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how would you simplify English? (kbin.earth)

submitted 12 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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hypothetically, let's say you were tasked with simplifying the English language. how would you go about doing that, and why?

to start with an easy one, the first thing I would do is eliminate silent letters from all words and make it so no letters share sounds. for example, example would become exampel. then, because x would no longer be around or at least wouldn't have that sound, ekzampel. I would also consider eliminating mulit-letter sounds like ch, and replacing them with single characters (probably the ones that got removed).

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (2 children)

Remove the letter “c”.

space, face, place etc. replace with “s” as it makes the “s” sound

score, scum etc. replace with “k” as it makes the “k” sound

Also what is the point of the letter “q” if it’s only followed by “u”, make the letter “q” mean “qu” to save space.

replace “ph” with “f”.

raplace instances or “y” where it makes the same sound as “i” with “i”.

Ie. the famous Bakunin quote: "In antiquity slaves were, in all honesty called slaves. In the middle ages, they took the name of serfs. Nowadays they are called wage earners." ~ Mikhail Bakunin

would become “In antiqiti slaves were, in all honesti, kalled slaves. In the middle ages, they took the name of serfs. Nowadays they are kalled wage earners.”

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I wish to direct you to the shavian alphabet: https://shavian.info/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago

looks cool

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I'd keep c around for the ch sound, like Italian (I think they do that, anyway)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Or remove the letter “c” as it is currently used and replace instances of “ch” with “c”.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

that's what I was thinking too towards the end but forgot to mention it specifically. I think that's the best thing to do with the unnecessary letters as it reduces the need for letter combinations.