| MENU: HOME » Reconstruction » Recovery » Renewal » Language Main Page |
Introduction:
The way this compendium works is that
forum members submit ideas and discussion to the moderator.
To join the Colloquium so as to receive the
inter-discussion of other members
and to submit suggestions
and comments for addition to this Compendium,
email:
Because I am not as conversant, as the rest of you, with the technical terms for describing English grammar I hope that everyone will provide a simple example of what they are saying. Also, anyone who is willing to take over the editing of the Compendium, will be most welcomed.
The stage that we are at,
at the moment, is to try to list all the possible syntactical
reforms that we can suggest for English.
Category 1. Plurals.
Category 1b2. Consistently use a "z".
Category 1b3. Create a new word for each plural
(possibly) from some other language.
Category 1b4. Consistently use an additional particle "ZEE".
Category 1b5. Consistently use "-en" or "-(schwa symbol)n".
Category 2b. Regularization of Articles
Category 2c. Elimination of Articles
Category 3 has been deleted
Category 4. Possessives
Category 4b. Alternate Proposals for Possessive
Category 4c. Elimination of the Apostrophe
Category 5 has been deleted
Category 6. Adverbs
Category 6b. Alternate Proposals for Adverbs
Category 7b. The use of er to indicate degree
and est to to indicate maximum
Category 7c. The use of more to indicate degree
and most to indicate maximum
Category 8b. Alternate proposals for Adjectives
Category 9. Regularization of personal pronouns
Category 9b. Use of "sheet" for third person indiscriminate
Category 9c. Elimination of the repeated pronoun
Category 9d. Examples of some other suggested remedies
Category 9e. Current Angel Inclinations
Category 10b. A separate word to denote the past tense
Category 10c. Elimination of the verb alteration
for third person singular.
Category 10d. Elimination of the past tense
Category 10e. Other advantages to verb regularization
Category 12 has been deleted
Category 13 has been deleted
Category 14. Regularisation of Grammar
Category 14b. Elimination of the accusative
Category 14c. Simplification of end phrase interrogative
Category 15 has been deleted
Category 16 has been deleted
Category 17. The order
in which syntactical forms should be taught.
Category 18. Reduction of word meanings
in the elemental list.
Category 19. A regularized number system
Category 20. Philosophical Discussion
Category 1. Plurals.
Category 1a. Definition of the Problem with Plurals.
The use of plurals provides additional information,
ie. that there is more than one.
A few languages are much more specific in that they use
specific nouns and verbs to indicate specific numbers up to four.
However, there are numbers of languages that do not indicate plurality
at all. In this, English is inconsistent, and therein lies the problem,
since the goal of regularization is to make English consistent,
therefore regular.
In English we oftentimes add an "s" to a word to make it plural.
Therefore cat and cats. However, very often, the "s" is given a "z"
sound. Thus, dog becomes dogs, but in a phonetic system this would be
written dogz. This means that plurals would sometimes be presented
with an "s" and sometimes with a "z". Nor is even this the extent of
the problem because the plural is sometimes represented by es, such
as in beach and beaches, or more correctly, phonetically, beach
and beachez.
Nor does the above conclude the problem. For a number of words, there
is a special word for the plural form. As an example, for man and mouse,
we have men and mice. On the other hand there are words that have no
plural. Such as sheep, elk, moose, and others. While these examples
involve animals, there is no rule limiting it to animals, and no
consistency about applying it to animals.
To summarize the five examples:
Perhaps we can answer this question by considering some English nouns
that are invariant whether singular or plural: "deer, moose, elk, sheep,
grouse, woodcock, salmon, cod". It is notable that these animals are all
normally regarded as game or food.
[] Consistent with lack of a plural in othr nouns tht ar comnly referd to in
terms of quantity rathr than number, e.g. grain, butter, wool, tar -- their
plurals usually refer to 'varieties of...'
[Doug] ....I've scant knowledge of (other) Eastern languages -- I suspect
the normal practice is to let context indicate number / plurality, as in
English "six deer"....
[Antony] You've probably more knowledge than I have. The most I've picked
up is that many languages - including Chinese, Japanese and pidgins /
creoles - do not normally employ plurals.
I can see how people cope quite well without a noun plural in
traditional cultures: "I have five cow" - the meaning is normally clear
enough: a cow is usually just a cow.
But in modern society, with its diversification, standardisation and
mass production, the statement is more likely to require elaboration. I
might well have a mixture of breeds.
Well, how about "I have five computer"? This statement definitely need
qualification. Are the computers the same, or different?
I suggest we regularize the plural on the basis of current usage. For
example, if a storeman orders "ten oil" we know he means "ten (identical
units of) oil", but we understand an aromatherapist with "ten oils" to have
"ten (different) oils".
The numeral is a quantifier; the plural is a diversifier. I think it
might be an advance if we could say "I have five cow" or "I have five cows"
- the difference between the statements being understood.
1. Iz comnly so writn in advertizing matr, e.g. 'Beanz meanz Heinz', my
neihbrhood handiman servis 'Fixzit', as in other words with 's' as writn
standard, e.g. a lubricant 'Ezy-Glide'.
2. Reflects actual sound after all wordz except folowing th soundz ov
€ f,
2. Cd b replaced by 's' where so sounded, just as we replace the word 'a' by
'an' where adjoining sounds require it; but even if -(')z were made constant
fr the plural sufix morfeme it wd automaticaly b red az 's' az it iz in
'Ritz, Fritz'.
3. It wil hasten th redundancy and so the removal of a second 's' in wurfdz
tht uze it only t dstinguish them from wurdz with 's' sufix sounded 'z' e.g.
'needles(s).
It's noteworthy tht most French pluralz sound exzactly th same as their
singulars, perhaps a major reazon fr the wider use ov th definit articl
(which indicates plurality) in French
[] -- i.e. they are countable (how meny) rather than quantifiable (how
much).
It occurs to me that Eastern culture derogates plurals for the same
reason it tends to believe that "the protruding nail should be hammered
down". Western culture may tend towards excessive anthropomorphism and
sentimentality but it would nevertheless probably resist referring to a
group of dogs, cats or horses as "dog", "cat" or "horse".
[] Judging only by Melanesian Pidgin English (Pisin) -- I've scant knowledge
of (other) eastern languages -- I suspect the normal practice is to let
context indicate number/ plurality, as in English "six deer". There are
Pisin plural pronouns but (as with English 'you') these are not all
obligatory if context suffices. The occasionally needed plural particle
corresponds to the plural third person pronoun (ol). English resorts to an
equivalent at times with 'you all' (dialectal 'y'all'), 'you lot/ mob' etc.
I favorf 'lot' in general. Some ('subcultural'0 Australians use 'youse' as a
plural.
Category 1b. Suggestions for Regularization of Plurals.
Then sheep becomes sheeps.
Then sheep becomes sheepz.
This would greatly expand the language and make it more
complicated for anyone to learn. Every new noun would have
to be created in two forms, sigular and plural.
This appears to be a very workable solution. It means that the
ITL learner has to learn only one additional rule. The format
may be slightly grating (it will certainly be distinctive) to
Traditional English listeners.
>[Robert] ...better (I think) would be "-ze": "cat-ze, dog-ze, beach-ze,
>mouse-ze, sheep-ze". Native speakers could pronounce "catz, dogz, beach'z,
>mouse'z, sheeps".
[] There ar 3 spoken regular pluralz in English: s, 'z, z (using ' for
schwa):
[] 2. -'z suffixt to other voiceless sibilant (s,sh e.g. asses,ashes) and z,
zh sounds (e.g. phases, edges).
[] 3. -z elsewhere (sofas, rays, ploughs, ebbs, abodes, ears, crows &s.)
[] This sujests tht 'z or ez wd be mor lojicl than ze. If we recomend
abreviatd formz fr comn wurdz (to unstrest = t , do = d, be = b , for = fr )
this particle/sufix cd bcum just z t suit mor peopl. It wd create new
homofonez, not just th posesiv sufix mentiond blow (Ted's hat) bt unstrest
as/ az (good z gold) and voiced 's v cloqial speech (Ted's here -- Tedz
here or Ted z here)).
Category 1b5. Consistently use "-en" or "-(schwa symbol)n".
Possibly worth discussing - a reversion to the original Teutonic form still
found in German and in "oxen, men, child(r)en". That would allow the
genitive/possessive to have the monopoly on "-z".
[] I prefer use ov -n as comn in coloqial English fr 'individual' e.g.
young'n, good'n. It cn regularize -((er)m)an, -ian, -eon, -ent, -(e)ant,
-ar/er/or/ress/rix, -one fr 'agent' suffixz ov e.g. fisher(man), musician,
surgeon, correspondent, sergeant, appellant, pedlar, cobbler, actor,
actress, aviatrix, everyone.
Plurals might also be eliminated, and since one consideration
is that of simplification of the syntax in a way
that permits one in an ITL to more easily learn the language
this could be the easiest solution.
It would be one less rule for the learner to learn and it might
be less grating to hear, for those used to Traditional English.
As an example:
[Robert] Tde Chinese du not regularli indikate plural: haw du tdei deal
with tdi problem illustrated "Look out for cars"? (Tdere is much tu bi
learned from China de grammar.)
In cases a and b there is the additional complication
of making the verb agree with the singularity or plurality of the noun.
If a passenger were issuing a warning to a driver,
case c would be equally effective.
In cases d and e, does it really make any difference
whether there is more than one sheep or not? As in case f
wouldn't make any difference to warn a child about to cross the street
to look out for one or more than one car.
In cases where number IS important
one could say:
What interplay there might be between an ITL and an IAL in this regards,
is a different matter. If an ITL were widely used, it might effect
current practice in the IAL. On the other hand, if the IAL maintains
a strong historical relationship to Traditional English, then all the
rules and exceptions listed at the outset of this category, would remain,
and would remain to be assimilated by anyone making the transition to
Traditional English.
Click here to return to the
Category 2a. Definition of the Problem with Articles.
Articles (a, an, the, this, that, etc) are part of the glue words
of the English language. There are definite and indefinite articles.
There is little distinction between
Category 2b. Regularization of Articles
One of the inconsistencies of articles in English is that between
the use of "a" and "an". "A dog" and "an apple" still mean one of each.
The rule simply being to precede those words which begin with a vowel
by the use of "an" rather than "a" so that two vowels will not be adjacent.
This may have some phonemic merit but it does make one more rule for
the new learner, and this may be unnecessary at the outset.
[Robert] "Since artikles are kynds of adjektives riplace "a/an" bi (i) and
"the" bi (thi) (sii proposal in Categori 8b)".
[] Indef. art. in most languages is (for French, German &s.) an extant or
(for English) eroded form of the numeral one . This alredy gainz a sufixt
-i sound in 'any' & if chanjed to i wd lose its conexion w th articl (no
weeping fr that, since most users probaly learn it as a separat entity), bt
I se som valu in keeping a link btween th abuv -n, -'n, -one suffixz wth
th articl pronounst normally one ov 4 way: like a(n) in sofa, ape, organ or
began. Mor t th point, I think most v us 'feel' an identity of th articl
with the alternativ expression 'one' so ofn rzortd to by newcomerz t our
languaj. "may I by wun apl?" &such.
[] 'The' iz a diferent proposition. It haz 2 standard pronunciationz, th'/
thee, larjli (like thoze v a(n)) dpendent on hwethr th next sound aftr it
iz a vowel. I think th lojicl (and in th long term, i.e. hwen current/ sE
spelingz no longr inhibit rform, the eziest) option iz t hav 2 spelingz
(th('), thi/the) az in sE fr a(n) .
Articles are eliminated in many Pidgins as well as in a number
of languages like Russian and Latin.
Since articles are not present in many languages, it is perhaps best
to leave them out of the ITL as it involves teaching an unfamiliar
concept. Indeed this may be a principle for Pidginizing a number of
matters of syntax in the ITL.
[Robert] "Major languages such as Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Malay and
Russian du not emploi articles (a fact which might aply to tdi majoriti of
languages)."
[Antony] Against this might be set the possibility that the predominance
of English as a world language is connected with the fact that it employs
articles. There is no question but that English-speakers love to use
articles. Frequency Analysis of top words in English (Johansson & Hofland
1989): "the 68315, of 35716, and 27856, to 26760, a 22744, in 21108, that
11188, is 10978, etc. etc." - "the" is by far the most popular word in
English, and "a" is fifth on the list.
[] Th label 'definite' aplied t this articl 'indicates' tht it z an
'indicative'/ definitiv adjectiv like that/ this, ov wich it z historicli n
eroded form, az in most European languajz and I think Arabic. It's populr
bcauz it indicates
€ tht th next wurd/ fraze z nounal, &/or th preseding wurd/ fraze z not part
v it;
[Antony] I suggest that "1" and the indefinite article be merged. "A, two,
three"?
Click here to return to the
Category 4a. Definition of the Problem of Possessives.
Possession in Traditional English is indicated in writing by use of
an apostrophe. Audibly, however, the word sounds just like a plural.
For example, when we speak of "cars" (plural) or a "car's window" in
both instances, "cars" sounds the same. The distinction is based
upon context.
Category 4b. Alternate Proposals for Possessive
In some languages and pidgins, possession is shown simply by juxtaposition
of words. Therefore "John's book" is simply "John Book".
Another alternate proposal is to use some sort of verbal marker. For example,
"Book John de" where de sort of stands for "of" and the meaning would be
"The book of John". The "de" would, however, always follow the possessor.
This technique of the following modifier would parallel its use in some
other examples.
[Robert] "Empti" word "de" is taken from Chinese, where tdi word order bi
"John de book"; ratder tdan "John book de".
[] This z a postpozition az distinct from a preposition. Som prepositions cn
b postpositions in sE e.g. 'Clues to the contrary NOTWITHSTANDING, this z
hwat I bcame aware OF'.
Because the apostrophe is not pronounced it does not belong in a
phonemic system. One could continue to use the "s" sound
for possession, without conflict with plurals,
if one were to use some other marker for plurals
such as the ZEE sound which has been mentioned above.
However, there would still remain an inconsistency
in the use of s or z
such as in "The cat's box" and "In the dog'z box".
[me] If "-en" were used for plurals, and "-z" exclusively for the
genitive/possessive, then the apostrophe might be dropped. As a long-term
aim, words ending "-en" in the singular and "-s" or "-z" in the nominative
might be replaced by alternatives from other languages. This would not be
unprecedented: for instance, tens if not hundreds of verbs denoting
repetitive action "handle, swivel, ladle, feel, amble, mangle etc." end in
/l/.
[] I'm al fr adopting (hav recmended in IngLingo) -l but rathr as an
abbreviation of TOOL (/ INSTRUMENT) than as a sign of repetitiveness, e.g.
handl pedal swivel swizzle toggle ladle label bottle kettle shovel mangle
gavel level chisel medal model castle needle throttle cradle saddle/settle
table trestle wistle axle &s. (possibly fable, riddle?). Admittedly it also
functions as an indicator of repetitiveness but perhaps less frequently e.g.
amble, waddle, wiggle, waggle, wriggle, battle, dabble, gabble, gobble,
double/treble/triple &s., dribble, dapple, quibble, rubble, tipple,
(possibly addle grovel cuddle fuddle huddle muddle settle?); fiddle, rattle
and grapple seem to have both senses or either; riddle, runnel, fabl, offal,
maple, apple, petal, sepal, nettle and others seem to fit neither.
I don't see great strength in the case for a possessive form. French (except
for some pronouns) and others dispensed with it long ago. Pidgins use a
particle e.g. Pisin: hat blong mi = my hat. Several substandard English
speakers make no spoken distinction between the objective case pronoun and
possessive pronoun in some cases (me hat) and sE in some cases (her hat). If
there ar eny examplz v importing a foreign wurd to improv regularity I can't
think v one, and I'm inclined to think it unlikely to catch on for several
generations.
[Robert] Use of the Chinese "empti" word "de" would eliminate the
apostrophe: "The man I saw yesterday's daughter" = "The man I saw
yesterday de daughter".
Click here to return to the
Category 6a. Definition of the Problem of Adverbs.
Adverbs are sometimes called the dustbin of the parts of speech. Many
times we think of creating an adverb by adding "ly" to an adjective,
such as "likely", "darkly" and so forth. However, in Traditional
English grammar the words "tomorrow, very, no, however, when, not, just,
the" have all been classified as adverbs.
"The" in "The more the merrier."
The words in the latter example have
not become an adverb by adding ly to an adjective.
Moreover, there is an additional problem of inconsistency.
Adjectives ending in "y"
have the "y" changed to "i" before the adding of "ly" to make them
an adverb (happy - happily).
While it may not be important for a language learner to know the names
of the various parts of grammar, still the more rules
that there are for them to learn or patterns for them to assimulate,
the harder it will be to learn the language,
and this difficulty reduces their confidence and retards their progress.
Therefore it is our desire to make the rules as few
and as consistent as possible.
Category 6b. Alternate Proposals for Adverbs
One suggestion has been that the "de" proposed earlier for the possessive
would work equally well in creating what are now "ly" adverbs.
e.g. "rapidly rising tide" ~
It appears to be largely a function of word order.
This whole subject is something that I do not have a grasp of,
as yet.
Click here to return to the
Category 7a. Definition of the problem of Superlatives.
This being a relative world, much that we try to communicate
has to do with the matter of degree.
(no, not, non, none,
one, couple, few, some, many, much, more, most, full, all).
The greater difficulty still, comes when we try to apply many of these,
which are often abstract terms in themselves, to concepts that are
abstract (such as truth, love, and beauty).
In order to modify words
in terms of degree we often use prefixes and suffixes. However, the
problem is that there is no consistent form for doing this.
This subject may really need to be more generalized under the
heading of morphology which is said to be the study of how
words are structured.
Category 7b. The use of er to indicate degree
and est to to indicate maximum
We can see, by looking at the prefixes and suffixes,
how they have developed from other words.
No, not, non, none, are all related.
None, and non, appear as contractions of "not one" or "no one".
Words that are used as prefixes often start out in a hyphenated form.
(Non-sense thus becomes nonsense and non-liquid can become nonliquid).
Since, in a phonetic representation of speech, the hyphen is not
pronounced, it is not necessary.
In similar manner the words more and most may have become postfixes.
While this presents some difficulty with some words
How far one may want or be willing to go with establishing a fixed
rule may get into philosophical issues. Some terms may be considered
superlatives within themselves. Therefore some persons would not accept
the expressions gooder, goodest, or badder, baddest, or
virginer, virginest. While philosophically one may have
difficulty with such terms there is no gramatical reason
why they should not be acceptable.
Category 7c. The use of more to indicate degree
and most to indicate maximum
Whatever one's philosophical concerns about the application of
superlatives to certain abstract concepts it may be that the
simplest solution in a pidgin is to simply eliminate the use
of prefixes and suffixes and to use the full word itself. This
approach also eliminates a conflict with another use of "er".
We add the "er" sound to words to indicate someone or something
that performs an action. (Baker, Waterer, Carrier).
Within an ITL pidgin, we could perhaps take further this principle
of eliminating suffixes.
In Traditional English the postfix "ness" is add to words to denote
the presence of a "quality" (Highness, Goodness, Darkness). In
idealist philosophy this can apply not only to abstract qualities
but to concrete objects itself. Socrates would have argued for "chairness",
that quality which distinquishes a chair from a stool, seat, sofa, table,
or other object.
There may be still others. Full for example. Beautiful is that which is
full of beauty and awful was something that originally meant that it was
full of awe or caused awe. There are still others,
(-ous, -ose, -oid, ish, -y, (or ie), -ize, -like, -shaped, -ly, -fashion).
Just how far we might want to go with this
principle in an ITL pidgin,
in either formalizing their use, or eliminating them,
is a subject that should be examined. Many,
many words have an etymological history as being the combination of
concepts. Some-thing, any-thing, no-thing, and many others could
possibly be reduced back to their original meanings.
That we might try to simplify an ITL by selecting a single syntactical
method from among many in an extended language does not mean that
an extended IAL could not have for variety a greater number of
acceptable syntactical structures. These might be used for
variety as well as might be numbers of synonyms.
Click here to return to the
Category 8a. The problems with Adjectives
One of the curiosities of English is that many words can be used
in different grammarical forms. The same word may be used as a
noun, verb or adjective. For example. One may sit in a chair when
they chair a meeting. And we may refer to a particular type of seat
as a chair seat.
This free form of construction is very different from those languages
which require that nouns, verbs and adjectives all agree, in tense and
other syntactical endings including perhaps even gender. One wonders
then, if proposals specify adjectival endings is not
a step back from this advantage of English.
On the other hand there
has been the suggestion that all adjectives
should end in some one form (-i -ic -ig -al -ive -ing) instead of the
listed variety since all sometimes have the sense of
'involved in the action/state of'
whatever the word stem refers to.
Category 8b. Alternate Proposals for Adjectives
There are also opposite proposals for adjective endings
to indicate different meanings:
shuti = enclosing (shutting);
shuto = private, secret(ive), seclusive, exclusive, covert (closed);
waido = general, widespred, non-specific (wide);
narro(id) = special, restricted;
airni = ferri-, ferric -- trivalent iron compound prefix or adjective;
raoni = circular, spherical, globoid;
raono = roundish, surrounding, (a)round, encompassing, re, spheroidal,
These few examples are but part of what could be a very long list.
It is said that the Eskimos have over a hundred words for snow, but
we are talking about something more generalized than specific words. We
are talking about specific endings that can be added to any adjective
(that is to any word being used as an adjective) in order to add to
that adjective some generalized concept.
While an approach of this sort could be developed, possibly better
over time, in a very advanced language, even if, or especially if, that
language were an IAL, it seems questionable that a very elaborate
approach of this sort should be used in an ITL.
There may also be a need to distinguish adjectives referring to completed,
and potential/projected action, as distinct from -i, -o which in general
relate to continuing/ocassional action. These could be standardized
as follows:
'tense-/aspect-/mood-related' adjectival endings for the completed as
'tense-/aspect-/mood-related' adjectival endings for continuing
[Robert] "<-i> commonly indicates adjectives in Slavic languages" (Ruby
Olive Foulk might have been on to something [me])
Ameri(can), Australi(an), Engli(sh), (H)indi(an), Irani(an), Iraqi,
Iri(sh), Israeli, Maori, Russi(an), Turki(sh) {turki-fowl}. Since articles
are a kind of adjective: the ~ thi, a/an ~ i.
[] Wun coment on my use v -i az th main adj. ending (usuali = -y,
-ic(al), -ive) in IngLingo wz: It is too short - how about -ic or -ish?
Az I propose an alternativ -o (usuali = -ous, -ose, -oid, -some, -like,
-shaped) with a slightly diferent emfasis (aftr wurd stem ending -e/i; or
tu emfasize adverbial rathr than adj. function; or especially t diferentiate
somthing a bit mor abstract/ metaphorical, e.g. fiti = fitting/ suitable;
fito = fit, sound, helthy; feri = ferric, fero = ferrous; ringi = ringing,
surrounding; ringo = ring-like, ring-shaped, cycloid.) I'm inclined to opt
fr options, e.g. -i(c), -o(id).
Where a word is used exclusively as an adjective, e.g. "hot, bold", it
shouldn't take an affix because there is no need to differentiate its use
in different word classes (cf. "hand, to hand, handy, handily")
It's right that adjectives and adverbs should take the suffixes because,
where a word falls into different classes or parts of speech, it is the
adjectives and adverbs that qualify the nouns and verbs (respectively) and
not vice-versa.
It's always possible to distinguish the noun from the verb, whether by
context, word order, noun or pronoun number or case, or the use of verb
auxiliary/inflection.
I think Esperanto went astray here. The word class or part of speech
should serve the word, not vice-versa.
However, I'm not yet convinced that it's all nonsense. It doesn't seem
to be necessary to differentiate the noun from the verb by means of a
suffix. Nouns derived through adjectives don't seem to be used as verbs;
verbs derived through adverbs don't appear to be used as nouns. I mean the
same word + suffix. Could someone put me right on this?
Esperanto puts a suffix on all the main word classes, but what is the
problem with using bare word-roots, where one can get away with them?
Perhaps descriptive suffixes might develop on or in word-roots in the
absence of grammatical suffixes - as in many words ending in /l/.
All this might be of marginal relevance to an ITM strategy, but is
central to an IAL strategy. Response(s) welcomed - however negative!
2. We use the same word as noun, verb, adjective, adverb and preposition
without ambiguity if context is clear, e.g. round ballz ar uzed in a round
ov golf round a course and a winner may treat hiz opponent or a round dozen
of the playerz t a round ov drinks when they finish going round.
3. Meny languajz uze adjectivz az adverbz, including English at timez: the
VERY day I saw you I took very ill (from French adjectiv vrai=true, not
vraiment=truly). He runs FAST. Less standard expresion: I felt proper/ real
proud.
Click here to return to the
Category 9a. The Problems with Personal Pronouns
Traditional English has a number of irregularities in regards to
personal pronouns and their relationship to verbs. One of the marks
of English education is how well one has mastered the exceptions
to what would otherwise appear logical. Children, foreigners, and
the poorly educated often make the mistake of using logic in
their constructs of syntax. This sometimes is seen as humourous
in the speech of children, but in the case of foreigners it often
subjects them to ridicule and an inclination to classify them
with the ignorant.
An example would have been the southern black mammy of some decades past
who would have said, "He is going to town, she is going to town, and
I is going to town". Syntactically, such a construct follows completely
logically, and it is not only symptomatic of the problem but a model for
one of the recommended types of solutions.
Another obvious shortcoming of English pronouns is that they do not
include a neutral or inclusive word for he/she. One must must use a
clumbersome circumlocution such as "he or she" or "the person".
In the following subcategories we will present some of the suggested
remedies one by one.
Category 9b. Use of "sheet" for
indiscriminate sexual definition
The word "sheet" is a combination of she, he, it and
in Angel it would be written sET. The words he, she, and it
would continue to be used. sET would be used in only in
those cases which are indiscriminate. If the Angel ITL were to
contain no plurals then sET would also replace the present
indiscriminate they. (Only by context in present Traditional English
can one know whether "they" is men, women, a combination thereof,
or some combination of more than one it). On the other hand, if
Angel were to adopt the ZEE form for plurals then they would be
replaced by sETZE.
A second problem with Traditional English is that it inconsistently
uses a repeated pronoun. The pidgin, "I go town" is expanded to "I am
going to town", by adding "am", modifing "go" to a gerund and
supplementing it with "to". 'Am' is an irregular form of 'be' which
has its own gerund form of "being" and in the past tense becomes been.
The elimination of the "be" verb could reduce more indefinite
syntactical expressions in the following manner:
Further verb reduction would come by the removal of the further
supplementary "to":
As in Traditional English, additional verbage can be added
to sentences for clarification or emphasis. Where needed or desired
one could add to, from, in, about, and other terms.
[Robert] Regularisation of personal pronouns: "myself ~ me self ~ self"
etc. has been lost. Could it be restored?
[Antony] Shouldn't the current contents of 9c be in 10?
There follow examples of some alternate suggested remedies.
If they have not been fairly
presented here, or the presentation can be improved, please inform me.
Active (Robert)
1st person
We ( I )
wem (we)
Possessive (Robert)
1st person
We de (my)
wem de (our)
Doug
I/me we/us
[Robert] cf. Chinese (Putonghua)
wo de (my) women de (our)
Traditional English:
Or possibly even (Me, MeZee, You, YouZee, Sheet, SheetZee)
Traditional English:
Traditional English:
If the ZEE convention for plurals were to be adopted then
the plural "you all" would be "youzee".
Click here to return to the
Category 10a. Past Tense Problems
In Traditional English, past tense is dealt with in several ways.
Oftentimes by adding "ed" which, however, is often pronounced as a 't'
such as in "I walked". Sometimes, the past tense is actually spelled
with a "t" such as "I sleep", "I slept". Some verbs have
an entirely different form for the past tenses such as
"I eat", "I ate", "I have eaten", and
one could also use the extended phrase, "I did eat".
This variety and inconsistency of rules is of course confusing
to the learner.
Category 10b. A separate word to denote the past tense:
Ogden suggested "he did cut". This is an emphatic tense.
"he cut" ~
There may be some historical or etymological
justification for this approach. One can see how the 'did' could
be looked upon as having been simply transferred to the end of the phrase.
"I sleep did", "I walk did", and then shortened to "I walkdid or walkid
or walked".
Thus, there could also be a logical pidginic approach to the past tense by
simply adding the full past tense expression to the phrase.
Therefore, "I walk did", "I sleep did", and so forth.
Indeed this appears to be the approach of some other languages.
Some languages, such as Chinese, place the tense at the end of the action.
One of the great advantages of the Chinese "empty"
words "ma, la, de": would be a reduced dictionary, because
this would eliminate the additional forms of verbs.
It is also pointed out that this eliminates the homonyms
"ate/eight" and "one/won".
"He ate lunch"=
Again it should be noted that oftentimes the solutions suggested
for regularizing syntax actually makes it longer. There may
be at work here some inverse variant of Zipf's Law,
as applied to syntax that says since custom and hence rules,
worked in the past to simplify expressions, that to regularize them
we must often lenghten them. There is probably no real advantage in changing the word order,
so we would then be back to Ogden's suggestion.
In Traditional English, for some verbs,
we can only separate the present tense from the past tense
by the context.
While one can say, "I did cut the wood", there is no "I cutted the wood".
Category 10c. Elimination of the verb alteration
for third person singular.
Some of the verb variation could be reduced by just eliminating
the alteration for the third person singular.
In Traditional English, "I eat" becomes "He, She, It eats"
Category 10d. Elimination of the past tense
One recommend solution is the elimination of the past tense
altogether but this seems to too drastically reduce meaning.
Category 10e. Other advantages to verb regularization
By removing or regularizing verb variants
Traditional English changes the sound
(and sometimes the spelling) of nouns
These could be regularized by simply using the noun pronunciation,
but in actuality there are probably many verbs with
etymological roots in nouns for which we no longer see a clear association.
The use of phonetic spellings further distorts
these apparant relationships,
so how far one might wish to go down a path of regularization in
this regard, is problematical, as this latter word itself demonstrates.
Verb variants also affect the spelling of
The substitution of tenses by variable auxiliary\auxiliaries + an
invariant verb-stem might render their traditional names more or less
irrelevant. As the number of actual and potential auxiliaries is
large, so is the number of tenses.
Chapter 13 of LANGO - also refers to the creole usage of serial verbs,
e.g. "she go try find it, he start run escape", rather than the infinitive
- and to the negation of verbs using "no", e.g. "He no work today.".
the participle\gerund "-ing" suffix is already
eliminated in sentences such as
"The man was at work (working) in the garden".
"As wel as saying "at", Irish uses "in". This, i.e. "in", is
invariable in Welsh. From English: in flower (flowering); in song
(singing); in flight (fleeing or flying); in doubt (doubting). The 'nakk
wil bi tu kriate more noun-verbs, e.g. "He was in entry thru the door." ~
"He was entering thru the door."
As a result of parallel usage the phrase and the participle are
very often not quite equivalent, but it does show that the
auxiliary\auxiliaries + invariant verb-stem model might become universal.
the kind of expression used by
non-native speakers, e.g. "If it will be that...."
"He will be talking on China."
"He was talking on China."
[Robert] Doug misses the point of "I am walk". "Am" is intended as an
indicator of the continuous tense, i.e. "am" is equivalent to "ag, at, in".
"I am/ag/at/in walk" = "I am walking". It is just a matter of which turns
out to be the most euphonic.
Also, Somerset dialect is not "he be" but "er be", where "er" = "he" or
"she".
[Antony] "Er" sounds like a better alternative to "sheet". (see 9b)
[Robert] I prefer "I sing" to "I be sing" for the simple present and "I
be sing" to "I will sing" for the future (i.e. as in B.E.V.), Doug's
preferences being "I be sing" and "I will sing".
Click here to return to the
The use of courtesies, while not essential, change the tone
and to some extent the meaning of communication. Some languages
involve courtesies to a much greater extent than does English.
All verb expressions in some languages are determined by courtesies.
The way the verb is used can change between male and female,
young and old, blood relationship, age, and other denominations
of cultural rank.
The main courtesies in English are 'please' and 'thank you' with some
usage in respect to titles. While it may not be absolutely necessary
to teach courtesies in the first level of an ITL they should have
some priority.
Click here to return to the
Category 14a. According to the word-order principle
In Traditional English, meaning is affected by word order.
Traditional English generally uses a SVO (subject - verb - object) word order.
It is probably best in an ITL to restrict the syntax to SVO.
Category 14b. Elimination of the Accusative
Madhukar notes: "English is free of liaison and many odd features. That does not
mean English is quite logical. (cat kills rat) changes meaning if word
sequence is altered to (rat kills cat). But Marathi inflection-
postposition is helpful there. laa = accusative. Using English words,
cat kills ratlaa.
Now interchange words. ratlaa kills cat, kills cat
ratlaa, etc. The meaning is not altered.
Everingham responds: "I prefer word order to accusative suffixes which correspond in English
only to accusative forms me, us, her, him which are irregular and abandoned
in most natural interlanguages, e.g. Melanesian pidgin has mi = I/me,
mipela/yumi = we/us, em = he/him/she/her/it, ol = they/them."
[Robert] English muved on from such inflections 1000 years ago - word
order preferred.
Category 14c. Simplification of end phrase interrogative
Antony says, " We know that the interrogative end-phrases,
used in English to turn statements into questions,
are unnecessarily complex - not to mention the difficulty for learners.
Other languages have proven that a single invariant phrase,
or word, is sufficient.
For example, where English has "won't I? can't you? don't we? aren't they? etc. etc.",
Robert proposes the use of the Chinese interrogative marker "ma", e.g.
Click here to return to the
While meaning is affected by word order it is also affected by
word usage itself. In their important book on the subject,
To this we could add many other meanings of mean
The purpose of language is to communicate meaning.
The mark of intelligence,
Still, in the development of an ITL our thrust needs to be
in the other direction. That of limiting the possibilities of
meaning. This same standard has other applications also. In
contract language and in scientific technological explanation.
At the other end of the scale, in pure scientific research,
there may need to be freer coinage of meaning
in order to develop new ideas.
But, as these are brought back down to technological application,
then the words need to be more closely defined.
One interesting concept would be that of the development of Speed Words.
The idea is to reduce the basic ITL word to the least number of phonemes.
The purpose for doing this is many fold:
The above does not begin to exhaust the list of Speed Word benefits,
but it gives one the general idea. Such an idea might be more
suited to a new IAL, and an associated ITL, than to an ITL
that has as its target Traditional English because the
speakers of Traditional English would not know the ITL
vocabulary when they heard it, although the change could
be minimized by judicious use of existing Traditional English
root words. Although presently impractical this is still an interesting
idea and we might say that it takes Zipf's law to the extreme.
Some proposals for speed words have advocated increasing the number
of phonemes to 100, thus allowing for more 1 and 2 phoneme words.
However, the trend in Traditional English (at least in North America)
has been towards phoneme reduction, which is itself further language
simplification. With the 39 phonemes of Angel it is possible to present
684 one and two phoneme words. This should be sufficient for an ITL.
A close relation to speed words is speed writing. Historically,
lower case letters were themselves developed for cursive writing.
Today, with the disappearance of penmanship, the predominance of
keyboards, and the trend towards word processor speech recognition,
and the presence of minaturized voice recorders, how critical this
may continue to be, is as yet undetermined.
Further discussion on Elementalization
(Madhukar) For instance, changing chairman
to chairperson; changing term "Christian" name to "first" name
or "personal" name, when thousands
of non-Christians accepted English language.
Theze ar trendz also in Australia but old usajz hav not disapeard here and
there may b lots ov uthr cultural quirks slower t chanje, e.g. humankind for
mankind where it is not contrsted with womankind.
[Robert] British English uses "first name" and
"family name" ratder tdan "Christian name" and "surname", also "chair",
"chairperson", "madam chairman".
[Antony] Madhukar raised the important question of ambiguous words in his
email of 26 April. The mass of exact synonyms is probably an even greater
problem. Which word to choose? It's not always obvious.
[Doug May 3] Hogben tackled this problem -- I did a précis:
Click here to return to the
1 one
The logic behind this is:
It is a more logical organization of numbers
The teens are probably a transposition of this system anyway
There has been one suggetstion that
Also it has been suggested that Spanish numbers could be adopted in their entirity.
[DE: IngLing compromises for now with 'wun tu thri for faiv siks sevn e't
nain ten/te hunrt ki'lo mion/meg mu maikro'.
'te' = -teen/-ty thus ten = wun te, 11 = (wun) te wun, 13= (wun) te thri,
20= tu te. I'm concerned here to preserve terms compatible with the International
Communications Alphabet (alfa braavo charli delta eko fokstrot golf ho'tel
indya ju'lyet ki'lo li'ma maik nvembr oskr ppa qbek ro'myo syera tango
'un'form viktr wiski xre yangki zu'lu) and numbers used in traffic control
radio using the international language prescribed, English. I have tried
with no success so far to track down on the internet a publication outlining
Seaspeak, which I understand was an attempt to compile a simplified core
vocabulary/ phrase book etc. for such purposes. Can eny ov 'u direct me to
such a source please? -- DE]
[Robert] Tde niw Welsh numbering system:
earlier, 11 = un-ar-ddeg, 12 = deuddeg, 13 = tri-ar-ddeg, 14 =
pedwar-ar-ddeg, 15 = pymtheg, 16 = chwech-ar-ddeg, 17 = saith-ar-ddeg, 18 =
dau-naw, 19 = naw-ar-ddeg, 20 = ugain, 21 = un-ar-hugain etc.
If Welsh cn do it, Inglish can. One ov my teacherz deliberately pronounst th
'ty' suffix for 20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90 as in 'tying' t avoid cnfuzion with
'-teen'. Foloing th Welsh exampl we'd rplase th -teen with 'wunten-' prefix,
but both -teen and -ty are derivativz ov 'ten' and on Zipf's principle we
ouht t uze th shortest unambiguus form which may be 'ti' [(wun)tiwun = 11,
tuwtiwun = 21, forti= 40, &s.]
Research in the U.S. shows tdat tde proposed new arangement (based on
oriental systems) has advantageous inplikations for impruving standards of
numeraci. (Sugestion about Spanish numbers - at bottom of p.16 - was not
intended as a serious proposal.)
Click here to return to the
For years, I have referred to this subject as Rationalization,
but Antony has now chosen what is undoubtedly the better term of
Regularization.
(Roz now informs me that I picked up the term "rationalization"
from Ogden, but that she agrees that Antony's term is better.)
Everingham says that it is his hope, "that among us some consensus may arise, as in the drafting of
international treaties/conventions in multinational forums. They often start
with a small drafting group, then add inside square brackets the amendments
moved by individual nations but not supported by all. The next stage tries
to change the form of words till brackets are removed or included in
optional protocols that some signatories will endorse. Language change is by
nature piecemeal and erratic, often with several new coinages vying for
general acceptance for a new concept or categorization till one or a few
dominate.
However, my format at the moment,
I feel that it would be too akward, clumbersome and bulky,
If some comment, or concept,
I will PARTICULARY appreciate any help in refinement of the categories.
So, what is it that we are trying to do?
We are trying to simplify English as to its syntax.
Robert requests a call for papers on the optimum phonemic
inventory
Bruce replies:
However, as regards the matter of symbols, we have also provided
the tools to any researchers to represent that word list in any
ASCII compatible system that they wish, along with a Translation
program that will translate present English Text
files into their symbolism.
This particular Compendium is mainly limited to
the discussion of Regularization.
Another time and another place will need to be
more fully devoted to Elementalization.
While Phonetics/Phonemics are a subject near and dear to the hearts of many who
are participating in this forum, however,
there are other times and places for
that subject and it should not be a central part of this discussion.
[DE: I wonder have you seen Rondthaler & Lias "Dictionary of simplified
American spelling - An ALTERNATIVE spelling for English"
What is our reason for considering Regularization?
a. To make English easier to learn by adults
b. To create a more logical and comprehensible Pidgin
How would it be used?
In two ways:
This is controversial in that some pedagogs
would say that one should teach the "correct" formulations
from the beginning.
They would say that, while the learner may simplify syntax
in logical ways
they should only hear the correct formulations.
And that learning the "wrong" way is simply learning
formulations that must then be unlearned.
Still, there must be some intellectual effort
in trying to comprehend in what ways
the "correct" formulations differ from
logical formulations.
Beyond the ITP one would then teach the exceptions
to the logical formulations and the learner could then
learn all the present "correct" formulations.
If the ITP is sufficiently logical and consistent,
and designed for the pedagogical purpose of being
a path towards the exceptions of Traditional English
then it could be easier to understand and learn the exceptions.
b. As a proposal for an IAL (International Auxiliary Language).
In this regards ALL ideas for Regularization
should be listed and considered
but we may implement MOSTLY those ideas
which are compatible with category A immediately above.
The question remaining, how useful a Pidgin would be
as an ITL.
Still we may decide to implement some radical items.
If the IAL was accepted then its forms might come to be
accepted as "correct" forms, even in Traditional English
and could be further supplemented
by other new "correct" formulations by whatever body
authorizes the IAL.
The relationship that might exist between any English based IAL
(if some English based IAL were accepted as such)
and the present full Traditonal English language is another subject.
There would then be, as there are now, more or less formal
styles and levels of writing. So nothing that radical is being
proposed in that regard.
FURTHER DISCUSSION on the usefulness of a Pidgin.
(Antony) "this woman child" is ambiguous. The Internet is
about as far as one can get from the normal pidgin\creole environment whose
visual\tactile\sensual immediacy practically dispenses with the need for
grammar. There is an inverse relationship between grammar and context
(which is why, as it seems to me, there needs to be a continuum between
simple and complex grammar).
(Bruce) This matter of continuity between the simple and the complex
will certainly be a major issue when we go to make any selections
for the ITL.
(Bruce) It may also be a matter of what I understand Noam Chomsky to mean by
surface meanings versus deep meanings
of language
(Antony) we should concentrate
on those aspects of grammar that directly affect the operation of a
rationalised orthography - or, in other words, where the principles of
grammatical and orthographical regularity are in conflict. Prominent among
these are verb inflections (particularly "-ed", "-t" and
"-s" suffixes on the verb-stem).
(Bruce) this is a point well taken,
and one of the prime motivators behind the present activity.
(Antony) Actually I am more doubtful than ever about the universal applicability
of pidgin/creole usages. They certainly work in real-time situations where
the context itself provides the meaning, but reduced grammar tends to be
ambiguous at second-hand - hence the circumlocution characteristic of
reports in pidgins/creoles.
A particular source of potential ambiguity in pidgins/creoles is the
lack of differentiation between word classes (parts of speech). Esperanto
goes to the other extreme - universally defining a word as noun, pronoun or
correlative, verb, adjective, adverb or
preposition/conjunction/interjection according to the affix.
English takes a half-way house: many words are invariant whether used as
noun, adjective or verb (and sometimes adverb and/or preposition too), but
most are exclusive to a particular word class. Examples of the former are
"head, arm, dog, right". So far as I know there are hundreds if not
thousands of invariants covering three or four word classes, and a few e.g.
"under" in at least five (someone might like to correct me here). Examples
of the latter (the "exclusives") are "gratitude, bold, survive".
(Doug Everingham). A pidgin-like simplification of sE which would provide
? a 'core' vocabulary of under 2000 word, based on English but following
Zipf's principles of least effort, i.e. pursuing the natural trend of
language development by broadening the senses of simple words, simplifying
forms of frequently recurring concepts, and finding simple compound terms
to increase precision when necessary to offset a broadening range of
meanings of a simple term.
This is the sort of thing I've been pursuing under the current term
'IngLingo' with invaluable suggestions from some other reform planners.
[Robert] Learning vocabulary is a major task for tdose trying tu akkuire a
niw language. We shuod siik tu develop an internacional lexicon of most
wideli akceptable words, e.g. soldier ~ soldat, editor ~ redactor, sailor ~
matrose; also place names, Macedonia ~ Makedonia, Russia ~ Rossia, (as per
UNGEGN - "UN Group of Experts on Geographical Names").
Words like "soldat, redactor, matrose" may not have much resonance for
spiakers of non-European languages, but tde numbers of people spiaking
European languages is vast, and many of tdese words have biin adopted intu
non-European languages where kountries were eitder kolonies, e.g.
Indonesia, or influenced, e.g. Japan. Also, European languages have taken
root in the Third World, e.g. Latin America.
[Doug May 3] I like the UNGEGN sjestion -- newz t me -- bt not sure tht e.g.
'matrose' iz mor widely understood thn 'sailor' or some mor basic term like
perhaps 'ship worker'.
[Robert] I suggest "interlingua" rather than "pidgin". Learner's language
~ interlingua ~ Traditional English. (There will obviously bi things tu bi
learned from pidgins which kan bi aplied tu tde interlingua.
[Doug May3] Interlanguaj iz a jeneric term fr pidginz, creolez and other
brijing tungz perhaps including patois, bt 'Interlingua' iz alredy in use fr
tuw cnstructd interlanguajz, earlier (originaly called 'Latino sine
flexione') by Peano of Turin, 1903, later (and perhaps still currently) the
system adopted in 1951 after 26 years of research to compile the most
copmmon European word roots by New York's Internatiopnal Auxiliary Language
Association, compiled by Dr Alexander Gode and co-workers. [See Dr M.
Monnedrot-Dumaine's 'Précis d'Interlinguistique Générale et
Spéciale,published 1960 by Librairie Maloine, Société anonyme dÉditions
Médicales et Scientifiques, 27, Rue de l'École-de-Médecine, Paris] IALA
published thru Storm Publishers, New York an Interlingua-English dictionary,
1951, (480 pp.) and Grammar (1951, 2nd edition copyrighted by Science
Srvice, Inc., 1955, 128 pp.). Several international journals on spectroscopy
were published in Interlingua, and a handful of medical journals included
précis of each article in Interlingua. Alfandari's 'Neo" (1965) is one of
the best improved systems based on Esperanto, Ido Interlingua-IALA and de
Wahl's Interlingue.
Click here to return to the
Category 1a.
Definition of the Problem with Plurals.
Category 1b.
Suggestions for Regularization of Plurals.
Category 1b1. Consistently use an "s".
Category 1c. Suggestion for the Elimination of Plurals.Category 2a. Definition of the Problem with Articles.
Category 4a. Definition of the Problem of Possessives.
Category 6a. Definition of the Problem of Adverbs.
Category 7a. Definition of the problem of Superlatives.
Category 8a. The problem with Adjectives.
Category 9a. The Problems with Personal Pronouns
Category 10a. Past Tense Problems
Category 14a. According to the word-order principle
[Antony] Exactly so: "a bundle of wool" vs "a bundle of wools"; but if we
abolish the plural affix we obviously cannot say "a bundle of varieties of
wool" - and "a bundle of variety of wool" is not quite the same thing, is
it?
Now let us contrast some concrete nouns which take either the singular
or the plural form in the plural number: "lion\lions, tiger\tigers,
elephant\elephants, partridge\partridges, horse\horses, grass\grasses,
ivy\ivies, mistletoe\mistletoes". In each case the first is game,
cannon-fodder, food or a parasite, and the second is a collection of
individuals, whether in appearance, temperament or species.
[Doug, May 3] The question arises then: What is a regular plural? The suffix
'-(')z' has points favoring it abuv '-(e)s':
[Robert] Oriental (and otder) languages kan individualise, e.g. "horse, a
horse; man, a man". "A group of horse, a group of dog" etc. is not so
strange.
€ th (unvoist, tho some speakerz turn it to 'dh' before sufixt -s, analogous
to change ov 'f' to 'v' sound in pluralz ov calf, hoof, leaf &s.),
€ k, € p.Category 1b1. Consistently use an "s".
However in a phonemic system it is difficult, if not impossible, to
prononounce fish as fishs.
We seem to wish to say fishez.Category 1b2. Consistently use a "z".
However, this too seems strained, in a phonemic system,
when we try to pronounce cats as catz.Category 1b3. Create a new word for each plural
(possibly) from some other language.
Category 1b4. Consistently use an additional particle "ZEE".
[] 1. -s only suffixt to final voiceless consonant sound of
€ f (tho singular -fs is often replaced by 'irregular' plural -vz az in
calves, hooves),
Category 1c. Suggestion for the Elimination of Plurals.
€ k, € p, € t or
€ th (tho -ths is sometimes replaced by 'irregular' -dhz sound e.g. in
oaths, sheaths, and some 'substandard' speakers revert to -'z e.g. for
paths)a. There is a sheep in the road.
b. There are sheep in the road.
c. Sheep in road.
d. Look out for the sheep.
e. Look out for sheep.
f. Look out for car.
"Look out for both car."
"Look out for two car."
"Look out for many car."
"Look out for some car."
"Look out for all car."
Table of Contents
Category 2. Articles.
"Bring me any dog" and "Bring me a dog"
and these may even be understood as being the same as "Bring me one dog",
but "Bring me the dog" means a specific dog.
"This dog" can also be distinguished from "That dog",
as well as can "These" from "Those", (a subject of plurals)
so the article provides a very useful purpose.
"Bring me dog", would possibly be more meaningful in context of the moment,
than in some literary sense. Indeed, since Pidgins are
generally spoken, rather than written, this may be a consideration
for the formation of an ITL.
€ tht th foloing noun z identifiable az distinct from such entitiz in jenral
and iz
€ a uniqe individual/ item, dstinct from th same expression with indef. art.
-- a mor clearly indicativ adjectiv function, beyond a mere partitioning or
'particle article'..
[Robert] Tdi korekt uce of articles is diffikult for non-native speakers
of Engli.
Table of Contents
Category 4. Possessives
Table of Contents
Category 6. Adverbs
"rapidly rising tide" ~ ("rapid rise de tide")
although it might be almost as clear and certainly more simple just to say
"It is rapid rise tide".
"It appears to be large function of word order",
would seem to mean something different in that this sentence would
seem to imply that one of the main functions of word order
is create the effect of adverbs.
Table of Contents
Category 7. Superlatives.More as "er" and most as "est".
More great is therefore greater.
Most great is therefore greatest.
More small is therefore smaller.
Most small is therefore smallest.
More little becoming littler is grating to some ears,
but it is correct and applies to size,
whereas more less becomes lesser
and applies to quantity.
Table of Contents
Category 8. Adjectiveso'pi (=open), o'po (=public, frankovert, obvious, 'transparent';
chairopi seat - an open chair like seat. A park chair or bench could be a
chairopi seat.
chairshuti seat - an enclosed chair like seat. A chair in a steam cabinet
could be a chairshuti seat.
chairshuto seat - a hidden chair like seat. A chair in a confessional
could be a chairshuto seat.
chairwaido seat - an indefinite chair like situation. A long divided bench
like sometimes found in an airport could be a chairwaido seat.
chairnarro seat - a special seat. The chair in a court witness box could
be a chairnarro seat. Also that occupied by the judge.
chairairni seat - an iron seat. The unpadded seat in a fighter plane, or
some oranmental iron lawn furniture could be a chairairni seat.
chairaoni seat - a spherical seat - A hanging basket type of seat could
be a chairaoni seat.
chairaono seat - a round seat. The cirular seat sometimes found in a
hotel lobby or surrounding a fountain might be a charaono seat.
-t (burnt, lurnt, spelt, ment etc.)
-bl (i'tbl = edible, du'bl = doable/agendum, hapbl = possible, solbl =
soluble, etc.)[Antony] I'm presently inclined to think that Doug is on the right lines
here. There are a limited number of suffixes that can be used universally
without wrecking the concept of orthographic regularity, and "-i" and "-o"
are among them (cf. the "-ed" and "-s" inflections in English - as in
"talked, banned, landed, cats, dogs, foxes").
I understand that some languages don't bother with nouns and adjectives:
they use pronouns, verbs and adverbs, e.g. "it houses whitely" ("a white
house"). How about that? [Doug May 3] I agree
Half-baked, definitely, and the claim that "hot" and bold" are used
exclusively as adjectives is absurd: "hotly, boldly, boldness" etc..
Not greatly difrent from English and Chineze bcauz
1. all thingz ar also events or processez. An atom is a dance of electrons
and liable to change if electromagnetic waves or subatomic particles collide
or combine chemicaly with it.
Table of Contents
Category 9. Personal pronouns
[Robert] "She - he - it" is ingenious but I don't like it. Too long to
start with (Zipf's Law).
Category 9c. Elimination of the repeated pronoun
I will be walking. (I will walk)
I may be walking. (I may walk)
I have been walking. (I did walk)
I should be walking. (I should walk)
I could be walking. (I could walk)
I will be walking to town. (I will walk town)
I may be walking to town. (I may walk town)
I have been walking to town. (I did walk town)
I should be walking to town. (I should walk town)
I could be to walking. (I could walk town)
2nd person
3rd person
Singular
ye (you)
the (he\she\it)
Plural
yem (you)
them (they)
* "the" rather than "they" *
2nd person
3rd person
Singular
ye de (your)
the de (his\her\its)
Plural
yem de (your)
them de (their)
1st person
2nd person
3rd person
Singular
you
he/him she/her they/them
(s)he/h-er/-im/it/the-y/-m
Plural
mi
'u, yu'mi, 'u lot
herm, em
em, it
ni de (your) nimen de (your)
ta de (his/her/its) tamen de (their)
(I, We, You (Sing./Plural) want to walk.
(He, She, It) wants to walk
Proposed Angel:
(Me, We, You, You all, He, She, Sheet) want walk.
The thing that I notice here is that the proposed modications
are two syllables whereas the traditional was one.
SheetZee would replace 'they', 'them' and 'those'
I walk or I (will, do, should, can, may) walk
Proposed Angel:
Me (will, do, did, should, can, may) walk (time - place)
(time - now, everyday, always, seldom, sometime,
before, at night, in morning, yesterday, etc)
(place- to work, in park, on street)
(My, Our, Your (Sing./Plural) apple.
(His, Hers, Its, Their) apple
Proposed Angel:
(Me, We, You, You all, Sheet, SheetZee) apple.
Table of Contents
Category 10. Verb Variations
"He has cut" is closer to the aorist.
However, the names don't really matter:
"he has cut" or
"he did cut", if the latter is closer to the meaning.
He dived\dove in the water. ~ He dive in the water, la.
It snuck\sneaked by. ~ It sneak by, la. (a Chinese type)
"He eat did lunch"
"He won the race"=
He win did race
"What do you do in the factory?"
"I cut the wood."
"Who cut the wood?"
"I cut the wood."
but could be reduced to:
"I, He, She, It eat".
we will also regularize some adverbs, nouns and adjectives.
For example where eat, ate, eaten
presently has associated with it "edible"
this could become "eat, did eat, eatable".
sheath, bre(a)th, cloth
to verbs sheathe, breathe, clothe
grammatical variants ending in "-ly" and "-y" "talking" ~ "at talk" (cf. the Irish preposition "ag")
also the English "on" = "about" ~ the Dutch "om", which is used in the
same way as the German "um" and the Welsh "am"
"He will be ag talk om China."
"He ag talk om China, la."
[Doug May 3]. I would omit the 'be' or 'wil' or 'did' (or 'am') when the
tense (and/or aspect/ continuity) iz clear from context: I (usually) sing
here yesterday/ today/ tomorrow/ often
Table of Contents
Category 11. Courtesies
Table of Contents
Category 14. Regularisation of Grammar
HOWEVER it can use any order:SVO - the boy saw the man
OVS - Jones I invited - not Smith
VSO - govern thou my song (Milton)
SOV - pensive poets painful vigils keep (Pope)
OSV - strange fits of passion have I known (Woodsworth)
(and also the Jedi Master Yoda)
French makes do with "n'est-ce pas?"
and Esperanto has the interrogative marker "Cu" at the beginning of the sentence "You're Robert, ma?"
Cf. Canadian "You Robert, éh?"
Nice one, eh?
Or, how about "eh", eh?
Table of Contents
Category 18. Reduction of word meanings
in the elemental list.
The Meaning of Meaning (1923)
C.K. Ogden and I.A. Richards
listed 16 different meanings of the word 'mean/meaning'
some of which were: John means to write. (intends)
A green light means go. (indicates)
Health means everything. (has importance)
His look was full of meaning. (special import)
What is the meaning of life. (point, purpose)
What does 'capitalist' mean to you. (convey)
What does 'cornea' mean. (refer to in the world)What is the mean temperature. (A measurement of average)
He is a mean boss. (unpleasant)
What does the boss mean? (want to communicate)
But there are various levels of meaning.
Perhaps because of what Noam Chomsky refers to as
"surface" and "deep" levels of grammatical structure.
particularly in reading poetry, imaginative literature, scripture and so forth,
is to be able to see deep meaning.
In fact, we can almost say that
this is the way that language marks progression in life.That it makes less for the learner to learn.
That it makes less for the learner to write.
That shorter words add to rapidity of thought.
That shorter words add to rapidity of speech.
That it is more economical for printed materials.
Table of Contents
Category 19. A regularized number system0 zero
2 duo
3 three
4 quatro
5 five
6 six
7 seven
8 octo
9 nine
10 ten
11 ten one
12 ten duo
13 ten three
14 ten quatro
15 ten five
16 ten six
17 ten seven
18 ten octo
19 ten nine
20 duo ten
21 duo ten one
22 duo ten duo
------
29 duo ten nine
30 three ten
------
40 quatro ten
-----
50 five ten
-----
100 one hundred
111 one hundred ten one
121 one hundred duo ten duo a. it eliminates the words with
competition for double meaning such as
to, for, and ate
ten and one instead of eleven
ten and two instead of twelve
fourteen is four and and ten
but still illogical
compared to the expression
in the twenties, thirties and so forth.
"seven" ~ "sem"
(because it is so often so
pronounced in the U.S. and Britain - and because of Slavic forms)." un, dau, tri, pedwar, pump, chwech, saith, wyth, naw, deg
undegun, undegdau, undegtri, undegpedwar, undegpump, undegchwech,
undegsaith, undegwyth, undegnau, dauddeg, dauddegun, dauddegdau etc.
Table of Contents
Category 20. Philosophical Discussion(Bruce replies) I would be happy for Doug or anyone else,
to take over the effort of maintaining this compendium
and I feel sure that there are others who can do it much better than I.
is to revise, and re-revise,
each of categories
both as to title and content
as each of you give me suggestions that I can assimilate.
to try to retain each of the comments and counter comments.
Consequently, the Compendium is a dynamic work.
falls out of the compendium
you simply need to restate it
and PLEASE tell me WHICH category to put it under
and I will try to re-insert it.In the development of Angel, we have now passed beyond the subject
of phonemic inventory. I recognize the philosophy of those who
would like to see a system that permitted the representation of
up to fifty some + sounds, and it may well be that some future
IAL committee will wish to consider and implement such a philosophy,
but for Angel we have passed beyond that point and have created
a phonemic word list of over 40,000 words based upon 39 sounds.
(Bruce replies) Drs. Rondthaler and Lias have been most generous in their
assistance in the development of Angel. In the early years I fear that
I bothered Dr. Rondthaler, by phone, rather incessantly. Dr. Lias has
more than once provided me with copies of the sound speller. I do not
know that I ever had the source code but perhaps someday we can embody
the principles in a real time translator of Angel. Drs. Rondthaler and
Lias did provide me with machine readable copies of their
"Dictionary of simplified
American spelling - An ALTERNATIVE spelling for English" and extensive
usage was made of it, as well as of the Carnegie Mellon Institute
Phonetic Spelling Word List, in Developing the Angel Phonetic Word list.
a. As an ITL (Intermediate Teaching Language)
for teaching English.
(Bruce) Rather than using the expression sE in this Compendium,
the convention here will be to change it to Traditional English.
The reason is that we are working towards the goal of an IAL
that would become the STANDARD, while present sE would then become
the historical, traditional, or classical English. It is too early
and presumptious to use the phrase 'historical' and the term 'classical'
is already used in other contexts, hence the selection of 'Traditional'.
Table of Contents
end of Compendium
MENU: HOME
» Reconstruction
» Recovery
» Renewal
» Language Main Page