Language

[Tomo]

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.

 

 

 

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

 

 

 

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

 

 

 

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.

 

 

 

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

 

 

 

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

 

 

[J170 Owner]

Wot is so scery is that it will beum fact as we dum down edukation....

 

 

[batesey]

LOL, nice one Tomo,

 

speaking from experience, I wish all the comms here in Deutschland were spoken in English...LOL.

 

The following video was sent to me by a friend of mine over here, If you flip the concept of the video on it's head, this is what it's like for me here sometimes...LOL

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inCVwzFiN3g

 

 

[facthunter]

Berlitz do a lot of good stuff with languages. Their english to french phrases done phonetically worked fine for me when I was game enough to trust them.

 

The thing about spelling simplification os the loss of word meaning with the "sounds right" approach. English is predominantly latin and greek so if you have a smattering of latin and greek "roots" knowledge the meaning of the word can be worked out. Bastardising the spelling, you lose all that.

 

The other thing here is that English is the International Standard for RT. Controllers may be reasonably fluent in the standard calls, but anything out of the ordinary may cause confusion, or even total inability to respond. Pilots also...Nev

 

 

[Tomo]

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inCVwzFiN3g

Haha, that's legendary!

 

 

[flying dog]

English is predominantly latin and greek

 

Wow, that's news for me.

 

There was a show on Foxtel and a lot of English is from German they were saying.

 

I know Latin and the other languages have some influence on the words, but PREDOMINATNLY?

 

 

[turboplanner]

Not sure where the greek comes in but Britain was conquered by the Romans, and a number4 of other nationalities and was populated 15,000 years ago.

 

 

[damkia]

The "Romans" and Greeks have been invading Australia for the last 70 yrs...

 

Wasa da matter you, eh?

 

 

[facthunter]

YES predominantly would be the word I think.FD.. IF you have any other information from a reliable source I'd like to see it. Nev

 

 

[Zibi]

Historically, English originated from the fusion of closely related dialects, now collectively termed Old English, which were brought to the eastern coast of Great Britain by Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) settlers by the 5th century – with the word English being derived from the name of the Angles, and ultimately from their ancestral region of Angeln (in what is now Schleswig-Holstein).[12] A significant number of English words are constructed based on roots from Latin, because Latin in some form was the lingua franca of the Christian Church and of European intellectual life.[13] The language was further influenced by the Old Norse language due to Viking invasions in the 8th and 9th centuries.

The Norman conquest of England in the 11th century gave rise to heavy borrowings from Norman-French, and vocabulary and spelling conventions began to give the appearance of a close relationship with Romance languages[14][15] to what had then become Middle English. The Great Vowel Shift that began in the south of England in the 15th century is one of the historical events that mark the emergence of Modern English from Middle English.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language

 

So it's Germanic with Latin, Norse and French influences.

 

P.S.

 

Being a non-native English speaker I also think that English spelling makes no sense whatsoever.

 

 

[David Isaac]

....So it's Germanic with Latin, Norse and French influences. ...

No wonder we are confused, and there is little if any sense in the way Modern English words are spelled ... and we wonder why tome of our kids really struggle with it (many adults still do as well).

 

 

[facthunter]

I don't think we can just leave it there. The structure of the words reflects the origins of the language. Many european languages are latin based. French Italian Spanish etc There must still be plenty of references to the latin and greek roots that form many of our words, available. These things do not chenge overnight.

 

It became policy in the mid 60's to try to make the language more "Phonetic" and the previous high standard of spelling required to pass any significant examination it English was discontinued. Some of you may recall the LED ZED LERN posters that were around about then.

 

When one has a "small" knowledge of the common "roots" from which most of our language was built, you can have a good idea of the meaning of most words even though you may not be particularly familiar with them.

 

When you simplify the spelling you lose most of that comprehension. Nev

 

 

[eightyknots]

LOL, nice one Tomo,speaking from experience, I wish all the comms here in Deutschland were spoken in English...LOL.

 

The following video was sent to me by a friend of mine over here, If you flip the concept of the video on it's head, this is what it's like for me here sometimes...LOL

 

 

 

[kaz3g]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_languageSo it's Germanic with Latin, Norse and French influences.........

Don't believe all you read on wiki. When I was a kid we had to learn our Latin and Greek roots as part of our English Expression studies.

 

To use an analogy (ana = word, logos = word science or discourse from the Greek), wiki is like a comic book... Full of stories that might be true.

 

French, of course, is one of the romantic languages based heavily on Latin. There is a German influence on English... Hitler thought we were friends ... That influence started pre-iron age when the Jutes and the Huns were mixing it with the Angles and Saxons before they crossed the Channel as I recall.

 

The Romans really changed things because they insisted, at the point of a spear, that everyone in Angleland use Latin. Scholars (mainly the clergy) did so but also maintained a strong interest in the classic Greek. The early Christian religious texts were written in Greek.

 

Really, no-one from another country has the right to criticise English because their language undoubtedly contributed to what we have now, too.

 

Kaz

 

 

[Admin]

That influence started pre-iron age when the Jutes and the Huns were mixing it with the Angles and Saxons before they crossed the Channel as I recall.Kaz

Now ya showing your age Kaz

 

 

[eightyknots]

That influence started pre-iron age when the Jutes and the Huns were mixing it with the Angles and Saxons before they crossed the Channel as I recall.

No doubt about it, Kaz, your memory has not faded over time.

 

 

[pudestcon]

No doubt about it, Kaz, your memory has not faded over time.

Kaz gets the video of the events out every now and then to refresh the memory.

Pud

 

 

[kaz3g]

Now ya showing your age Kaz

It's alright for you cheeky young b...ers

 

You know I meant I recalled my history lessons, didn't you?

 

Kaz

 

 

[Bryon]

It's alright for you cheeky young b...ersYou know I meant I recalled my history lessons, didn't you?

 

Kaz

Nope,

 

I thought you were speaking from personal experience