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.
If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.
Porthos
I think English looks so different from German and Dutch because of its very different orthography. As you can see in the post above, given a few spelling corrections, English looks an awful lot like German.
greg in noord-frankrijk
The same joke works in many languages actually.
Porthos
Such as........
Sander
Porthos wrote:
I think English looks so different from German and Dutch because of its very different orthography. As you can see in the post above, given a few spelling corrections, English looks an awful lot like German.
No, with those spelling adaptions English looks and awfull lot like how English speakers imagine a German-English accent (which most of them know from war movies and fawlty towers) to look when written down.
Porthos
Sander wrote:
Porthos wrote:
I think English looks so different from German and Dutch because of its very different orthography. As you can see in the post above, given a few spelling corrections, English looks an awful lot like German.
No, with those spelling adaptions English looks and awfull lot like how English speakers imagine a German-English accent (which most of them know from war movies and fawlty towers) to look when written down.
That may be so, but I still think it looks more like German given the elimination of a few of the characteristics which set English apart from German, such as the "th" sound.
Porthos
greg in noord-frankrijk wrote:
The same joke works in many languages actually.
Could you give me an example then Greg? For instance, could you make German look like English or French look like Italian?
Tiorthan
Porthos wrote:
Sander wrote:
Porthos wrote:
I think English looks so different from German and Dutch because of its very different orthography. As you can see in the post above, given a few spelling corrections, English looks an awful lot like German.
No, with those spelling adaptions English looks and awfull lot like how English speakers imagine a German-English accent (which most of them know from war movies and fawlty towers) to look when written down.
That may be so, but I still think it looks more like German given the elimination of a few of the characteristics which set English apart from German, such as the "th" sound.
But it still misses the characteristics that make German look like German.
fab
Quote:
think English looks so different from German and Dutch because of its very different orthography
I personally don't think that English look so different from Dutch and German, at least I never really had though of that.
Exepted the latinate words (which in my opinion have been generally quite much "germanized"), I never have found the germanic english words somehow different from Dutch, German or any other germanic language.
I think you tend to see them as different because you're not used to see them writed a certain way, while they are in other way in English.
If I take your sentence :
" think, looks, so, from, and, of, its, As, you, can, see, the, above, given, few, spelling, awful, ,like, etc. "
The spelling of these words for me doesn't seem different from the other germanic languages.
Porthos
Fab, I know it obviously doesn't look very different from Dutch or German for you since you're not a native English speaker, so to you, as we say in English, "It's all Greek to me!". But for those of us who speak English natively, we can see the obvious differences between English and German/Dutch. German and Dutch look a lot more like each other than either do to English, as English is more distantly related to the other two than either are to each other, as English belongs to a different branch within the West Germanic family of languages. The changes that were made in the initial post made the English words look an awful lot more like German than English normally does, because it eliminated some of the phonological and orthographic differences between English and German, like the 'th's and things of that nature.
Greg mentioned that the same thing could be accomplished between almost all languages. So I'm anxious for him to make French look more like Italian or for him to make German look more like English, by changing French words to look more like the Italian equivalents and so forth.
Benjamin [inactive]
Actually, the letter combination 'th' does exist in German. Thema (German for 'theme') is just one of many examples.
Porthos
Let's please avoid a useless debate. Yes, "th" does exist, but you understand what I am saying Benjamin. For the most part, German replaces an English "th" with "d" and vice versa. Dis instead of this and drei instead of three, and die instead of the, etc.
Icke
Yes, German may have a different orthography, but not in the case of replacing "w" with "v". All English words that are written with a "w" just look like (or almost) their German equivalent:
wind = Wind
will = Wille (or werden)
what = was
we = wir and so on...
It is just pronounced in a different way!
The same goes for replacing "th" with "z". Like Sander already said, that is just English with a heavy German accent. But if you replace it with a "d", then it would look more like German.
But I agree that changing "ph" to "f" and "c" to "k" makes it look more like German.
greg in noord-frankrijk
Porthos wrote:
Greg mentioned that the same thing could be accomplished between almost all languages. So I'm anxious for him to make French look more like Italian or for him to make German look more like English, by changing French words to look more like the Italian equivalents and so forth.
Tre facile de ciangiere l'aspette isteriore du francese pur le fare rissemblare a l'italian.
Tray faceel day shaunjey l'aspay exteerior dew Fraunsey poore luh fair resembley a duh l'Aungley.
Tre fácil de xanxé l'aspecto esterior du francés pur le far resemblar a l'español.
Try fassil dy sząży l'aspekt ekstyrjer du franćy pur ly fer rysąbly a du polony.
Deborah
greg in noord-frankrijk wrote:
Tray faceel day shaunjey l'aspay exteerior dew Fraunsey poore luh fair resembley a duh l'Aungley.
Ironically, this one took me the longest to figure out. In fact, I didn't realize it was supposed to be English until the last word. This looks more like English to me:
And dividing up some words, such as shawn jay, lass pay and Frawn say would help.
greg in noord-frankrijk
Deborah wrote:
greg in noord-frankrijk wrote:
Tray faceel day shaunjey l'aspay exteerior dew Fraunsey poore luh fair resembley a duh l'Aungley.
Ironically, this one took me the longest to figure out. In fact, I didn't realize it was supposed to be English until the last word. This looks more like English to me:
Actually I don't agree with the sentence, it is pretty hard ! It is quite difficult to avoid to "translate" when you know the equivalent in the other language when you know it, and quite difficult to keep the right sound when you don't know how could it be pronounced in the language in question.
Porthos
I think I like Fab's the best.
Benjamin [inactive]
Aktuallität, it ist possibel zu wreit Englisch wit ah mohr German weh of Spelling. Vor ekzämpel, as ju kann sie hier, mäny of the Worts are eider aktuel german Worts ohr wehrie zimmilär zu aktuel german Worts.
Also, jou kan wrijt Englisch so dat it luiks lijk Nederlands. Aktualliteit, ik dink dat severaal woords heer kan bee vond in eider Nederlands or Afrkiaans.
fab
Quote:
Aktuallität, it ist possibel zu wreit Englisch wit ah mohr German weh of Spelling. Vor ekzämpel, as ju kann sie hier, mäny of the Worts are eider aktuel german Worts ohr wehrie zimmilär zu aktuel german Worts
Ben,
I don't know any German, I'm asking if it is really a German sentence ? or just a German-looking transformed English ? does any word exist in German ?
Actually I understood it quite easyly when I tries to pronounce it.
Porthos
Okay, now I like Ben's the best. His German and Dutch English was very convincing. lol
Porthos
Can someone who knows some Italian do a Spanish to Italian sentence or two?
Benjamin [inactive]
fab wrote:
Ben,
I don't know any German, I'm asking if it is really a German sentence ? or just a German-looking transformed English ? does any word exist in German ?
Actually I understood it quite easyly when I tries to pronounce it.
It is English made to look like German. However, many of the words there actually do exist in German, such as:
aktuallität — actuality
ist — is
zu — to
Englisch — English
weh — pain
(be)vor — (be)fore
kann — can
sie — she/they
hier — here
Wort — word
aktuell — current
Ohr — ear
Here is a (probably very bad) translation into 'real' German:
Tatsächlich ist es möglich mit einer mehr deutsche Weise der Rechtschreibung Englisch zu schreiben. Z.B., wie man hier sehen kann, sind viele Wörter entweder reale deutsche Wörter oder sehr änlich realen deutschen Wörtern.
That looks very English; unfortunately, some the sounds would be too far from the originals, for example the first syllable in "Trifuss", "shown" and "dough".
No, because "dough" is an actual English word that rhymes with "so".
"Paula ferrous omblay arlong glay" sounds good (read with a non-rhotic British accent), except that the first syllable of "Paula" is missing the "r". But I like "ferrous omblay arlong glay".
fab
Quote:
Threy fathill the shawngey lawspay extariew due franssay poor lue fair ressemblay all angley.
Could you make the inverse, transform an English sentense to make it looking like french, Italian, German, Dutch, etc. ?
EX: "Very easy to change the exterior looking of English to make it looking like... "
fab
fab wrote:
Quote:
Threy fathill the shawngey lawspay extariew due franssay poor lue fair ressemblay all angley.
Could you make the inverse, transform an English sentense to make it looking like french, Italian, German, Dutch, etc. ?
EX: "Very easy to change the exterior looking of English to make it looking like... "
Vérie y sie tout changes-eux exterieur loup-quinnegue au feu Inne gliche tout mèque itte louquinegue l'ailleque freine-cheux.
Deborah
If you spelled it "freint-cheux" instead of "freine-cheux", would the "t" affect the "ch" and create the English "ch" sound?
Icke
Benjamin wrote:
Here is a (probably very bad) translation into 'real' German:
Du bist viel zu bescheiden, Benjamin!
Du könntest dich im deutschen Thread mal blicken lassen...
