How would you change the English language?

Started by Jolene October 23rd, 2010 4:56 AM
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Jolene

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Age 27
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Seen September 25th, 2012
Posted September 25th, 2012
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13.8 Years
How would you change the English language if you could change it? There are several things I would change.

I will get rid of silent letters at the start of words because they are not needed I think.

And I will change the spellings of words that don't sound like how they are written like most words that end with ough like tough and dough.

Also I don't like the word ladybug because some ladybugs are guys so I will rename them coxinells.

I am also changing the name of the moon because it is not the only moon and all the other moons have real names. I will either call the moon Skyqueen or Skyfriend.

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RulerArceus

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Age 22
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Posted February 14th, 2012
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12.7 Years
Oh God, I've wanted to do that for years.
I'd do most of the stuff you want to do, except Call our moon SkyreField.
Because I just love that Name :P.
Feels awesome.
I'd also maybe Create different names for countries. I mean, New York? It's the coolest country in the world(OPINION), And it's named after some weird Country where Some King and his cruel Deputy got Seriously Drunk and jailed some guy who saved Poor people by giving them cash?(I mean, about 400 people get drunk every Hour in New York,BUT THAT'S IT.)Maybe Awesome-Land or somethin'.
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I am also changing the name of the moon because it is not the only moon and all the other moons have real names. I will either call the moon Skyqueen or Skyfriend.
Actually, I think that technically the moon is the name of our "satellite". Other planets have satellites with unique names (Like Jupiter's Europa), and "moon" is just ours. Of course, that may just be in academia, I dunno.

Personally, I'd make the English language more structured and knock off a bunch of words from the dictionary (like "contemplate"... I think it's the most pointless word ever, and is only used by people who want to sound superior and/or stuffy). Apparently, English is the single most difficult language to learn, so I think we should fix that!
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Richard
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Posted January 22nd, 2014
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14.7 Years
I can see this more as a poll for OVP rather that generating much discussion here in OC. So, in that case, I'm just going to move that over there.

If I could change anything though, it would be to have more defined meanings to each word. We could have one word, yet it can represent about five different meanings, all of which can sometimes become a bit confusing to some, especially those trying to learn the language. Now, not all words could be narrowed to one or two meanings, but there are some that can in which a new word can be made to take the place of its secondary definition.
Male
Seen March 31st, 2011
Posted November 21st, 2010
238 posts
12.9 Years
To quote M. J. Shields or Mark Twain (the authorship is disputed):
For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet.

The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later.

Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all.

Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants.

Bai iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli.

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

Esper

California
Seen June 30th, 2018
Posted June 30th, 2018
I would add a few more letters for clarity of pronunciation, taken from the International Phonetic Alphabet.

I'd add ð, the symbol for voiced dental fricatives, meaing this, that, the, there, etc. and θ, the symbol for voiceless dental fricatives, meaning thin, thick, thorn, etc. The 'th' combination of letters isn't always clear for people learning English and this would make it easier. I also just want to add letters to the language since 26 is too few for me. Other pairs of letters could have their own symbols, but ones like 'nn' or 'tt' don't really need it since they sound the same as a single letter and the only issue with them is with spelling.

Timbjerr

T-o-X-i-C

Age 36
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Posted January 28th, 2016
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When I was in middle school, there was a project in one of my classes where we had to modify the English language so heavily that it might as well be a completely new language.

Wehn it waswas ni dimeld hcsloo, thre waswas at proect ni oneone fo ym sclss whre ew hadhad ot domyfi thethe Engish gnalegau os lyhevy taht ti miht sa wlel eb at lypmocetel newnew gnalegau

...
I'm actually surprised I remember all the little rules my group had made way back then. XD

SIN1488

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I will get rid of silent letters at the start of words because they are not needed I think.
This! Except also silent letters at the end of words and such, as they are useless. Such as in "bomb". What is that second "b" for?! >_<
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If you're wanting to change the English language, then you must be terrible at it. It has worked for so many years and it doesn't need any fixing.
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Funnily enough today when I turned on the T.V this comedy was on and this girl was talking about how she wanted to get rid of a certain letter in the alphabet. I shall copy.

The letter C has really got to go. What's the point of it, for most of the sounds it makes we can just use K. For the soft C we can just use S. C is kind of a pointless letter.

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I would replace some words with French words to make it more romantic ♥ xD

Oh and:

The letter C has really got to go. What's the point of it, for most of the sounds it makes we can just use K. For the soft C we can just use S. C is kind of a pointless letter.
Agreed. I thought about that for ages.


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Circuit

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Posted July 29th, 2020
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15.2 Years
Well. A complete reformation. Wait...

No, I've changed my mind. Just use Christopher Paolini's Ancient Language instead. It sounds so lovely <3

Atra gülai un ilian taught ono un atra ono waíse sköliro frá rauthr.
May luck and happyness follow you and may you be shielded from misfortune.

Ho-Oh

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I would remove the words "smell", "smelliest" and "smelly" from the English language.

They are the worst words in the language. Ever. I hate them. That's all I'd do tbh, everything else is fine. :)

Jolene

Your huckleberry friend

Age 27
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Seen September 25th, 2012
Posted September 25th, 2012
1,287 posts
13.8 Years
The letter C has really got to go. What's the point of it, for most of the sounds it makes we can just use K. For the soft C we can just use S. C is kind of a pointless letter.
You need it for ch words though like cha cha cha.

What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Joliet is the sun!