Language reform is a kind of language planning by massive change to a language. The usual motives are simplification and purification. Simplification aims to make the language easier to use by regularizing the vocabulary and the grammar. Purification aims to make the language conform more to a version of the language perceived as more 'pure'. Language planning refers to deliberate efforts to influence the behaviour of others with respect to the acquisition, structure, or functional allocation of language. ...

Simplification

Simplifying reform may simplify spelling (cf. spelling reform), inflection, syntax, and vocabulary, including word formation. For example, in English, there are many prefixes that mean "the opposite of", e.g. un- im- an- 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 "happy" and "sad" that roughly mean the opposite of each other, but would be better (in terms of simplicity) portrayed as happy and "unhappy", forgetting sad from the language altogether. Proper spelling is the writing of a word or words with all necessary letters and diacritics present in an accepted, conventional order. ... Natural languages often develop cumbersome manners of spelling words. ... Inflection or inflexion refers to a modification or marking of a word (or more precisely lexeme) so that it reflects grammatical (i. ... Syntax, originating from the Greek words συν (syn, meaning co- or together) and τάξις (táxis, meaning sequence, order, arrangement), can in linguistics be described as the study of the rules, or patterned relations that govern the way the words in a sentence come together. ... A vocabulary is a set of words known to a person or other entity, or that are part of a specific language. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Purification

See full article 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. ...

Advantages and disadvantages

As with all reform, there are overwhelming reasons for opposition. All literature would need to be rewritten, all computer documents, as well as all road signs and all maps, etc. 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 may lose their poeticness and become harsh and souless if they are to be changed. Opposition may refer to a number of topics: astronomical opposition political opposition parliamentary opposition Opposition to a patent, see for instance Opposition procedure before the European Patent Office This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Literature is literally acquaintance with letters as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary (from the Latin littera meaning an individual written character (letter)). The term has generally come to identify a collection of texts, mainly novels, drama and poetry. ... Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is traditionally a written art form (although there is also an ancient and modern poetry which relies mainly upon oral or pictorial representations) in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ...

Instances of language reform

• The Turkish language and writing system were reformed starting in the 1920's, to the point that the older language is called by a different name, Ottoman Turkish. Ottoman used the Arabic alphabet, which was replaced in 1928 by a new, Latin-based Turkish alphabet. The vocabulary was "purified" by the replacement of loan-words from Persian and Arabic with native Turkish words or new coinages based (sometimes loosely) on Turkish models. (Lewis, 2002)

• The Modern Hebrew language 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.

• In George Orwell's book 1984, English has become Newspeak, a language designed to make official propaganda easy and politically undesirable thoughts impossible to express.

Ottoman Turkish is the variant of the Turkish language which was used as the administrative and literary language of the Ottoman Empire, containing extensive borrowings from Arabic and Persian and written in Arabic script. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing in the Arabic language. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... The earliest known Turkish alphabet is the Orkhon script. ... Persian (فارسی = Fârsi . ... Arabic (; , less formally, ) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... Hebrew (עִבְרִית ‘Ivrit) is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than 7 million people, mainly in Israel, the West Bank, the United States and by Jewish communities around the world. ... Syntax, originating from the Greek words συν (syn, meaning co- or together) and τάξις (táxis, meaning sequence, order, arrangement), can in linguistics be described as the study of the rules, or patterned relations that govern the way the words in a sentence come together. ... Eric Arthur Blair (June 25, 1903–January 21, 1950), better known by the pen name George Orwell, was a British author and journalist. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Newspeak is a fictional language in George Orwells novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. ... Soviet propaganda poster from the Great Patriotic War depicting the victory of war hero General Georgi Zhukov over Nazi Germany. ...

See also

• Spelling reform
• Language revival
• Metrification
• International Phonetic Association
• Esperanto

Natural languages often develop cumbersome manners of spelling words. ... Language revival is the revival, by governments, political authorities, or enthusiasts, to recover the spoken use of a language that is no longer spoken or learned at home. ... Metrication, or metrification, is the process of converting from the various other systems of units used throughout the world (especially the Imperial or American systems, originating in the United Kingdom) to the metric or SI (Système International) system. ... The International Phonetic Association // (abbr. ... Look up Esperanto in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Bibliography

• Geoffrey Lewis, The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success, Oxford University Press, 2002, ISBN 0199256691.