This attempt to make the English language accessible to everyone is
certainly commendable for non-native speakers who have already invented
sub-varieties of English, such as airport English, or the very curious
language that is Indo-Pakistani English.
In France, where the language has been reinvented several times
throughout history, notably under the leadership of the Académie
Française, which in the 17th century literally created new vocabulary
based on ancient Greek (particularly in the fields of rhetoric and
medicine), the difference between written language and pronunciation is
formidable (and feared by non-native speakers); but even more so,
spelling (a Greek word in French = “orthographe”!) was reformed about
ten years ago, but without success, because it was yet another rule to
memorize! In fact, for French students today, the only writing rule they
can still understand is apparently based on the sounds they want to
transcribe.
And as pronunciation evolves over time (example: the verb “céder,” which
in the future tense becomes “je cèderai” - ‘è’ instead of “é”),
institutions are seeking to follow practice, while at the same time
simplifying words with double consonants by removing the double
consonant. More strangely, there is a desire to Frenchify English terms
that have been imported directly (such as “leader,” written “leadeur”).
The problem with this example (‘leadeur’) is that it is homophonous (a
Greek word!) with “laideur” (ugliness). In short, there is a tendency to
want to simplify everything by means that create other problems, and in
doing so, we forget a point once emphasized by Kierkegaard: “it is not
the path that is difficult, it is the difficult that is the path.”
JP
Le 08/07/2025 à 22:47, vm via ntg-context a écrit :
8<---
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.
--->8
;-)
On 08/07/2025 21:06, Keith McKay wrote:
Ha, ha. Das Video war sehr lustig. Malheureusement, la plupart des
Anglais ont de très mauvaises compétences en langues étrangères. :))
Best Wishes
Keith
Scotland
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry
to the Wiki!
maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl /
https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl
webpage : https://www.pragma-ade.nl / https://context.aanhet.net
(mirror)
archive : https://github.com/contextgarden/context
wiki : https://wiki.contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the
Wiki!
maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl /
https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl
webpage : https://www.pragma-ade.nl / https://context.aanhet.net (mirror)
archive : https://github.com/contextgarden/context
wiki : https://wiki.contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________
