User:AtterCleanser44

Pages I have worked on:

Language

 * Prefixes and Suffixes
 * Subjunctive mood
 * Irregular verbs
 * Strong verbs
 * Weak verbs
 * Thou
 * Reconstructed strong verbs
 * Pronominal adverbs
 * Archaic grammar
 * Umlaut
 * Ablaut derivatives
 * Old Norse Words

Tales

 * The Nightingale

Spelling reform
Spelling reform is a popular topic among Anglishers, and I am of the opinion that a spelling reform ought to be done in stages. This has two advantages: first, it gradually makes people accustomed to a new spelling system, and second, it removes confusion that reforming orthography all at once might introduce. This is inspired by Spelling Reform 1, which was thought up by Harry Lindgren.

Note: as I am an American speaker, I have made this spelling reform with American pronunciation in mind, but a British speaker can still use this system.

The main goals are:


 * 1) A more consistent correspondence between phonemes and their written form.
 * 2) The main change here is by writing the "long" vowels with letters actually showing their values rather than magic e.
 * 3) This also means that most spellings representing historical pronunciations have been removed, e.g., meat and meet are both spelled mit.
 * 4) Most silent consonants have been eliminated, but some are kept, e.g., kn, gn, wr.
 * 5) This is not a fully unambiguous system since there are still a few heteronyms and heterographs, e.g., pull and pool > pul, /naɪt/ > nait and knait. But on the whole, there is far more consistency.
 * 6) Retention of familiarity to speakers for the purpose of making it easier to become accustomed to.
 * 7) The use of double consonants is extended.
 * 8) No new diacritics and no new letters are used. In fact, j and q are not used at all except in loanwords.
 * 9) Since this is also for Anglish, most conventions of foreign origin are done away with, e.g, ch for /tʃ/, gu for /g/.

The following are the changes for the vowels. They can be split into two groups: the "short" group and the "long" group. In the short group:


 * 1) The consonant after the vowel is doubled, even in final position, e.g., bed > bedd, bin > binn.
 * 2) If the vowel is followed by a consonant cluster or a digraph, the first consonant is doubled, e.g., hint > hinnt, fast > fasst, death > detth.
 * 3) If short o is in final position, aw is used, e.g., draw, saw. Compounds, derivatives, and inflections keep the aw spelling, e.g., lawman > lawmann, drawer, sawed.
 * 4) For other short vowels (which generally appear in final position only in interjections), two hs are used, e.g., heh > hehh, duh > duhh.
 * 5) If the consonant is k, the doubled consonant is ck instead of kk, e.g., stick, neck.
 * 6) The only consonants never doubled are x for /ks/, ng for /ŋ/, and nk for /ŋk/, e.g., fox, sing, think.

In the long group, on the other hand, there is no doubling of consonants. In interjections, a word ending in a long vowel may use one h if need be, e.g., ooh > uh.

Short group:

Long group:

Long a is used only in the following cases:


 * 1) The word father (now spelled fadher).
 * 2) Words ending in alm such as palm, in which l is always spelled, even if one does not pronounce it.

Schwa and vowels before r:

For the vowels in Mary, marry, and merry (which are clearly distinct in British English), no attempt is made to make the distinction fully clear, and for many Americans, there is no distinction at all. Still, whether there be a distinction in one's speaking or not, one is to spell the words thus:

For compound nouns in which /ə/ is used, if the unstressed element is consciously associated with the regular word, then the unstressed element should be spelled regularly. For example:
 * 1) foreman > formann
 * 2) mainsail > meinseil

But for words in which the unstressed element is not consciously associated with the original word, they should be respelled as one new word. For example:
 * 1) breakfast > breckfest
 * 2) cupboard > kubberd
 * 3) welcome > wellkem
 * 4) woman and women > wumen and wimmen

Consonants:

Other consonant changes:

Inseparable prefixes:

Derivational suffixes:

Grammatical endings:

So far, we have cleanly separated /s/ and /z/ by reserving s for the former and z for the latter. However, things become complicated when we try to rewrite the following sentences:


 * I saw three dogs.
 * I saw three cats.
 * I saw three churches.

How do we rewrite the grammatical ending -s? We could simply try respelling the ending by how it sounds.


 * I saw thri doggz.
 * I saw thri katts.
 * I saw thri currcez.

But this would lead to the problem of making it harder to recognize that z, s, and ez are all simply variants of the same ending. The same problem would arise if we tried to respell the ending -ed, which we consistently spell as such to make it clear that it is an ending and not part of the stem.

Currently, there is an inconsistency in how we spell -s and -ed. For the former, we never change the consonant, but we add an e when it is pronounced separately. But for the latter, not only do we never change the consonant, but we also never drop the e, even if it is not pronounced. The latter approach has the advantage of helping the reader recognize the ending, so the same approach is done for -s, i.e., the ending is always spelled as -es, even if it is pronounced /s/ or /z/.


 * I saw thri dogges.
 * I saw thri kattes.
 * I saw thri currces.

Note that cases in which -ed is actually pronounced as a separate syllable even when the stem does not require it, or in which it is part of the stem itself (e.g., the adjectives blessed and naked) have to be learned separately. One can also add a grave accent to clarify the pronunciation, e.g., blessèd, naked > neikèd.

As the endings -en, -est (verb), and -eth (verb) never change their consonant, they can simply be kept as -n, -st, and -th. An e is added if the ending is meant to be pronounced separately.

Exceptional forms for content words:
 * 1) England, English > Englannd, Englissh
 * 2) acknowledge > ecknolleccg (the ck is to show that the k is not silent)
 * 3) length (unchanged)
 * 4) strength (unchanged)
 * 5) say, says, sayest, saith, said, saidst > sei, ses, sesst, setth, sedd, seddst (the plural of the noun say is seies)
 * 6) often > offten (the /t/ may be silent)
 * 7) two > tuu (spelled as such to help distinguish it from to and too, which are spelled tu)

Notes:


 * 1) Triple consonants are allowed, e.g., misspeak > missspik.
 * 2) As long vowels and diphthongs never appear before /ŋ/ in normal words, any consonant doubling is needless.
 * 3) For words with /u/, the vowel perhaps ought to be doubled for clarity's sake, e.g., pool > puul.
 * 4) If a word consists of only /i/ or /u/, the vowel should be doubled in the spelling, since it would be quite odd to see a normal word spelled with only one letter, e.g., the modern reflex of OE ǣ (law), which would currently be spelled as ea and would have ii as the new spelling.
 * 5) v and z were hardly used in Old English, but it was not a problem, since [v] and [z] were mere allophones of /f/ and /s/. However, later on, they became their own phonemes, and so they now can contrast with their voiceless equivalents, e.g., the noun house and the verb house, which are differentiated here as haus and hauz. These letters' use grew because of French words that used these letters, but since they are quite useful to distinguish the voiced sounds, I have chosen to keep them.
 * 6) The use of dh for /ð/ is an un-Anglish change, as it has never been used in English to represent the sound. Nonetheless, since I distinguish /f/-/v/ and /s/-/z/, I have chosen to distinguish /θ/ and /ð/. Ideally, these sounds would instead be represented with the obsolete letters þ and ð, respectively, but it should be noted that in Old English, the two letters were more or less interchangable, and [ð] was a mere allophone of /θ/.
 * 7) As ch and sh are foreign and thus done away with, I have chosen to use c and sc. Since Anglish Spelling uses sc and sk for /ʃ/ and /sk/, it makes sense to use c and k for /tʃ/ and /k/. In a spelling reform for regular English, one can of course ignore this and just use c/k for /k/, ch for /tʃ/, sc/sk for /sk/, and sh for /ʃ/.

The spelling rules for function words are somewhat different. For one, many words do not use double consonants, namely words spelled with fewer than three letters. Moreover, the fricatives are spelled with their voiceless forms, even if they are voiced, e.g., of, the. Since initial /ð/ appears only in function words such as the and this, this means that initial /ð/ is always spelled as th. The letters for the voiced forms may appear in medial position, e.g., over > ouver. If s, f, or th represents only the voiced form in a word, it is never doubled, even after short i and short u.

Spellings for function words (pronouns and determiners):


 * 1) I, me, my, mine > I, mi, mai, main
 * 2) thou, thee, thy, thine > thau, thi, thai, thain
 * 3) he, him, his > hi, himm, his
 * 4) she, her(s) > sci, hur(s)
 * 5) it(s) (unchanged)
 * 6) we, us, our(s) > wi, us, aur(s)
 * 7) ye, you, your(s) > yi, yu, yor(s)
 * 8) they, them, their(s) > thei, them, ther(s)
 * 9) what, which > hwat, hwicc
 * 10) who, whom, whose > hu, hum, hus
 * 11) a(n), the (unchanged)
 * 12) this, these, that, those > thiss, this, that, thous
 * 13) either, neither > eidher, neidher
 * 14) any > eni
 * 15) one > wunn
 * 16) no, none > nou, nunn
 * 17) each, every > ic, everi
 * 18) both, all > bouth, all
 * 19) few, fewer, fewest > fyu, fyuer, fyuest
 * 20) little, less, least > littel, less, list
 * 21) much, many, more, most > mucc, meni, mor, moust
 * 22) some, such, (an)other > summ, succ, (an)odher
 * 23) enough > enuff
 * 24) aught, naught > ott, nott
 * 25) yon, yonder (unchanged)

Verbs:


 * 1) be, been > bi, bin
 * 2) am, art, is, are, was, wast, were, wert > am, art, is, ar, was, wast, wurr, wurrt
 * 3) have, has, hast, hath, had, hadst > hav, has, hast, hath, had, hadst (the plural of the noun have is haves)
 * 4) do, does, dost, doth, did, didst > du, dus, dusst, dutth, didd, diddst (the plural of the noun do is dues)
 * 5) can, canst, could, couldst > kan, kanst, kud, kudst
 * 6) may, mayst, might, mightst > mei, meist, mait, maitst
 * 7) will, wilt, would, wouldst > will, willt, wud, wudst
 * 8) shall, shalt, should, shouldst > scall, scallt, scud, scudst
 * 9) must > musst
 * 10) ought, oughtst > ott, ottst

Adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions:


 * 1) not (unchanged)
 * 2) at, of, on, from, after, off, in, under, up, upon (unchanged)
 * 3) to, into, onto > tu, intu, ontu
 * 4) down > daun
 * 5) out > aut
 * 6) with, within, without > witth, witthin, witthaut
 * 7) between, beyond, before, behind, beneath > betwin, beyond, befor, behaind
 * 8) beneath, underneath > benith, undernith
 * 9) about, above, against, along > ebaut, ebuv, egenst, elong
 * 10) over > ouver
 * 11) by > bai
 * 12) through > thru
 * 13) away > ewei
 * 14) like > laik
 * 15) near > nir
 * 16) toward > toword
 * 17) here, there, where > hir, ther, hwer
 * 18) hither, thither, whither > hiddher, thiddher, hwiddher
 * 19) hence, thence, whence > hens, thens, hwens
 * 20) when, why, how > hwen, hwai, hau
 * 21) and, but, or, nor, for, yet (unchanged)
 * 22) so > sou
 * 23) since > sins
 * 24) while > hwail
 * 25) than, then (unchanged)
 * 26) if (unchanged)
 * 27) whether > hwedher
 * 28) unless > unnless
 * 29) lest (unchanged)
 * 30) though, although > thou, althou
 * 31) once > wunns
 * 32) until, till > unntill, till
 * 33) as (unchanged)

Example sentences:
 * 1) I am a man of my word. > I am a mann of mai wurrd.
 * 2) What did you see in the sea while fishing? > Hwat didd yu si in the si hwail fisshing?
 * 3) He is better at writing than I thought. > Hi is better at wraiting than I thott.
 * 4) Sam's brother's wife cooked us nine wonderful meals. > Sam's bruddher's waif kuked us nain wunnderful miles.
 * 5) I shall acknowledge all my misdeeds. > I scall ecknolleccg all mai missdides.
 * 6) The worker has hewn the trees by himself. > The wurrker has hyun the tries bai himmsellf.
 * 7) He sees three fleas on the fleece and lies about the lice. > Hi sies thri flies on the flis and laies ebaut the lais.
 * 8) Thou art shunned since thy sins are great. > Thau art scunned sins thai sinnes ar greit.
 * 9) Of these two, which month hath thirty days? > Of this tuu, hwicc munnth hath thurrti deies?
 * 10) Neither side has won everyone's hearts. > Neidher said has wunn everiwunn's harrtes.
 * 11) Ye gods, this is too much for me to bear! > Yi goddes, thiss is tu mucc for mi tu berr!
 * 12) I have drawn my greatest work at last. > I hav drawn mai greitest wurrk at lasst.

Foreign words
Certain phonemes are found only in words of foreign origin. This is how they would be handled in a spelling reform for normal English, but not for Anglish.

How are they to be dealt with in Anglish? Most Anglishers accept certain loanwords, generally those representing foreign concepts, e.g., Japanese kimono. Generally speaking, speeches substitute foreign phonemes with native approximations. For example, the way in which we say ninja does not match the Japanese pronunciation. How are these sounds to be changed in loanwords and foreign names?


 * 1) /ɔɪ/, e.g., German Deutsch. Since a native sound close to this is /aɪ/, an Anglish pronunciation of Deutsch may be /daɪtʃ/.
 * 2) Initial /dʒ/, e.g., Italian Geppetto. Since /dʒ/ is simply the voiced equivalent of /tʃ/, and there are a few Middle English instances of ch replacing j in French loanwords (e.g., chelous for jelous), an Anglish pronunciation of Geppetto may be /tʃəˈpɛtoʊ/.
 * 3) /ʒ/, e.g., French Jacques. Since /ʒ/ is simply the voiced equivalent of /ʃ/, an Anglish pronunciation of Jacques may then be /ʃɑk/.

The letters j and q are kept as part of the Latin alphabet, but they are used only in loanwords. Hence, je ne sais quoi keeps its spelling.

Pronouns
Notes:


 * Ha is from an ME dialectal variant of the feminine he from OE hēo; the variant arose as a weak form of he. I have adopted it, as its homophony with the masculine would be troublesome, and she itself is dubious in its origin. Here, ha is usually pronounced as /hɑ/.
 * All the plural forms for the third person are the native ones; the th- set is from Norse.
 * Hy is regularly gotten from the OE nominative hī.
 * Hem is from OE heom, and in fact, it survives up to this day as 'em, which was later reanalyzed as a weak form of them.
 * Hare is from an ME dialectal variant of her from OE heora; the variant itself can be traced back to OE heara. I have adopted it instead of her (the form used in Chaucer's works) to avoid homophony with the feminine her. Here, hare is usually pronounced as /hɛr/.

Verbs
In my ideal Anglish, this is how verbs are conjugated.

Abbreviations:


 * 1) ind. - indicative
 * 2) subj. - subjunctive

The endings -st and -th become -est and -eth after sibliants and final consonants identical to the ending, e.g., kiss > kissest/kisseth, burst > burstest/burstth, unearth > unearthst/uneartheth.

Archaic forms include:


 * 1) sind for the plural present ind. of be
 * 2) sie for the present subj. of be
 * 3) -en for the infinitive
 * 4) -en for the plural present and past ind. and subj.
 * 5) -eth for the plural imperative
 * 6) -end for the present participle
 * 7) y- for the past participle

Irregular verbs
For irregular verbs, I generally stick with the forms currently used. The list below is how I would change the overall state of irregular verbs, however.

Here, all verbs of foreign or unknown root are not included. This includes Norse verbs such as take and fling. Since the currently strong forms of hang were ultimately due to influence from Norse hengja, the reflexes of the native forms are used instead. The native verbs stick, dive, and saw are now regular. All strong verbs' past participles now consistently end with -en.

All new forms are in bold. Innovative forms are labeled (I) as well. If a verb is reconstructed, or a current verb has a new meaning, then it is glossed.

Many weak verbs of Class 5, lean, and clothe are now regular verbs.