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how would you simplify English? (kbin.earth)

submitted 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (8 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 2 days ago (1 children)

Remove the letter “c”.

replace “ph” with “f”.

How would you differentiate face and phase?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

fase and faze. of course faze is already a word, so we'd have to come up with something for that too. I think it'd be fine to have it phase and faze spelt the same since they already sound the same. at least then it would be easier to spell correctly.

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