Hello,
I've taken it upon myself to revamp the English language a little and make it more convenient. The result is not that the English language will change, but that there will be a new kind of English - an artificial language of sorts (one that takes little learning for English-speakers to understand, especially when compared with most artificial languages). Feel free to let me know of any things that you would like to see. I plan to write some books and publish them in this language (though I may end up self-publishing due to the ambition/controversy of the project). I suppose using the language is one of the best ways to make it known.
Anyway, here's a list of things I've done so far (and I'm pleased with the way most of these things work out):
* Added a non-gender third person pronoun
* Added non-ambiguous second person plural pronouns
* Added vocative cases for second and first person pronouns
* Added separate possessive/genitive relative pronouns for who, that, and which (rather than using 'whose' for all)
* Added a standard pronunciation guide for use in writing with the language (though it works for most languages)
* Made clear rules for relative pronouns (i.e. what they can refer to); made them more useful; made them so they can all be used restrictively and non-restrictively
* Added more flexibility to exclamation marks and question marks
* Added an official way to indicate that one is trailing off rather than omitting words
* Changed some things about full sentences in parentheses
* Clarified some things about comma meaning
I'm thinking about slightly adopting the article system I made for the completely artificial language I had been working on, as it would add some nice features.
There are some non-grammatical changes I also wish to introduce: i.e. words that don't exist in modern English (like a non-gender singular noun for cow/bull and several words about existence and 'the Universe')
I plan to make a better, and standard, system for spelling the letters of the alphabet (i.e. in modern English 'q' is spelled 'cue'); right now every other source disagrees on a few points (plus the vowels don't generally have unique names).
I'm planning to make the language so that it can use a default set of rules, or use another set of rules for a different purpose, if desired - thus making it extensible for different purposes.
One of the advantages of doing this with an artificial language is that there will be a centralized place to go to for the rules (so people disagreeing, as happens among grammarians, would not be an issue at all), and progression/improvement will be faster. I would have versions for it, like a computer program (i.e. ___ English 1.01), and, of course, it would be free/open-source (and usable largely as if it were public domain: i.e. for commercial and non-commercial purposes). There would be documentation of the differences between this and normal English (kind of like documentation for a programming language).
Tell me if you're interested in this project and/or if you desire to contribute, as I desire this to be somewhat of a public project, rather than a completely personal one. I am an American - therefore, it would be nice to have some British feedback about the alterations (I believe the changes so far would work with both; I think rather than agreeing on one way to spell 'colour/color' it would probably be better to add the changes to both systems; perhaps it might be best to agree, though, but probably not - if that turns out to be the case, I opt for the aitch sound in herb, at least, heh heh, even if I am partial to the American-style 'r').
Thanks!
