Nation on the March

Nation on the March
Nation on the March

Sep 28, 2011

The (con)fusion version of English Language for Europe !



The European Commission has just announced an agreement that English will be the official language of the EU - rather than German (the other possibility). 


As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement, and has accepted a 5-year phase-in of new rules which would apply to the language and reclassify it as EuroEnglish.


The agreed plan is as follows:


In year 1, the soft c would be replaced by s Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard C will be replaced by 'k . This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan now have one less letter. 


There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome ph is replaced by f This will reduse fotograf by 20%.


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 horible mes of the silent 'e's in the language is disgrasful and they should eliminat them.


By year 4, peopl wil be reseptiv to lingwistik korektions such as replasing th with Z and w with v (saving mor keyboard spas).


During ze fifz year, ze unesesary o kan be dropd from vords kontaining ou and similar changes vud of kors be applid to ozer kombinations of leters. 


After zis tifz year, ve vil hav a reli sensibil riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to understand ech ozer.


Ze drem vil finali kum tru!! 




( This or a similarly written  piece is attributed sometimes to anonymity or even Mark Twain. 
But  it seems that the basic source of these anonymous articles  is a piece by a writer named 
 W. K. Lessing (under the pseudonym Dolton Edwards), 
called "Meihem in Ce Klasrum", first published
 in a U.S. magazine called Astounding Science Fiction in 1946) His articles begins like this: (EXTRACT)


First published: 1946
MEIHEM IN CE KLASRUM by Dolton Edwards


    BECAUSE WE ARE STILL BEARING SOME OF THE SCARS OF OUR BRIEF SKIRMISH with II-B English, it is natural that we should be enchanted by Mr. George Bernard Shaw's current campaign for a simplified alphabet.


    Obviously, as Mr. Shaw points out, English spelling is in much need of a general overhauling and streamlining. However, our own resistance to any changes requiring a large expenditure of mental effort in the near future would cause us to view with some apprehension the possibility of some day receiving a morning paper printed in-to us-Greek.


    Our own plan would achieve the same end as the legislation proposed by Mr. Shaw, but in a less shocking manner, as it consists merely of an acceleration of the normal processes by which the language is continually modernized.


    As a catalytic agent, we would suggest that a National Easy Language Week be proclaimed, which the President would inaugurate, outlining some short cut to concentrate on during the week, and to be adopted during the ensuing year. All school children would be given a holiday, the lost time being the equivalent of that gained by the spelling short cut.


    In 1946, for example, we would urge the elimination of the soft c, for which we would substitute "s." Sertainly, such an improvement would be selebrated in all sivic-minded sircles as being suffisiently worth the trouble, and students in all sities in the land would be reseptive to- ward any change eliminating the nesessity of learning the differense be- tween the two letters.) 


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