English Language Simplification

I need to stop getting my news from Yahoo!.  And Yahoo! needs to take that stupid exclamation point out of its name.  I tend to go there to check my mail, but I always end up scanning the headlines and occasionally get sucked in.  Today, I had my choice between finding out how a half eaten sandwich can equal a half day at work, why Bono needs my advice on how to solve world hunger, or how the English language needs a "face-lift."  Wow.  Although I didn't take the bait and click on any of these links, I did wonder about the English language face-lift.  My guess would be that it's about standardizing spelling, taking out exceptions to rules, and generally streamlining a rather haphazard writing system.  It's the same thing that the Simplified Spelling Society is after.

With English becoming the new lingua franca, there is an obvious upside to it being easier to read and quicker to understand.  And why make things difficult for ourselves with tricky rules and long-forgotten silent letters?  It makes sense.  It would be hard to implement now, but once the change was made and accepted it would be easier from here on out.  The language would become more accessible to both native and non-native speakers, or in this case writers.

While it may seem tempting to standardize English, there are definite concerns.  In Japan, they once felt it was impossible for an outsider to learn Japanese.  When they encountered traders, they would learn whatever language these newcomers spoke.  Japanese was too intricate and most important, too culturally linked.  Since then, many have learned to speak Japanese.  And lots of people learn English every day.  English has become very useful as a common-ground language.  It is the language that all the refs have to speak at the World Cup.  But in addition to being a useful means of communication, language is of great historical importance.  Old important documents would become as incomprehensible to future generations as Old or Middle English is to us, depending on how extensive the changes were.  Each spelling indicates a place the word originated or how it entered into written word.  There's a story there and a history and a tradition that is worth preserving.  Another concern is that the effort involved in figuring out exactly what the standard would be and changing everything to meet that would be great.  There is so much writing everywhere and more being written every second.  A change would lead to confusion and would be expensive. 

Although, it would be awfully nice to do away with spelling tests. 

Comments

[George]

My first thought was "wow she said "Lingua Franca" thats a woman worth getting married to!" Ok that was a lie my first thought was "half eaten sandwich, what kind?" I'm still thinking that right now, "what kind?" I check out Yahoooo! news but I don't know how man oooooo's to use.

The English languare is going to mutate no matter what. EX: :) LOL