I don’t know about Portuguese but there is a meme about English:
[UK flag] English (traditional)
[US flag] English (simplified)
Which is not really historically accurate because both standards developed more or less simultaneously after independence and before standardization, the variety was greater than the difference today. But I digress.
Getting rid of “u” in a small subset of words is a terrible way to try to simplify English. The fact that some words in standard English (as opposed to American English) are spelled the same as the source words from French is a major benefit.
Properly simplifying English would involve getting rid of the situations where one letter can make multiple different sounds. If you’re changing it, a word like “colour” should start with a “k”, the unambiguous letter that makes that sound. A word like “cell” should start with an “s”. Really, “c” should never make either an “s” sound or a “k” sound. Maybe it could be used in place of “ch”, instead of needing two different letters to make that one sound.
If you wanted another place to start in simplifying English, you could tackle letters using “oo”. There’s no way that “oo” should make different sounds for “pool”, “flood”, “book”, “door”.
I just listened to the latest Words For Granted podcast episode and it was about the book Enough Is Enuf which talks about the history of the spelling reform movement going back to the founding fathers. I thought you might be interested in it too so I went back to tell you.
There was also that attempt at destupifying English spelling
There have been plenty over the decades
The Voice Of America has a standardized Simplified English
That’s a good thing but not at all what the meme is about. It’s about words like color vs colour, center vs centre, … The American is arguably easier (and I say that as someone who learned British English at school) but it’s not simplified. Simplified would imply that British is older which isn’t the case. Pre-standard was “anything goes” on both sides of the pond and you can argue historically for what every you like.
lugal@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
I don’t know about Portuguese but there is a meme about English:
Which is not really historically accurate because both standards developed more or less simultaneously after independence and before standardization, the variety was greater than the difference today. But I digress.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
The Voice Of America has a standardized Simplified English they use for broadcasting to regions where English isn’t commonly spoken.
There was also that attempt at destupifying English spelling, a very small amount of which stuck. Color.
merc@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Getting rid of “u” in a small subset of words is a terrible way to try to simplify English. The fact that some words in standard English (as opposed to American English) are spelled the same as the source words from French is a major benefit.
Properly simplifying English would involve getting rid of the situations where one letter can make multiple different sounds. If you’re changing it, a word like “colour” should start with a “k”, the unambiguous letter that makes that sound. A word like “cell” should start with an “s”. Really, “c” should never make either an “s” sound or a “k” sound. Maybe it could be used in place of “ch”, instead of needing two different letters to make that one sound.
If you wanted another place to start in simplifying English, you could tackle letters using “oo”. There’s no way that “oo” should make different sounds for “pool”, “flood”, “book”, “door”.
Lumidaub@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
What benefit would that be outside of linguistics?
But isn’t it a major benefit that it’s spelt like the Latin root?
(I’m not in favour of force-simplifying spelling conventions, I’m just curious about your reasoning :) )
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I was specifically referring to this which proposed many of the changes you’re talking about, but very few were actually adopted.
lugal@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
I just listened to the latest Words For Granted podcast episode and it was about the book Enough Is Enuf which talks about the history of the spelling reform movement going back to the founding fathers. I thought you might be interested in it too so I went back to tell you.
BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Anytime we destupify English, we do it the wrong way and end up more stupider.
I’m looking forward to getting some Asian loanwords and then correcting them to Germanic.
angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
In 200 years people will wonder why so many English words used to describe fiction and pornography are loaned from Japanese.
lugal@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
There have been plenty over the decades
That’s a good thing but not at all what the meme is about. It’s about words like color vs colour, center vs centre, … The American is arguably easier (and I say that as someone who learned British English at school) but it’s not simplified. Simplified would imply that British is older which isn’t the case. Pre-standard was “anything goes” on both sides of the pond and you can argue historically for what every you like.