Abdul Hadi Pasha
Banned
The Favorite Lost Cause Thread made me think about the Turkish Language Reform, and what would happen if something similar happened to English.
In a nutshell, Ottoman was a different language than Turkish, and was spoken by the ruling class, mostly in urban centers and especially in Istanbul. It had a very rich vocabularly, most of which was Arabic and Persian, retaining many Turkish common words and grammar, but also incorporating Persian and Arabic grammatical constructs. Neologisms were created using Arabic and Persian roots, as English does with Greek and Latin.
Mustafa Kemal, wanting the rulers and ruled to speak the same language, initiated a reform to to create "Ozturkce", translatable into the Orwellian "PureTurkish", stripping the language of its Persian and Arabic elements, and creating new words where needed. This eliminated most of the vocabulary, and replaced it with ugly neologisms created mostly by amateurs, savaging the language.
What if this happend in England? For instance, what if a proto-nationalist regime took over, and in reaction against Catholicism, stripped English of all it's Latin and Greek-derived vocabulary?
As an example of PurEnglish, I have translated a randomly selected sentence from one of Zoomar's posts, italicizing all foreign words:
I would imagine a regime which had all of the totalitarian and genocidal aspects of Nazi Germany would be even worse if it were also characterized by a rigid economic/social caste system keeping the vast majority of the population in abject poverty (which the "socialist" part of National Socialism did not) .
This might become, removing foreign words and coining replacements where necessary using Germanic-sounding endings:
I would dream a herrschaft which had all of the all-rulish and folkmurdering sides of Nazi Deutschland would be even worse if it were also shown by a not-shiftingish geldish/folkish folkrank auftragschaft keeping mostest of the Folk in all not-haveness (which the "Folkish" of Folkreichish All-same-sharingness did not).
That took me about an hour to do, BTW. That approximates what 'PureTurkish' sounds like to anyone educated in the early 1950s and earlier.
This doesn't even address giving up the Latin script (for runes?). Would this mean no real English Literature? Would French become the international language? If so would French begin to replace English again?
Here's Gibbon's famous first sentence:
IN the second century of the Christian Æra, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind.
In the hundredyear two of the Christish age, the overkingdom of Rome held the fairest piece of the earth, and the most well-bred piece of mankind.
Not quite the same, is it?
In a nutshell, Ottoman was a different language than Turkish, and was spoken by the ruling class, mostly in urban centers and especially in Istanbul. It had a very rich vocabularly, most of which was Arabic and Persian, retaining many Turkish common words and grammar, but also incorporating Persian and Arabic grammatical constructs. Neologisms were created using Arabic and Persian roots, as English does with Greek and Latin.
Mustafa Kemal, wanting the rulers and ruled to speak the same language, initiated a reform to to create "Ozturkce", translatable into the Orwellian "PureTurkish", stripping the language of its Persian and Arabic elements, and creating new words where needed. This eliminated most of the vocabulary, and replaced it with ugly neologisms created mostly by amateurs, savaging the language.
What if this happend in England? For instance, what if a proto-nationalist regime took over, and in reaction against Catholicism, stripped English of all it's Latin and Greek-derived vocabulary?
As an example of PurEnglish, I have translated a randomly selected sentence from one of Zoomar's posts, italicizing all foreign words:
I would imagine a regime which had all of the totalitarian and genocidal aspects of Nazi Germany would be even worse if it were also characterized by a rigid economic/social caste system keeping the vast majority of the population in abject poverty (which the "socialist" part of National Socialism did not) .
This might become, removing foreign words and coining replacements where necessary using Germanic-sounding endings:
I would dream a herrschaft which had all of the all-rulish and folkmurdering sides of Nazi Deutschland would be even worse if it were also shown by a not-shiftingish geldish/folkish folkrank auftragschaft keeping mostest of the Folk in all not-haveness (which the "Folkish" of Folkreichish All-same-sharingness did not).
That took me about an hour to do, BTW. That approximates what 'PureTurkish' sounds like to anyone educated in the early 1950s and earlier.
This doesn't even address giving up the Latin script (for runes?). Would this mean no real English Literature? Would French become the international language? If so would French begin to replace English again?
Here's Gibbon's famous first sentence:
IN the second century of the Christian Æra, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind.
In the hundredyear two of the Christish age, the overkingdom of Rome held the fairest piece of the earth, and the most well-bred piece of mankind.
Not quite the same, is it?