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reforming English

by amigueo, January 8, 2022

Messages: 20

Language: Español

amigueo (User's profile) January 8, 2022, 12:21:13 PM

I propose this discussion thread to present small or big reforms of English language.

I begin with a small detail.
"The maid ushered in- the visitor".
"in-". That is it.

IgorSokoloff (User's profile) January 9, 2022, 2:49:39 PM

Vi estas admirinda ulo, kamarado Amigueo.
Eĉ okaze, se viaj kuraĝaj reformoj ne sukcesos, via glorinda nomo tute probable penetros la historion de nia-planeda lingvistiko.

Waat234 (User's profile) January 22, 2022, 8:29:01 PM

A different letter for the silent gh and change the gh that makes the sound ‘f’ to ph.

Roberto12 (User's profile) January 23, 2022, 9:55:28 PM

I don't like having words of one letter in any language, so I would replace the pronoun "I" with its middle-English variant "ih". The pronunciation stays the same. I also dislike the indefinite article "a", but it's hard to think of a replacement. Maybe "ae"? Or maybe "an" on the understanding that the N is mostly silent?

nornen (User's profile) January 24, 2022, 4:57:52 AM

Hadn't OE ic/ich already become I in ME?

Why should ih be pronounced /aɪ/ and not /iç/ ? Where does the diphthong come from and why is the /ç/ silent?

Roberto12 (User's profile) January 24, 2022, 2:25:40 PM

I didn't expect a reply, lol.
nornen:Hadn't OE ic/ich already become I in ME?
You may be right. I was just repeating what I read on wiktionary here
Why should ih be pronounced /aɪ/ and not /iç/ ? Where does the diphthong come from and why is the /ç/ silent?
Modern English doesn't have /ç/. Nor does it use the digraph "ih", so I guess it can be defined however you want. And the diphthong comes from the Great Vowel Shift.

Blua_Monto (User's profile) February 20, 2022, 9:09:44 AM

Time to demolish all the irregular verbs.
goed, builded, sleeped…
Too bad, this will let some synonyms arise, like "seed".

Altebrilas (User's profile) February 28, 2022, 11:13:38 PM

What about Shavian alphabet?

bartlett22183 (User's profile) March 2, 2022, 6:12:33 PM

The problem with spelling reforms is whose English? English pronunciation varies, even somewhat widely, around the world, but with only minor, almost trivial, exceptions, it is written the same way. To use something like Shavian would either codify one pronunciation or else would lead to variant spellings.

nornen (User's profile) March 5, 2022, 9:52:05 PM

Would that really be so big a problem, if you stick to phonemes and disregard allophones and mergers?

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