Over the years, many people have called for language reform of the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

. Various types of reforms have been proposed.

Spelling reforms

{{main, English-language spelling reform

Spelling reform A spelling reform is a deliberate, often authoritatively sanctioned or mandated change to spelling rules. Proposals for such reform are fairly common, and over the years, many languages have undergone such reforms. Recent high-profile examples a ...

s are attempts to regularise English spelling, whether by enforcing a regular set of rules, or by replacing the basic English alphabet with a new one. English spelling reforms include: Using the basic English alphabet: *

Cut Spelling Cut Spelling is a system of English-language spelling reform which reduces redundant letters and makes substitutions to improve correspondence with the spoken word. It was designed by Christopher Upward and was for a time being popularized by th ...

* Parallel English *'' Handbook of Simplified Spelling'' * SoundSpel * Spelling Reform step 1 (SR1) * SaypU (Spell As You Pronounce Universally) * Simpel-Fonetik method of writing * Traditional Spelling Revised Extending or replacing the basic English alphabet: * Benjamin Franklin's phonetic alphabet * Deseret alphabet *

Initial Teaching Alphabet The Initial Teaching Alphabet (I.T.A. or i.t.a.) is a variant of the Latin alphabet developed by Sir James Pitman (the grandson of Sir Isaac Pitman, inventor of a system of shorthand) in the early 1960s. It was not intended to be a strictly phone ...

* Interspel * Romic alphabet *

Shavian alphabet The Shavian alphabet (; also known as the Shaw alphabet) is an alphabet conceived as a way to provide simple, phonemic orthography for the English language to replace the difficulties of conventional spelling using the Latin alphabet. It wa ...

(revised version:

Quikscript QUIKSCRIPT is a simulation language derived from SIMSCRIPT, based on 20-GATE.a programming language for the 1960s Bendix G-20 computer References * "Quikscript - A Simscript-like Language for the G-20", F.M. Tonge et al., Communications of ...

) * Unifon

Subsets

'' Subsets'' are reforms that use a restricted wordlist and grammar. English subsets include: *

Attempto Controlled English Attempto Controlled English (ACE) is a controlled natural language, i.e. a subset of standard English with a restricted syntax and restricted semantics described by a small set of construction and interpretation rules. It has been under developmen ...

Basic English Basic English (British American Scientific International and Commercial English) is an English-based controlled language created by the linguist and philosopher Charles Kay Ogden as an international auxiliary language, and as an aid for teach ...

E-Prime E-Prime (short for English-Prime or English Prime, sometimes denoted É or E′) denotes a restricted form of English in which authors avoid all forms of the verb ''to be''. E-Prime excludes forms such as ''be'', ''being'', ''been'', present ...

* Globish *

Plain English Plain English (or layman's terms) are groups of words that are to be clear and easy to know. It usually avoids the use of rare words and uncommon euphemisms to explain the subject. Plain English wording is intended to be suitable for almost anyone, ...

* Simplified English *

Special English Learning English (previously known as Special English) is a controlled version of the English language first used on 19 October 1959, and still presented daily by the United States broadcasting service Voice of America (VOA). World news and othe ...

Specialised English Specialized English is a controlled version of the English language used for radio broadcasting, easier for non-native speakers of English. It is derived from Voice of America (VoA) Special English. Specialized English was developed initially by ...

Vocabulary reforms

''Vocabulary reforms'' seek to reform English by changing or restricting its words without changing its grammar. * Anglish: the use of native ( Germanic) words only, and spellings of such without foreign influence—a form of linguistic purism

External links

Language Romanisation and Re-Romanisation
English language Linguistics lists