fenlan Posted August 23, 2005 at 12:06 PM Report Share Posted August 23, 2005 at 12:06 PM The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English". In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter. In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away. By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v". During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru. Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas. If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HashiriKata Posted August 23, 2005 at 12:25 PM Report Share Posted August 23, 2005 at 12:25 PM If the reform does happen, it should be very interesting see the pros and cons at every turn. Also, are other English speaking countries left out? and what about other "English-using" peoples? No, I don't think any major reform would be possible, especially is the version fenlan anticipated. (Or perhaps I've got so used to reading Chinese characters that I've come to think spelling doesn't matter any longer?? ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted August 23, 2005 at 12:54 PM Report Share Posted August 23, 2005 at 12:54 PM I posted the same story one year ago -> http://www.chinese-forums.com/showpost.php?p=20765&postcount=10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipponman Posted August 23, 2005 at 03:10 PM Report Share Posted August 23, 2005 at 03:10 PM How do people plan to read like that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chenpv Posted August 23, 2005 at 03:43 PM Report Share Posted August 23, 2005 at 03:43 PM Dude, i am preparing my GRE writing right now. after reading all these, i succeed in finding that my pedestal of english has been completely demolished. (kidding) while what i am wondering is 'Can every englishman accept that?' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opper567 Posted August 23, 2005 at 03:46 PM Report Share Posted August 23, 2005 at 03:46 PM Is that for real? That doesn't seem like it could possibly ever happen? It seems to me that too many English speakers are already too literate for a reform like that can occur... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roddy Posted August 23, 2005 at 04:14 PM Report Share Posted August 23, 2005 at 04:14 PM It's not real, an old joke that's been floating around the internet for years, and might even date back to before the internet. Plays on UK paranoia about EU bureacracy and German hegemony. . . Roddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenlan Posted August 23, 2005 at 04:49 PM Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2005 at 04:49 PM I think English people could accept this spelling reform as easily as Chinese people could accept abolishing the characters and using piiyin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhwj Posted August 23, 2005 at 11:48 PM Report Share Posted August 23, 2005 at 11:48 PM It's not real, an old joke that's been floating around the internet for years, and might even date back to before the internet.This EU stuff is new to me - I've usually seen it attributed to Mark Twain (without the first paragraph, of course), but other people say it first appeared in a letter to The Economist.If you want something real, there's always the Chicago Tribune's experiments with spelling reform. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atitarev Posted August 24, 2005 at 12:26 AM Report Share Posted August 24, 2005 at 12:26 AM Is that for real? That doesn't seem like it could possibly ever happen? It seems to me that too many English speakers are already too literate for a reform like that can occur... Reforms do occur and literate people to adjust and learn the new, if they accept the change and don't resist. Russian spelling was reformed after the October revolution 1917. Some letters were abolished, the use of others was reduced. Spelling became closer to pronunciation and there are less problems with remembering, which letters should be used. Some people were unhappy but it became a standard and has been used since. Pre-revolution texts have been republished. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language#Alphabet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roddy Posted August 24, 2005 at 01:15 AM Report Share Posted August 24, 2005 at 01:15 AM Wow, is it as old as Mark Twain? That's pretty cool. The first time I saw it was around the time a whole load of new regulations were coming out of Brussels that according to the tabloid press would mean that among other things British sausages wouldn't be called sausages any more (apparently they had too much sawdust in them ) and all bananas would have to be straight. Which is nonsense, but there's still a section of British society apparently terrified that we are to be taken over by a Frano-German dominated EU. Roddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gougou Posted August 24, 2005 at 01:30 AM Report Share Posted August 24, 2005 at 01:30 AM Reforms do occur and literate people to adjust and learn the new, if they accept the change and don't resist. Speaking of which, there is a spelling reform going on in Germany currently. A large number of literate are unwilling to accept it, incl. some of the biggest newspapers and magazines, as well as several famous writers. The result is that the new spelling is used in schools and official publications, but not in everyday writings. Anybody studying German out there? Wouldn't wanna be in your shoes right now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atitarev Posted August 24, 2005 at 07:57 AM Report Share Posted August 24, 2005 at 07:57 AM I majored in German long ago. The changes are not too difficult to understand and use, it's just the unwillingness to accept the changes. They German government didn't have the same authority as in Lenin Russia or Mao China to make reformed spelling mandatory, so it may take longer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chenpv Posted August 24, 2005 at 09:18 AM Report Share Posted August 24, 2005 at 09:18 AM i would rather die than give up the chinese characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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