Change English As You Wish

Make believe that you are a language dictator whose commands are executed instantly. What is it about English that has always peeved you? What changes would you make to the English language if it were in your power to enforce them? Would you simplify the language, or make it more complicated? Would you like to return English to an earlier stage in its development? If so, what century? Why?

As you plan your changes, think of pronunciation, spelling, grammar, vocabulary etc. Look at your task from the point of view of a foreigner and a native speaker, a beginner and an accomplished user of the language.

Would your proposed changes perhaps have any undesired, negative consequences? Perhaps you are an extremist who would like to wipe English from the face of the earth completely and replace it with another language as the principal lingua franca?

Feel free to air your opinions,
CB

I enjoyed my logic course, so I guess I'd like to see English that runs on that kind of structured reasoning.

Hi Feathers

Thank you for the link. I will state my views later in the autumn after everything has been said.

Cheers
CB

Hi Cool Breeze,

You asked:

What changes would you make to the English language if it were in your power to enforce them?

I'd definitely change the spelling system. I wouldn't be as radical as to decide that IPA-symbols should be used in everyday writing, but I'd certainly change the spelling of words with an 'irregular' spelling, that is, words whose pronunciation cannot be determined basing on how they're spelt.

Mythical Lady wrote:

...and I am so thankful that Shakespeare is dead by now...

I do not know when I laughed more recently. Almost brilliant in expressing desperation! How long he would have had to leave...

It is not the problem to fix English, as any other language in the world has been. The problem is who is going to follow and impose the rules. It is kind of chaotic democracy in English, it looks as if the people were given full right to speak as they wish and then someone gather how they all speak and give us the best averages as a rule. Logic... what logic? Actually why I said "as if" at all...

Dictator cannot help... he would have to rule the world and then he would chose Esperanto or invent his own language - Worldish

Nobody can help English, even my computer is blocked sometimes... Maybe creature from the outer space may help to find how a man thinks when a man tries to pronounce anything and see letters in front... Why we all do not have a sound for a letter I will never know...