If you could make only a few modification to the English language or alphabet, what would you do?
I think we should bring back þ and & as letters.
Computer keyboards made & ubiquitous again, and þ has been making a comeback. I also would add a distinction of þ to differentiate the "th" sound in "theme" (unvoiced) vs "that" (voiced).
Lastly, and most practically of all, I wish for the "u" subsequent to "q" to be ellipsed. So like "sequel" would just be "seqel" and the "u" is intrinsic/incorporated to the "q". It's explicitly redundant and that's bothered me.
I have so much to say…
I would make it so every letter has only one way of being pronounced.
Why is it peter pronounced with a /pi/ and peril with a /pe/?
You are unable to comprehend how you are supposed to say something unless you already heard it and I hate it…
The pronunciation does sound quite silly, but it would be so helpful. ;-;
Sometimes, when I can’t remember how to spell a word, and my spelling corrector can’t figure out what I mean, I type the word into a search engine while spelling it differently so often until it suggests the correct spelling. It drives me half-crazy sometimes.
Honestly, articles in English are nearly useless. Specifically “a(n)” because only “the” has any use by adding particularity/specificity. I saw dog. I pet the dog. Nonspecific dog encountered, specifically that dog was petted (by me).
Similarly some pronouns are wholely redundant in verb constructions that conjugate to a specific (pro)noun, primarily the verb “to be” for first person singular “am”. I do in fact omit “I” in such constructions, example being “Am going to take nap” or “I know what am, don’t remind me”.
I do that purely for the principle of it, bc obviously, “am” and “I’m” are only one syllable, and people often will think I said “I’m” unless it’s over text.
sort of similar to @FishEmoji i want to add to how certain punctuation interacts. mostly in terms of quotations. having a " or ’ directly above a , or . would be preferable to using ." because i could then better indicate the difference between:
a spoken sentence is ending, but the narration continues
."
spoken sentence and narration are ending or pausing together
" over ./,
also would fix my irritation with having a quoted term right next to punctuation, where i am never happy with putting the punctuation inside the quote if it isn’t part of the phrase nor do i really like seeing ". or ", or the much more awkward "? and "!
not sure how i would fix those last two exactly, but i think there’s some options.
anyway, as much as i dislike manually writing because of my death grip on a pencil or pen, it does at least let me make up my own punctuation on the fly, and i would love it if digital punctuation was more modular. we have the tech to do it! why not have fun with it‽
I have no idea if this is accurate (would usefulcharts(dot)com ever lie?).
Anyways my proposed language change is to regress ‘D’ back to . Also does this mean that mean that the metaphysical concept of change is entwined in because delta?
i know there’s context i’m missing, but the way that the alphabet evolved from roman to modern script on this graph is so funny. according to this, all that was changed since 1 CE is the font
. Also does this mean that mean that the metaphysical concept of change is entwined in