List of reforms of the English language
Encyclopedia
Over the years, many people have called for English language reform. There are a number of reform types that have been proposed.
s are attempts to regularlize English's highly irregular spelling, whether by enforcing a regular set of rules, or by replacing the basic English alphabet with a new one. English language spelling reforms include:
Using the basic English alphabet:
Extending or replacing the basic English alphabet:
are reforms that use a restricted wordlist and grammar. English subsets include:
Spelling reforms
Spelling reformSpelling reform
Many languages have undergone spelling reform, where a deliberate, often officially sanctioned or mandated, change to spelling takes place. Proposals for such reform are also common....
s are attempts to regularlize English's highly irregular spelling, whether by enforcing a regular set of rules, or by replacing the basic English alphabet with a new one. English language spelling reforms include:
Using the basic English alphabet:
- Cut SpellingCut SpellingCut Spelling is a system of English-language spelling reform which reduces redundant letters and makes substitutions to improve correspondence with the spoken word. It was designed by Christopher Upward and was for a time being popularized by the Simplified Spelling Society. The resulting words are...
- Handbook of Simplified Spelling
- SoundSpelSoundSpelSoundSpel is an English language spelling reform proposal. Its origins date back to 1910.SoundSpel has been endorsed by the American Literacy Council because English speakers can easily read it.-Phonetics:Phonemes are represented as follows:...
- Spelling Reform step 1 (SR1)SR1Spelling Reform 1 or Spelling Reform step 1 is an English spelling reform proposal advocated by Harry Lindgren. It calls for the short sound to always be spelt with E. For example, friend would become frend and head would become hed...
Extending or replacing the basic English alphabet:
- Benjamin Franklin's phonetic alphabetBenjamin Franklin's phonetic alphabetBenjamin Franklin's phonetic alphabet was Benjamin Franklin's proposal for a spelling reform of the English language. It used many of the same letters, but changed some of them and what sounds they represented. It was one of the earliest proposed spelling reforms to the English...
- Deseret alphabetDeseret alphabetThe Deseret alphabet is a phonemic English spelling reform developed in the mid-19th century by the board of regents of the University of Deseret under the direction of Brigham Young, second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.In public statements, Young claimed the...
- Initial Teaching AlphabetInitial Teaching AlphabetThe Initial Teaching Alphabet was developed by Sir James Pitman in the early 1960s...
- InterspelInterspelInterspel is a set of principles introduced by Valerie Yule to meet the challenge of how to remove unpredictability and inconsistency from present English spelling while keeping the present heritage of print through minimal change in its appearance. That can be done when prevailing assumptions...
- Romic alphabetRomic alphabetThe Romic Alphabet, sometimes known as the Romic Reform, is a phonetic alphabet proposed by Henry Sweet. It is the direct ancestor of the modern International Phonetic Alphabet...
- Shavian alphabetShavian alphabetThe Shavian alphabet is an alphabet conceived as a way to provide simple, phonetic orthography for the English language to replace the difficulties of the conventional spelling. It was posthumously funded by and named after Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw...
(revised version: QuikscriptQuikscriptQuikscript is an alphabet specifically designed for the English language. Quikscript replaces traditional English orthography, which uses the Latin alphabet, with completely new letters. It is phonemically regular, compact, and comfortably and quickly written...
) - UnifonUnifonUnifon is a phonemic orthography for English designed in the mid-1950s by Dr. John R. Malone, a Chicago economist and newspaper equipment consultant. It was developed into a teaching aid to help children acquire reading and writing skills. Like the pronunciation key in a dictionary, Unifon matches...
Subsets
SubsetsControlled natural language
Controlled natural languages are subsets of natural languages, obtained byrestricting the grammar and vocabulary in orderto reduce or eliminate ambiguity and complexity.Traditionally, controlled languages fall into two major types:...
are reforms that use a restricted wordlist and grammar. English subsets include:
- Attempto Controlled EnglishAttempto Controlled EnglishAttempto Controlled English is a controlled natural language, i.e. a subset of standard English with a restricted syntax and a restricted semantics described by a small set of construction and interpretation rules....
- Basic EnglishBasic EnglishBasic English, also known as Simple English, is an English-based controlled language created by linguist and philosopher Charles Kay Ogden as an international auxiliary language, and as an aid for teaching English as a Second Language...
- E-PrimeE-PrimeE-Prime is a version of the English language that excludes all forms of the verb to be. E-Prime does not allow conjugations of to be , archaic forms E-Prime (short for English-Prime, sometimes denoted E′) is a version of the English language that excludes all forms of the verb to be. E-Prime does...
- GlobishGlobishGlobish may refer to:* Globish , a formalized natural language subset of English grammar and vocabulary* Globish , a simplified constructed language related to, but independent of, standard English...
- Simplified EnglishSimplified EnglishSimplified English is the original name of a controlled language historically developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardized subset of English. It is now officially known under its trademarked name as Simplified Technical English...
- Special EnglishSpecial EnglishSpecial English is a controlled version of the English language first used on October 19, 1959, and still presented daily by the United States broadcasting service Voice of America. World news and other programs are read one-third slower than regular VOA English. Reporters avoid idioms and use a...
- Specialized EnglishSpecialized EnglishSpecialized English is a controlled version of the English language used for radio broadcasting, easier for non-native speakers of English. It is derived from Voice of America Special English....
Vocabulary reforms
Vocabulary reforms seek to reform English by changing or restricting its words without changing its grammar.- AnglishAnglishAnglo-Saxon linguistic purism is a kind of English linguistic purism, which favors words of native origin over those of foreign origin. In its mild form, it merely means using existing native words instead of foreign ones...
- the use of native (GermanicGermanic languagesThe Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
) words only, a form of linguistic purismLinguistic purismLinguistic purism or linguistic protectionism is the practice of defining one variety of a language as being purer than other varieties. The ideal of purity is often opposed in reference to a perceived decline from an "ideal past" or an unwanted similarity with other languages, but sometimes simply... - EuropantoEuropantoEuropanto is a macaronic language concept with a fluid vocabulary from multiple European languages of the user's choice or need. It was conceived in 1996 by Diego Marani based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU Languages...