new rules advocated in this book are eventually adopted for the English language, a long transition period will be necessary to change from the current rules to the proposed new rules. This transition period may need to be as long as 10 or 15 years with both systems valid, legal and accepted in the English-speaking world for current users and those learning English as a second language to adapt. This would apply until the final change-over date when the new rules would be the only valid version accepted worldwide.

Certainly it would need to be up to eight years long for the first generation of school-age children to be trained solely in the new rules, ie for children in all Grades 1 to 8 of primary and secondary school. By the way, because the new rules are regular, simple and easy to remember, eliminating any irregularities, teaching of English especially in primary school should take far less time. This could perhaps remove a whole year or more off the primary school English curriculum, thus allowing more school time to be devoted to learning aspects of modern technology, e.g. use of computers in life generally.

Comparison of metric and other measurement systems

When the imperial avoirdupois system of measurement was replaced with the metric system and financial calculations moved from a non-decimal currency to a decimal currency system in several nations, including Australia, significant removal of unnecessary mathematics from the primary mathematics curriculum was effected. This allowed earlier introduction of more advanced mathematics aspects into the primary and secondary school curricula.

The metric system of weights and measures is vastly superior to other systems because of its simplicity and practicality, as it only involves multiplication or division by 10 or powers of 10, which is exactly equivalent to our 10-based numerical system and the simple 10-based decimal currency financial systems of most nations which can also facilitate any calculation. Thus many calculations only involve shifting of the decimal point left or right. This shortens the learning time and reduces errors. It is of course the standard or universal system of measurement in science and technological applications, although I have heard that much scientific and technological work in the United States of America (US or America) is done with their non-metric system of measures.

Length measurement

Length measurement in the imperial avoirdupois system on the other hand has many different multipliers, e.g. with length alone: 12 inches = 1 foot, 3 feet = 1 yard, 6 feet = 1 fathom, 5.5 yards = 1 rod or pole, 4 rods = 1 chain, 22 yards = 1 chain, 80