I have noticed how bad the English language's consistency is, along with its not-so fitting vocabulary for a West Germanic language. So I will inform you about my new alternative called:
FreEnglish, a combination of Free + English.
If you read my interests page, you know I'm very into linguistics, I always wondered why English sounds like a weird mix of French and it's own thing (coming from a German speaker), and when I first got interested in the origin of languages I came across people like me pointing out those doubts I had, then I digged in more into the topic... eventually finally coming across the concept of Anglish.
What's Anglish: It's an English kind of purification revolving around transforming Romance, Greek and any loanword into a solid Germanic or Anglo-Saxon expression/word.
Does this have to do with FreEnglish? You see, then I took advantage of the Anglish practice and thought of adapting English into making it a closer sibling to its brother languages (Dutch, German, Frisian). By applying an Anglish choice of vocabulary and expression, and the following new rules:
Now, complete Anglish vocabulary was my plan B, I initially thought of having a balanced and similar amount of loanwords to German or Dutch, but since there is no rule for amount of borrowed words for a language, I had to. The only exception I added is cultural words or proper nouns. Not every word has to be purified, anything that is Germanic, Anglo-Saxon or Norse can count.
I will use two examples of written text and IPA pronounciation with the first article of Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article for a javelin:
| * All werely beings are free and alike'n worthiness and rights born. They are with rethe'nd inwit gift and should behave towards on'another in a mindset of brotherhood. | /aɫ werelɛj bɨiŋs arə fri and alɨkən woɹðɨnes ant rɨxts boɹn. ðej arə wɨθ reðənd ɨnwɨt gɨft ant ʃault behavə towaɹds onanoðəɹ ɨn a mɨndset ov broðəɹhud./ |
| * A darth is a light spear firstly made to be thrown, yorelorishly as a breadthed weapon. Today, the darth is foremostly for gleeing ends such as the darth’row benot. The darth is nearly always by hand thrown, unlike the sling, bow, and steelbow, which fise flones with'e help of a handheld working. However, sares do the darth’rower stand in fulfilling greater firls, such as spearthrowers or the amentum. | /a daɹθ ɨs a lɨxt spɛɹ fɨɹstlɛj madə tø bə ðrœyn, jorəlorɨʃlɛj as a brɛdðed wɛpon. tødaj, ðə daɹθ ɨs forəmostlɛj foɹ gliɨŋ ends suç as ðə daɹθrœy bənot. ðə daɹθ ɨs nɛɹlɛj alwais bɛj hant ðrœyn, unlɨkə ðə slɨŋ, bœy, ant stilbœy, hwɨç fɨsə flonəs wɨðə help ov a handhelt woɹkɨŋ. hœyevəɹ, sarəs dø ðə daɹθrœyəɹ stand ɨn fulfɨɫɨŋ grɛtəɹ fɨɹls, suç as spɛɹðrœyəɹs oɹ ðə amentum./ |
Do you notice which changes have been made? Let's see each one of them:
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* These sounds will remain consistent in every situation where you have to pronounce them. For any Scandinavian or Dutch speaker this might sound or be easy to nail down. Most of these changes are due to historical purposes or at least to me, reasonable and serious sound replacements which still keep a bit of loyalty between the pronounciation of some words. Take the word bear for example which is /bɛɹ/, you can notice it is still reminiscent of the modern equivalent while keeping its alikeness with its core heritage. |
* These are rules established to fit comfortability & fast flow in speech and also, again, historical heritage. Let's check the following:
* What I'm trying to do is create an accurate-as-possible alternative way of speaking an English holding its main roots. And if probable I'd love gathering or finding communities interested in this, or maybe suggesting changes and ideas. If you come from the Anglish project or just want to get involved in this, remember my contact page in the info. section. Thank you for reading.
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