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'Language reform' is a type of language planning by massive change to a language. The usual tools of language reform are simplification and purification. Simplification makes the language easier to use by regularizing vocabulary and grammar. Purification makes the language conform to a version of the language perceived as 'purer'.
By far the most common form of language reform, simplification involves spelling simplification (''cf.'' spelling reform); however, inflection, syntax, vocabulary and word formation can all be simplified in addition. For example, in English, there are many prefixes that mean "the opposite of", e.g. ''un-'', ''in-/im-'', ''a(n)-'', ''de-'', etc. A language reform might propose to eliminate all these miscellaneous prefixes and replace them by just one, say ''un-''. On top of this, there are words such as "good" and "bad" that roughly mean the opposite of each other, but would be better (in terms of simplicity) portrayed as "good" and "ungood", dropping "bad" from the language altogether.
However, the most common form of simplification is the adoption of new spelling reforms. Several major world languages have undergone wholesale spelling reforms: Spanish (in the 18th century), Portuguese (in 1910, in Portugal, and in 1946 and 1972, in Brazil), German (in 1901/02 and 1996/98) and Russian (in 1728 and 1919).
Main articles: Linguistic purism
Linguistic purism is the opposition to any changes of a given language, or the desire to undo some changes the language has undergone in the past. Occasionally purism reforms can inadvertently succeed in complicating a language, e.g. during the renaissance period some dictionaries complicated spelling by adopting false Latin etymologies:
★ ''iland'' became ''island'' (from the Latin ''insula'', although ''island'' is actually a Germanic word, compare German ''Eiland'')
★ ''ile'' became ''aisle'' (also from ''insula'')
As with all reform, there are reasons for opposition and reasons for support. All literature, digital documents, road signs and maps would need to be rewritten. Moreover, everyone would need to relearn the language. Young children and language students would in the long run be far better off with the new, easier language, but in the short term would have a lot of work on their hands. It is argued that languages lose their poeticness, becoming harsh and souless, if they are changed.
However, such claims are unsupported. Most of them are based on the assumption that a reform would break the chain that ties the present to the past. In reality, moderate spelling reforms can do more to help than to hinder education and culture. The cost of the transition can be largely overcome by good planning, enough time for transition and capitalizing on popular support.
Examples of very successful language reforms were:
★ Hungarian (late 18th and early 19th centuries) — more than ten thousand words were coined,[1] out of which several thousand are still actively used today.
★ Romanian (19th Century) — replaced the Cyrillic alphabet with the Latin alphabet, dropped thousands of Slavic roots and replaced them with Romance ones.
★ Portuguese (20th Century) — replaced a cumbersome traditional spelling system with a simplified one (''asthma'', for instance, became ''asma'' and ''phthysica'' became ''tísica'').
★ German (1901/02) — unified the spelling system nationwide (first in Germany, later adoption by other Germanophone countries)
★ Hebrew (1920s) — Modern Hebrew was created from Ancient Hebrew by simplification of the grammar (especially of the syntax) according to Indo-European models, coinage of new words from Hebrew roots based on European models, and simplification of pronunciation rules.
★ Chinese
★
★ (1920s) — replaced Classical Chinese with Vernacular Chinese as the standard written language.
★
★ (1950s PRC) — reformed the script used to write the standard language by introducing Simplified Chinese characters (later adopted by Singapore and Malaysia, but Traditional Chinese characters remain in use in the ROC on Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and various overseas Chinese communities).
★ Turkish (1930s) — language and writing system were reformed starting in the 1920s, to the point that the older language is called by a different name, Ottoman Turkish. The Ottoman alphabet was based on the Arabic alphabet, which was replaced in 1928 by the new, Latin-based Turkish alphabet. Loanwords of Persian and Arabic origin were dropped in favor of native Turkish words or new coinages based on Turkic roots.
★ Vietnamese (20th Century)— replaced the classical vernacular script with the new Latin alphabet.
★ (Fictional): In George Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', English has become Newspeak, a language designed to make official propaganda easy and to make politically undesirable thoughts impossible to express.
★ Spelling reform
★ English reform
★ Language revival
★ Language planning
★ Metrification
★ International Phonetic Association
★ Constructed language
★ Gender-inclusive language
★ Newspeak
1. Kálmán Szily presented approx. 10,000 words in his book ''A magyar nyelvújítás szótára'' ("Dictionary of Hungarian language reform", vol. 1–2: 1902 and 1908), without aiming to be comprehensive
★ Geoffrey Lewis, ''The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success'', Oxford University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-19-925669-1.
| Contents |
| Simplification |
| Purification |
| Advantages and disadvantages |
| Instances in popular culture |
| See also |
| Bibliography |
Simplification
By far the most common form of language reform, simplification involves spelling simplification (''cf.'' spelling reform); however, inflection, syntax, vocabulary and word formation can all be simplified in addition. For example, in English, there are many prefixes that mean "the opposite of", e.g. ''un-'', ''in-/im-'', ''a(n)-'', ''de-'', etc. A language reform might propose to eliminate all these miscellaneous prefixes and replace them by just one, say ''un-''. On top of this, there are words such as "good" and "bad" that roughly mean the opposite of each other, but would be better (in terms of simplicity) portrayed as "good" and "ungood", dropping "bad" from the language altogether.
However, the most common form of simplification is the adoption of new spelling reforms. Several major world languages have undergone wholesale spelling reforms: Spanish (in the 18th century), Portuguese (in 1910, in Portugal, and in 1946 and 1972, in Brazil), German (in 1901/02 and 1996/98) and Russian (in 1728 and 1919).
Purification
Main articles: Linguistic purism
Linguistic purism is the opposition to any changes of a given language, or the desire to undo some changes the language has undergone in the past. Occasionally purism reforms can inadvertently succeed in complicating a language, e.g. during the renaissance period some dictionaries complicated spelling by adopting false Latin etymologies:
★ ''iland'' became ''island'' (from the Latin ''insula'', although ''island'' is actually a Germanic word, compare German ''Eiland'')
★ ''ile'' became ''aisle'' (also from ''insula'')
Advantages and disadvantages
As with all reform, there are reasons for opposition and reasons for support. All literature, digital documents, road signs and maps would need to be rewritten. Moreover, everyone would need to relearn the language. Young children and language students would in the long run be far better off with the new, easier language, but in the short term would have a lot of work on their hands. It is argued that languages lose their poeticness, becoming harsh and souless, if they are changed.
However, such claims are unsupported. Most of them are based on the assumption that a reform would break the chain that ties the present to the past. In reality, moderate spelling reforms can do more to help than to hinder education and culture. The cost of the transition can be largely overcome by good planning, enough time for transition and capitalizing on popular support.
Examples of very successful language reforms were:
★ Hungarian (late 18th and early 19th centuries) — more than ten thousand words were coined,[1] out of which several thousand are still actively used today.
★ Romanian (19th Century) — replaced the Cyrillic alphabet with the Latin alphabet, dropped thousands of Slavic roots and replaced them with Romance ones.
★ Portuguese (20th Century) — replaced a cumbersome traditional spelling system with a simplified one (''asthma'', for instance, became ''asma'' and ''phthysica'' became ''tísica'').
★ German (1901/02) — unified the spelling system nationwide (first in Germany, later adoption by other Germanophone countries)
★ Hebrew (1920s) — Modern Hebrew was created from Ancient Hebrew by simplification of the grammar (especially of the syntax) according to Indo-European models, coinage of new words from Hebrew roots based on European models, and simplification of pronunciation rules.
★ Chinese
★
★ (1920s) — replaced Classical Chinese with Vernacular Chinese as the standard written language.
★
★ (1950s PRC) — reformed the script used to write the standard language by introducing Simplified Chinese characters (later adopted by Singapore and Malaysia, but Traditional Chinese characters remain in use in the ROC on Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and various overseas Chinese communities).
★ Turkish (1930s) — language and writing system were reformed starting in the 1920s, to the point that the older language is called by a different name, Ottoman Turkish. The Ottoman alphabet was based on the Arabic alphabet, which was replaced in 1928 by the new, Latin-based Turkish alphabet. Loanwords of Persian and Arabic origin were dropped in favor of native Turkish words or new coinages based on Turkic roots.
★ Vietnamese (20th Century)— replaced the classical vernacular script with the new Latin alphabet.
Instances in popular culture
★ (Fictional): In George Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', English has become Newspeak, a language designed to make official propaganda easy and to make politically undesirable thoughts impossible to express.
See also
★ Spelling reform
★ English reform
★ Language revival
★ Language planning
★ Metrification
★ International Phonetic Association
★ Constructed language
★ Gender-inclusive language
★ Newspeak
Bibliography
1. Kálmán Szily presented approx. 10,000 words in his book ''A magyar nyelvújítás szótára'' ("Dictionary of Hungarian language reform", vol. 1–2: 1902 and 1908), without aiming to be comprehensive
★ Geoffrey Lewis, ''The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success'', Oxford University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-19-925669-1.
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