Basic English
Basic English is a simplified variant of the English language that utilizes a limited vocabulary of 850 words to express a wide range of concepts. Developed by English linguist Charles K. Ogden in the 1930s, Basic English aimed to make English more accessible for non-native speakers and facilitate communication in various fields, including business and science. Despite its restricted vocabulary, Basic English maintains the same grammatical structures as standard English, ensuring that its users communicate effectively while using simpler terms.
Ogden's framework includes categories of words such as operation words, general nouns, picturable objects, and descriptive qualities, all carefully selected to cover essential concepts. One notable aspect of Basic English is the practice of "vertical translation," where existing texts are rewritten to conform to the 850-word limit, enhancing their accessibility. This method has been applied to various significant works, including classical literature and religious texts. Basic English continues to find applications today, with tools like the Simplish website aiding in the translation to Basic English, and educators exploring its potential in language instruction for learners.
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Basic English
Basic English is a simplified version of the English language that uses 850 words to convey all possible concepts used by English speakers. Created in the 1930s by an English linguist, Basic English was intended to provide an easier form of English for non-English speakers to learn. The intent was to provide a lingua franca, or common language, that could be used for business and other purposes. While the vocabulary of Basic English is limited, the rules of grammar and word usage remain the same. This means that Basic English users are speaking a simpler language that is still a legitimate and linguistically identical form of English.
Background
The English spoken by most native speakers and those who learn traditional English as a second language has a vocabulary of more than twenty-five thousand words. The vocabulary includes a great deal of redundancy, with many words for similar concepts. Some words that sound the same are spelled differently, such as to, two, and too, while other words that are spelled similarly are not pronounced the same, such as cough and bough. Often this is because in the many centuries since the seventh century, when English began to be formed, it absorbed many words from different cultures. This makes English a difficult language to learn.
Because English is the predominant language in several key Western countries, such as England and the United States, it is a good candidate to be a lingua franca. When two or more people who do not speak the same language need to communicate, they sometimes choose to do so in a lingua franca, or a common language they all speak that is different from any of their native languages. For instance, two businessmen, one English and one Chinese, do not speak each other's language but each can speak at least some French. In this case, French is a lingua franca that allows them to communicate.
In the 1920s, English linguist Charles K. Ogden developed a way to overcome the challenges faced by those seeking to learn English as a second language. He identified a short list of words that could be used to convey every concept that can be expressed with the twenty-five thousand words in the English language. These words are often simplified versions of bigger, less common words. Basic English was unveiled in a 1930 book called Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar.
Overview
Ogden's intent was to create an accessible language that could be used for Business, Administrative, Scientific, Instructive, and Commercial purposes. As a result, Basic English is not just a simplified or stripped-down version of English. He chose the 850 words carefully to cover every concept that can be shared using traditional English. These words include 100 operation words, 400 general things and 200 picturable things, 100 general qualities, and 50 opposite qualities.
Operation words include the pronouns (I, you, we, etc.), articles (a, the), direction words (north, south), time words (tomorrow, yesterday), prepositions (over, through), and a list of verbs such as come, go, give, keep, see, and say. General things include words such as advertisement, account, man, brother, sister, weight, wind, and writing. Picturable words include many objects such as ant, baby, ball, moon, umbrella, and worm. General quality words are descriptive terms such as beautiful, fat, poor, serious, wet, and young, as well as words for colors such as brown and yellow. Opposite quality words include cold, dark, narrow, short, simple, and wrong; these are opposites of words on the general quality list.
By memorizing the 850 words and some basic English grammar and usage rules, a non-English speaker may come up to speed in using the language more quickly than if the individual studied standard language classes. Ogden advocated for taking this a step further. He encouraged the translation of existing English documents into Basic English, making them easier to understand and theoretically more accessible to people. This is called vertical translation.
Vertical translation involves rewriting each sentence to replace any verb or word that is not in Ogden's list of 850 with words that are on that list. Proper names are still allowed, but every other word must conform to the list. This results in text where each line conveys the same thoughts and concepts but in simpler words. The text is easier to understand, but the wording may not flow as well or sound as poetic. The text may also be wordier, because in Basic English, more words may be needed to get the same point across. For example, Basic English does not include the word eat, so a person would say "have a meal."
Ogden had hoped to create a library of works from many fields of study all vertically translated into Basic English. He envisioned translating texts from science, literature, history, religion, and many other fields to make them more available. A number of works were converted in this way, including the Bible, Plato's Republic, and Homer's Iliad. All of these vertical translations were completed in the 1930s and 1940s.
Since Basic English was introduced, it has continued to be used in various ways. For example, an English company created a website called Simplish that functions as an English-to-Basic English translator. While the translator makes the same type of syntax errors that any computerized translation program tends to make, it does provide guidance for the use of Basic English. Some educators experiment with Basic English in the classroom, and it is used in some areas to help non-English speakers learn English as a second language.
Bibliography
Baugh, Albert C., and Thomas Cable. A History of the English Language. 6th ed., Pearson, 2013.
Davison, Ivy. "The Basic English Foundation." ELT Journal, vol. V, no. 1, 1950, pp. 24–25, doi.org/10.1093/elt/V.1.24. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.
Harbeck, James. "How the English Language Became Such a Mess." British Broadcasting Corporation, 8 June 2015, www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150605-your-language-is-sinful. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.
Malouf, Michael G. Making World English: Literature, Late Empire, and English Language Teaching, 1919-39. Bloomsbury Academic, 2023.
Nordquist, Richard. "What Is Basic English?" Thought Co., 6 Jan. 2020, www.thoughtco.com/basic-english-language-1689023. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.
Ogden, C. K. The System of Basic English. 3rd ed., Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1948.
Okrent, Arika. "Does English Only Need 850 Words? This Guy Thought So." The Week, 17 June 2015, theweek.com/articles/560685/does-english-only-need-850-words-guy-thought. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.
Scudder, Rebecca. "Lingua Franca: Many Languages for Many Different Roles." Bright Hub Education, 8 Oct. 2013, www.brighthubeducation.com/studying-a-language/48007-lingua-franca-many-languages-for-many-roles. Accessed 20 Nov. 2024.