Tragedy of the Internet

Communication systems worldwide are moving digitized data at unprecedented and rapidly increasing speeds, especially with the Internet. But most of that data is cast in linguistic form, and the multiplicity of linguistic cultures renders most of it useless to most of the world's population. 

Systematic, Conscious, Language Construction

Systematic, Conscious, Language Construction

There are those who consider language construction something rare. Yet all languages are under construction by each rising generation.

It's interesting to note that many of the natural languages that we talk about today did not exist as such in the public (or even linguistic) consciousness a hundred or so years ago. In many cases the name did not even exist. Usually more is involved than a new name, per se. Standardization and writing systems play a large role. 

Conscious language construction has been a considerable factor in many cases. Standardization of clusters of dialects, and decisions on alphabets and writing system are often key. Poets have played a big role. But in many cases far more creativity and conscious design has been involved. This is a partial list:

Albanian (standardization of dialects)

Bislama (from unstandardized creoles and  pidgins)

Bosnian (if such does now exist)

Haitian or "Haitian Creole" (from unstandardized creoles)

Hindi (in its official Bharat, i.e., "non-Hindustani" form)

Indonesian (from unstandardized "Malay" creoles and  pidgins)

Norwegian (in its two variant standardizations)

Standard Chinese - from "Peking dialect" but with considerable design applied.

Swahili (as standardized)

Tok Pisin (from unstandardized pidgins and creoles)

Vietnamese (then  referred to as Tonkinese, Annamese, etc.)

Yivrit - Modern Hebrew 

Other written languages have gone through major reforms (which often involve changing vocabulary and standardizing grammatical features as well).

A few examples: 

Azerbaijani  (various alphabet changes, vocabulary influx)

Galician (Galego)

Hausa (written form established, dialect compromises)

Japanese  (limited use of Sinitic characters, vocabulary influx from western languages.)

Kazakh Cyrillic, vocabulary influx from Russian, etc.)

Korean (discontinued most use of Sinitic characters, vocabulary influx from western languages.)

Kyrgyz Cyrillic, vocabulary influx from Russian, etc.)

Lingala  (written form established, dialect compromises)

Mongol ("Outer-Mongolia" - put into Cyrillic, vocabulary influx from Russian, etc.)

Oromo (formerly called "Galla" -- now written)

Papiamentu (spelling standardized)

Russian (spelling reform after the Revolution)

Sardinian (Limba Sarda Unificada)

Somali (standardized, alphabet established)

Tajik Cyrillic, vocabulary influx from Russian, etc.)

Turkish (Ataturk's alphabet change, major vocabulary restructuring)

Turkmen Cyrillic, vocabulary influx from Russian, etc.)

Xhosa (written form established, dialect compromises)

Zhuang

More recently, many dialects that were seldom written have found expression on the Internet. 

In most cases, this involved considerable conscious design, given the diverse features of subdialects.

Asturian

Bolognese

Calabrese

Ferrarese

Furlan

Lombard 

Mudnés

Neapolitan

Parmigiano

Scots

Tetun

Triestino

Valencian

Venetian

Wallon

Zeneize
many, many more 

Then there are all those commercial "constructed languages" like Caterpillar English, etc. 

All this reminds us that "language construction" is not just something rare. 
It is something people constantly do.

////////////////////////////

Does Technology Unite Us ?

Does Technology Unite Us ?

Modern technology does often tend to unite us on a global scale, 

and not just the internet or cell phones. Words have been  flowing around the world for a long time.

Let's take a bit of technology already well over a hundred years old -- 

The Bicycle.

Here are some present-day language usages:

bicycle [ Aceh=sepeda;

bicycle [ Afrikaans=fiets;

bicycle [ Albanian=biçikletë;

bicycle [ Alemannic=Welo;

bicycle [ Amharic=bisklit;

bicycle [ Arabic=darrāja /bišklīṭa;

bicycle [ Arabic(Lebanon)=bisiklét;

bicycle [ Arabic(Moroccan)=bissaklyte /bešklīt;

bicycle [ Arabic(Tunis)=beskliit;

bicycle [ Armenian=hecaniv;

bicycle [ Asturian=bicicleta

bicycle [ Aukan=baisigii;

bicycle [ Azeri=velosiped /bisiklet;

bicycle [ Balochi=saykal;

bicycle [ Basque=bizikleta;

bicycle [ Belarus= velosipyed /bisiklet;

bicycle [ Bengali=sā'ikēla;

bicycle [ Berber=bissaklite;

bicycle [ Bikol (Bicolano)=bisikléta;

bicycle [ Bislama=baskel;

bicycle [ Bosnian=bicikl /bajk;

bicycle [ Brahui=baysikal;

bicycle [ Breton=bisiklet

bicycle [ Bulgarian=velosiped;

bicycle [ Burmese= cakbhi: /se’bayng;

bicycle [ Calabrese=bricichetta;

bicycle [ Campidanesu=bicicletta;

bicycle [ Cantonese=daan1ce1;

bicycle [ Catalan=bicicleta;

bicycle [ Cebuano=bisekleta /bisikleta;

bicycle [ Chabacano=bicicleta;

bicycle [ Chamorro=bisikleta;

bicycle [ Comorian=bisikleti;

bicycle [ Croatian=dvokolica/bicikl;

bicycle [ Czech=bicykl /jízdní kolo;

bicycle [ Danish=cykel;

bicycle [ Dutch=fiets;

bicycle [ Emiliano =biciclàtta;

bicycle [ Esperanto=biciklo;

bicycle [ Estonian=jalgratas;

bicycle [ Ewe=gasɔ;

bicycle [ Fiji=basikeli;

bicycle [ Finnish=polkupyörä;

bicycle [ Flemish=velo;

bicycle [ French= vélo /bicyclette;

bicycle [ Fulani=bikalet;

bicycle [ Furlan=biciclete;

bicycle [ Galego=bicicleta;

bicycle [ Gawwada=saykile;

bicycle [ Georgian=velosipedi /velo;

bicycle [ German=Fahrrad /Velo;

bicycle [ Glosa=biciklo;

bicycle [ Greek= podí̱lato;

bicycle [ Guarani=apajerekõi;

bicycle [ Gujarati=sāyekele;

bicycle [ Haitian=bisiklèt;

bicycle [ Hausa= keke /báasúkùr;

bicycle [ Hawaiian=paikikala;

bicycle [ Hebrew=ofanáyim;

bicycle [ Hiligaynon=bisikleta;

bicycle [ Hindi=sā'ikila /baaisikal;

bicycle [ Hungarian=bicikli/kerékpár;

bicycle [ Icelandic=reiðhjól;

bicycle [ Idiom Neutral=bisikl;

bicycle [ Ido=biciklo;

bicycle [ Igbo=ígwè;

bicycle [ Ilonggo=bisikleta;

bicycle [ Indonesian=sepeda /bersepeda;

bicycle [ Interlingua=bicycletta;

bicycle [ Irish= rothar;

bicycle [ Italian=bicicletta;

bicycle [ Japanese=jitensha;

bicycle [ Javanese=sepédhah;

bicycle [ Kalanga=bhaisikili;

bicycle [ Kannada=saikal /baisikal;

bicycle [ Kanuri=báskùr;

bicycle [ Kapampangan=bicicleta /bisíncleta;

bicycle [ Kashmiri=bə:skal /bëëskal;

bicycle [ Kashubian=kòło;

bicycle [ Kazakh=velosïped;

bicycle [ Khmer=gaung;

bicycle [ KiKongo=dikâlu /bisikaléti;

bicycle [ Kinyarwanda=igare;

bicycle [ Konkanni=saikel;

bicycle [ Korean= jajeongeo;

bicycle [ Kpelle=bày shookoli;

bicycle [ Kurdish=paysikel /vêlosîpêd;

bicycle [ Kurmanji=bîsîklêt;

bicycle [ Kyrgyz=velosiped;

bicycle [ Labrador Inuttut=paisikal;

bicycle [ Lao=lot thīp;

bicycle [ Latvian= velosipēds;

bicycle [ LFrancaNova= bisicle;

bicycle [ Lingala=nkíngá;

bicycle [ Lithuanian=dviratis;

bicycle [ Logudoresu=brizichetta;

bicycle [ Lombard=bici;

bicycle [ Luganda=eggaali;

bicycle [ Maasai=en-kidéeré /ɛm-básikil;

bicycle [ Macedonian= velosiped;

bicycle [ Malagasy=bisikileta;

bicycle [ Malay=basikal;

bicycle [ Malayalam=saikkiḷ;

bicycle [ Maldivian=basikalu;

bicycle [ Maltese=rota /bajsikil /biċikletta;

bicycle [ Mandarin(Beijing)=zìxíngchē;

bicycle [ Mandarin(Taiwan)=jiǎotàchē;

bicycle [ Mandinka=fooleesuwo /sayikuloo;

bicycle [ Maori=pasikala;

bicycle [ Marathi=sāyakala;

bicycle [ Mirandolese=bicicleta;

bicycle [ Mondlango=biciklo;

bicycle [ Mongolian=unadag dugui;

bicycle [ Nahuatl=omalacatl;

bicycle [ Navajo=dziʼizí;

bicycle [ Nepali=sā'ikala;

bicycle [ Nissart=bicicleta;

bicycle [ Norwegian Bokmål=sikkel;

bicycle [ Norwegian=sykkel;

bicycle [ Novial=bisikle;

bicycle [ Nubi='baisikil;

bicycle [ Occidental=bicicle;

bicycle [ Occitan=bicicleta;

bicycle [ Oriya=sā'ikēl;

bicycle [ Oromo=biskilītī;

bicycle [ Papiamentu=bais /baiskel /bicicleta;

bicycle [ Pashtu=bayeskel;

bicycle [ Persian=do-čarxe;

bicycle [ Polish=rower;

bicycle [ Portuguese=bicicleta /biciclo /ciclo;

bicycle [ Punjabi=sā'īkala /baisaka;

bicycle [ Quechua=bisikilita /wisiclita /iskaymuyu;

bicycle [ Romagnolo= biciclèina;

bicycle [ Romanian=bicicleta /bicicletă;

bicycle [ Romansh=velo /bicicleta;

bicycle [ Russian= vélik /velosiped;

bicycle [ Saami=sihkkel /sihkkelat;

bicycle [ Sakha(Yakut)=belasiped;

bicycle [ Samoan=uila;

bicycle [ Saramaccan=baisígi;

bicycle [ Scottish Gaelic=baidhsagal /baic;

bicycle [ Serbian=bitsikl;

bicycle [ Sesotho=baesekele;

bicycle [ Setswana=baesekele;

bicycle [ Shona=bhaisikoro /bhasikoro;

bicycle [ Sicilian=biscigretta;

bicycle [ Sinhala=bayisikalaya /sáykale;

bicycle [ Slavico=bicikl;

bicycle [ Slovak=bicykel;

bicycle [ Slovenian=koló /bicíkel;

bicycle [ Somali=baskiil /bushkuleeti;

bicycle [ Sorbian=kólaso;

bicycle [ Sotho=baesekele;

bicycle [ Spanish=bicicleta;

bicycle [ Sranan=baysigri;

bicycle [ Swahili=baisikeli;

bicycle [ Swedish=cykel;

bicycle [ Tagalog=bisikléta;

bicycle [ Tajik=dučarxa /velosiped;

bicycle [ Tamil=saikil /caikkiḷ;

bicycle [ Tatar=welosiped;

bicycle [ Telugu=saikalu /saikil /baisikil;

bicycle [ Tetun=bisikleta;

bicycle [ Thai=cạkryān;

bicycle [ Tibetan=rkang sga ril;

bicycle [ Tok Pisin=wilwil /baik;

bicycle [ Tolai=aingau;

bicycle [ Tongan=pasikala;

bicycle [ Turkish=bisiklet;

bicycle [ Turkmen=welosiped;

bicycle [ Twi=baásikere /saákreà;

bicycle [ Ukrainian= velosyped;

bicycle [ Urdu= bā'īsikal /bisikel;

bicycle [ Uyghur=welsipit;

bicycle [ Uzbek=velosiped;

bicycle [ Vietnamese=xe đạp;

bicycle [ Volapük=saikul;

bicycle [ Welsh= beiciau /beic;

bicycle [ Wolof=welo;

bicycle [ Xhosa=ibhayisikili;

bicycle [ Yembe=ba7si7ku;

bicycle [ Yiddish=bitsikl /rover /velosiped /bitsiklet;

bicycle [ Yoeme=visikleeta;

bicycle [ Yoruba=keke /básíkùlù;

bicycle [ Zeneize=biciclétta;

bicycle [ Zulu=-bhayisikili;

bicycle [ Zuni=baysik'o;

///////////////////

Wild Headline Ambiguity

Wild Headline Ambiguity

Around the turn of the century, Jeff Henning sent out a list of ambiguous headlines. He and I spent some time afterwards analyzing the various reasons for confusion.

The list is dated, but the linguistic problems with the English language remain. Most of these errors could be made in no language other than English.

Here is part of that list. These are actual headlines, innocently printed without a clue as to possible misinterpretation.


>>Prostitutes Appeal to Pope
>>Include your Children when Baking Cookies
>>Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge
>>Teacher Strikes Idle Kids
>>Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says
>>Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
>>Safety Experts Say School Bus Passengers Should Be Belted
>>Drunk Gets Nine Months in Violin Case
>>Survivor of Siamese Twins Joins Parents
>>Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half
>>Stud Tires Out
>>Farmer Bill Dies in House
>>Iraqi Head Seeks Arms
>>Is There a Ring of Debris around Uranus?
>>Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over
>>Soviet Virgin Lands Short of Goal Again
>>British Left Waffles on Falkland Islands
>>Lung Cancer in Women Mushrooms
>>Eye Drops off Shelf
>>Reagan Wins on Budget, But More Lies Ahead
>>Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim
>>Shot Off Woman's Leg Helps Nicklaus to 66
>>Enraged Cow Injures Farmer with Ax
>>Plane Too Close to Ground, Crash Probe Told
>>Miners Refuse to Work after Death
>>Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant
>>Stolen Painting Found by Tree
>>Two Sisters Reunited after 18 Years in Checkout Counter
>>Killer Sentenced to Die for Second Time in 10 Years
>>Never Withhold Herpes Infection from Loved One
>>If Strike isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last a While
>>Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures
>>Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead
>>Man Struck by Lightning Faces Battery Charge
>>New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
>>Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft
>>Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
>>Chef Throws His Heart into Helping Feed Needy
>>Arson Suspect is Held in Massachusetts Fire
>>British Union Finds Dwarfs in Short Supply
>>Ban On Soliciting Dead in Trotwood
>>Lansing Residents Can Drop Off Trees
>>New Vaccine May Contain Rabies
>>Man Minus Ear Waives Hearing
>>Deaf College Opens Doors to Hearing Air
>>Prosecutor Releases Probe into Undersheriff
>>Old School Pillars are Replaced by Alumni
>>Bank Drive-in Window Blocked by Board
>>Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors
>>Some Pieces of Rock Hudson Sold at Auction
>>You Can Put Pickles Up Yourself

Perhaps you can add some more recent examples.

Leo

Balloon to Oz

Balloon to Oz, copyright 2012, soon to be published,

but first chapters are currently available for FREE,

at the end of the published Mysterious Tintype of Oz.

Use the same coupon to get this preview of the story

of the 17-year-old boy who sails off to Oz, later to

become ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.’

Use the same coupon at

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/284413

Mysterious Tintype of Oz

The Acadon language is presented in the Hidden Chronicles of Oz.

While Acadon is designed for use in our humdrum world called Alpimar, it is also to be found among the elves of Erdavon, the magic world in which the Land of Oz exists.

Mysterious Tintype of Oz,

published February 2013

Available NOW at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/284413

It will be listed at other e-book dealers as well.

                                  -- Price is $4.99

BUT UNTIL MARCH 19 YOU CAN DOWNLOAD IT FOR FREE IF YOU USE THIS COUPON at SMASHWORDS

click

The Mysterious Tintype of Oz

Enter: AA63E (not case sensitive)

100% off first month of issue

issued 2013-02-19; effective immediately; expiration date 2013-03-19 

Acadon in a Fantasy Context

The Acadon language is presented in the 
Hidden Chronicles of Oz

While Acadon is designed for use in our humdrum world called Alpimar, it is also to be found among the elves of Erdavon, the magic world in which the Land of Oz exists.

Two books of the Hidden Chronicles of Oz are on your way.

Mysterious Tintype of Oz,

published February 2013

Available NOW at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/284413

Will be listed at other e-book dealers as well.

-- Price is $4.99

BUT UNTIL MARCH 19 YOU CAN DOWNLOADED IT FOR FREE IF YOU USE THIS COUPON at SMASHWORDS

click

The Mysterious Tintype of Oz

Enter: AA63E (not case sensitive)

100% off during the first month of issue

issued 2013-02-19; effective immediately; expiration date 2013-03-19 

........

Balloon to Oz

Balloon to Oz, copyright 2012, soon to be published,

but first chapters are currently available for FREE,

at the end of the published Mysterious Tintype of Oz.

Use the same coupon to get this preview of the story

of the 17-year-old boy who sails off to Oz, later to

become ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.’

Use the coupon at

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/284413

Seven Basic Principles of Acadon

The Seven Basic Principles of Acadon:

Those involved in the design and presentation of Acadon have kept these basic principles in mind.

1) Acadon is itself -- unique and integral.

Acadon is not ‘experimental English,’ or ‘latter-day Latin,’ or ‘a kinder Klingon’ or ‘a new Esperanto.” It is only Acadon. If it seems different or even odd on first glance, so be it. Acadon marches to its own drummer.

2) Acadon is based on what Acadon can do.

Acadon seeks to universalize access to data and improve cross-cultural communication, and all design decisions must be performance-centered in that context. Acadon users do not exhort, only describe capabilities. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

3) Apply Occam's razor, but don't cut yourself on it.

All other things being equal, Acadon favors simplicity; yet it also promotes richness and complexity of expression -- if and when they serve established goals.

4) Chop through all Gordian knots.

If a problem has no theoretical solution, avoid its practical effects where possible. To minimize the effect of noisy channels and dissimilar linguistic habits, for example, Acadon simply avoids potentially confusing sounds at a word-by-word level.

5) Take all of the world's population into consideration.

As many users as possible should find as much familiar about Acadon as possible. To minimize the learning load, Acadon seeks the most widespread vocabulary items. No linguistic culture should be excluded simply because of current economic or educational factors. These vocabulary decisions cannot be made by any pre-established "mathematical formula" based on proportional representation for population size or by pre-selecting a
set of "major languages" for special treatment.

6) Acadon users should make no claims for Acadon that are not concrete and realistic.

Acadon must not be presented, for example, as a panacea for the political or moral problems of the world. It is a tool to deal with the linguistic dimensions of current international communication problems.

7) Recognize that Acadon cannot be perfect -- all languages have wobble.

Perfection is not a goal of the project. Acadon does not perfectly mirror reality; no language can. It will be sufficient for Acadon to be far better than English (or Chinese or Russian or Spanish ...) in a variety of ways of considerable economic and other practical value to its users.

Is English becoming the world language?

Many people today believe that English is already the world language, or is in the position of becoming that. This is particularly true of English-speakers who have not travelled much, or who have kept to the equivalent of Hilton Hotels in their travels.

Let’s look at the facts.

There are perhaps 375 million native speakers of English, about five and a half percent of the world’s population, and most of its dialects are mutually intelligible.

That is very impressive.

Only two or three languages have more native speakers. Depending on how you count, these are Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, and Spanish. Mandarin (also called Standard Chinese) stands out as the language of about 14% of us all. The exact percentage depends on whether you count all its dialects.

This 14% count includes the various sub-dialects of Mandarin, not other Chinese forms such as Cantonese, Hakka, or Taiwanese. If these persons are added (and most now have Mandarin as their second language) the ‘Chinese speaking’ figure is even more impressive, close to 20% of humanity.

[ Incidentally, I have written a book on variety within China: The Chinese Mosaic, currently out of print. ]

However, most observers around the world will agree that Chinese in any present-day form is not likely to become the world language. While its figures are far more than twice those of English, its distribution is not nearly as widespread.

English is widespread.

While some 60% of native speakers of English are North Americans, well over 15% are in the UK and Ireland, about 5% in Australia or New Zealand, perhaps 2% in Africa (primarily in South Africa or Nigeria.) In Asia, there are quite a few native speakers of English in places like the Philippines or Guam, even in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Native speakers of Arabic, Portuguese, and Bengali all run close to 4% each of the world population, once again depending on how you count dialects (particularly those of Arabic.)

But to evaluate the role of English, we must address the secondary users of languages, those with English as a second or third language—provided it is at a level of valuable use.

Some of the census figures are very impressive. Almost half of the population of Pakistan claim English as a second language. More than half in Nigeria and the Philippines.

For India, the figure is only about 12% as a second language, but more as a third language. Given the size of India’s population, those using English in India are more numerous than those in the United States or any other country.

Large numbers have a degree of command of English in places like Egypt, Bangladesh, and Japan. Everyday usage is exceedingly high in places far and wide, like Malta in the Mediterranean or Suriname in South America. And so it goes.

So many diverse places.

This global spread for a language is unprecedented.

So many diverse uses as well.

English is the worldwide language of air-traffic control and is easily available in most international airports. It is the commonest language for the conduct of international business. More than two-thirds of the world's scientists can read in English to some degree in their field. It dominates fields as diverse as astronomy, the cinema, diplomacy, most sport, popular music, and advertising.

Here are what I consider the two key facts (the exact numbers are only the commonly accepted estimates):

1) More than eighty per cent of the world's electronically stored information is in the English language.

2) About a billion persons who do not have a command of English are studying it today, typically in secondary schools.

......................

So then, is English already the ‘world language’ . . ?

.....................

Ah ha!

There are, perhaps, ‘flies in the ointment,’ as the saying goes.

Some population projections show the percentage of English speakers likely to decline in the face of more and more speakers of Chinese, Hindi, Spanish and Arabic. Some economic studies show the expansion of China, Brazil, India, Germany, Japan, and perhaps Russia to loom larger than that of the English-speaking nations.

But the unpredictable future is not the only problem.

It is already the fact that those in one country with some knowledge of English may not find it of much use with those in other countries. Thus, a Nigerian speaker of English may not understand a Japanese speaker of English.

Much of the prestige of English today is a reflection of the world position of the U.S.A. at the end of the Second World War and then at the end of the Cold War. The pretentions of Russian as the ‘future socialist world language’ collapsed. Free market economics made English essential for international ‘biznes’—even in Russia.

However, the disfavor of many nations with the policies of the Bush administration reminded us that the U.S. may not always enjoy this level of prestige. The U.S. position in the world economy and in fields like pop music, advertising, science, technology, and the internet, may not always be as impressive as it has been. Focus on the values of British culture has already faded to a degree within the former Empire.

Moreover, there is evidence that many who claim to speak English (in the census statistics above) do not have any well-rounded competence in it.

Does a taxi driver in Bangkok speak English because he can use it to get his rides from the airport to their hotels?

We will address some of this in a future entry.

The Value of Acadon

Many years of work have gone into the creation of Acadon, although only a few persons have been aware of it at all. Is there value in the final product?

 Well, no language is final, but in the form we already have, we believe there is tremendous potential in the Acadon system. We feel that anyone will be able to use it to some advantage, often with scant prior learning involved.

 Acadon has many potential uses. Not all users of Acadon will have the same goals. While Acadon is designed to give access to all digital data available in the English language, that is not its only use.

 Those who do not have a full command of English will find it far easier to learn than English, with fully regular spelling, regularized grammar, built-in keys to sentence structure, fewer separate word roots to learn, and only about half as many sounds that must be distinguished.

There follows a list some of the things that Acadon does better than English. Many are far from trivial. Some examples:

1) Acadon spelling is completely regular. This alone saves the learner much of the time that would be spent on learning English. (Yet any Acadon text written by a learner can be automatically put into English, with no spelling errors at all.) 

2) Acadon lacks dialectical and regional variations of spelling and pronunciation that plague English. 

3) Acadon has far fewer sounds (phonemes) than English. About half as many as some versions of English. 

4) Acadon has far fewer consonant clusters than in English. 

5) Word endings are few in Acadon, only the vowels or six consonants ( s, n, m, r, c, l, t, ) Furthermore, all syllables end only in these. 

6) Acadon has about half as many vowel distinctions as English. The primacy of the three most easily distinguished vowels worldwide, [i] [a] [u], is used in word selection. 

7) Despite the constraints, Acadon vocabulary is far more global than that of English. Roots are widely international. 

8) Acadon better integrates certain non-English words and concepts into its lexicon than does English. 

9) It is easier to master the total Acadon vocabulary than English. Words are more regularly derived. Prefixes and suffixes are more specific. 

10) Part of speech is more recognizable in Acadon. 

11) Provision is made to clarify many forms of the ambiguities that exist in English, both grammatical and semantic. 

12) Sentence structure and grammar is far more regular and transparent in Acadon than in English. 

13) Acadon words are much safer for the learner to pronounce than English. The danger of learners making confusing or embarrassing mistakes has been systematically reduced. For example, the Japanese and others will be happy that no two Acadon words are distinguished only by the difference between an [l] and an [r]. 

14) The stress (accentuation) on Acadon words is completely regular, in contrast to English. 

15) Acadon sentences are much clearer than English to understand when heard. Words are not slurred. This will also help machines to understand spoken commands. 

16) Compared to English, Acadon more effectively supports computer interface, particularly speech recognition systems. There are no homophones for example. 

17) Acadon provides ways for casting words and sentences into less ambiguous forms than possible in English. 

18)  Acadon more naturally avoids many sexist and ethnocentric usages common in English. 

19) Acadon is more precise than English in a variety of ways that support scientific communication and the usefulness of scientific nomenclature. 

20)  Acadon provides several mnemonic systems of considerable usefulness. 

21) Acadon has a recognized system for expressing certain complex shades of meaning (for example, degrees of probability) much more effectively and naturally than English. 

22)  Acadon provides a concise way to integrate mathematical formulae and symbolic logic into normal spoken sentences. Symbolic language is built into the structure of Acadon for those who might wish to use it to clarify relationships. 

23) For the hearing impaired, Acadon is designed to be easier to lip-read than English. 

24) There is an unimplemented project for an Acadon font that should help those with dyslexia. 

25) Acadon will have a presence in fantasy fiction. 

Acadon provides easier access to the vast amount of information stored in, or transmitted via, the English language. It is at the same time as neutral and international a medium as can be designed for its purposes. 

Above all, Acadon can be learned in a fraction of time that it takes to learn English. Because of the many difficulties of English, many students of the language around the world end up unsuccessful at mastering English in any useful way. The success rate for Acadon will be very significantly higher.

Categorizing Acadon

Acadon is a Controlled Language (CL), that is to say that it is a consciously designed language with carefully controlled phonetics, structure, and vocabulary designed to reduce ambiguity and complexity and provide for more efficient communication on a worldwide scale. Most immediately, Acadon can give those who are not native speakers of English wider and better access to data on the Internet. But it has many additional uses.

 

We will leave it to professional linguists to decide whether Acadon qualifies as a Controlled Natural Language (CNL) or not. We feel it is natural enough to fall in that category. Perhaps it could be called a subset of English. However, the issue of terminology is not basic to what Acadon is designed to do. Those interested in CNLs can find information on the web. One definition: "Controlled Natural Languages are subsets of natural languages whose grammars and dictionaries have been restricted in order to reduce or eliminate both ambiguity and complexity. Traditionally, controlled natural languages fall into two major categories: those that improve the readability for human readers, in particularly for non-native speakers, and those that improve the computational processing of a text."

 https://sites.google.com/site/controllednaturallanguage/

 

One of the unique features of Acadon is that it is linked to the written English language. This means that it is what we call a Linked Alternative Language (LAL). Acadon differs from all other designed languages in that it is a LAL. With its link to English, Acadon can immediately translate any English text into its own vocabulary and format. This is done in an non-lossy manner, that is without any errors or loss of meaning. It is, and always will be, impossible for Internet translation programs to produce non-lossy texts.

 

The concept of a Linked Alternative Languages is unique to us. 

http://www.google.com/patents/US6275789 While such LALs can be created with linkage to Chinese, Japanese, or any other language, we have not done anything more than a few tests along this line. 

 

We wish to make it clear that Acadon is not designed to be used as a Pivot Language (PL), a language used as a universal means of translation between two other languages. (Pivot Languages do not work well, though English is sometimes used as such. Acadon would incidentally serve this purpose better than English.)

 

While Acadon is most properly a Controlled Language of some sort, it also falls in the category of the International Auxiliary Language (IAL). An IAL is a language that can be used as a second language for communication between persons belonging to differing linguistic cultures. Latin was long used as such in Europe, Classical Chinese in much of East Asia, Sanskrit in South Asia, etc. Of course, these languages were regional, not global, while most IALs today have global pretentions.

 

There have been many artificially designed IALs, such as Volapük, Esperanto, Ido, or Interlingua. That such artificial languages can be used quite normally is most particularly shown by Esperanto, especially by its use in Eastern Europe, and by the fact that some children have been quite normally raised with it as their first language.

 

Acadon is very, very different from all the many IALs that have been spun on the Internet. It has features none of them have. It also lacks many of the features that have limited the success of such projects.

 

How Acadon differs from all other controlled language and artificial language projects will be discussed in a further note here.

 

Best regard,                  Leo

 

Language Design

 

 

We have been involved in creating Acadon for many years. Much remains to be done to implement all its potential powers. Many aspects of the language are set by its nature as a linked alternative language, but not all.

 

What you will see in an Acadon text may puzzle you, but there was a reason for every word, for every choice. No language is perfect, none ever will be. Feedback is always valuable. There is considerable complexity in the design of the language, which will hopefully not be obvious to the learner at all.

 

Ease of learning is a major goal, but not the only one. More on this later. But hold in mind that a language must above all be useful. There are many aspects to this. Our goal is to make Acadon useful, and in ways no other language is.

 

No language, of course, is ever done, despite the efforts of academies and agencies to establish permanent norms. It is my opinion that the efforts in France to retain the ‘purity’ of the French language, will in the long run fail. The Italians have been much wiser in this regard.

 

In creating Acadon, I have at times provided linguistically interested friends with samples of what might be called Acadon-in-progress and gotten feedback. Most of this has been done on the Internet.

 

To experiment with possibilities and to research vocabulary possibilities, I early on developed a sister language called Bahasan. Various short texts in it were circulated on the Internet long ago. This was done in order to get reactions more widely. Project Bahasan was always described as an experimental project centered primarily on the search for worldwide vocabulary. Some of it lives on in Acadon. The concept of a linked alternative language was not mentioned.

 

Languages are complex. No language can be learned overnight.

 

If you know English, or can at least read it, you will find Acadon far easier to learn than any language you have ever come across. And the learning will, we hope, be a joy.

 

But you do not need to know English to use Acadon. Quite the contrary. Much of the value of Acadon will be for those who do not know English and have not the time or resources to learn it properly. They will be able to gain access to the data recorded in English with far less effort. Do other things, too.

 

Many Acadon sentences may be transparent to you at first glance, especially if you are an English speaker with some knowledge of a Latin-based language. But other sentences may stump you at first—some may take a bit of learning for almost everyone.

 

This is unavoidable.

 

For the entire language, the amount of learning required will vary in accordance with the learner’s experience.

 

This is very unfortunate but also unavoidable.

 

A Chinese who knows only Mandarin will find Acadon more difficult to learn than a Chinese who has studied a bit of English or Russian. Someone who knows only Arabic will find Acadon more difficult to learn than will a neighbor who can read French or German. A speaker of Japanese or Korean who has not learned a word of English, Persian, Hindi, French, or Russian will find it more difficult than those who have. A speaker of Zulu who also knows Afrikaans, will find it far easier than one who is monolingual.

 

There is no way of rationally preventing this.

 

Yet any person on this globe will find Acadon far easier to master than English, French, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Persian, German, Hindi, or Japanese. Much easier also than Spanish, Portuguese, or Indonesian. Easier than any natural language, actually.

 

It is so designed.

 

Whether Acadon is simpler than the various artificially designed languages of the past (Volapük, Esperanto, Ido, Interlingua, etc.) might be contested by advocates of those languages. I believe, however, that practice will show that Acadon is more easily learned by global populations. Taking Esperanto as an example, it has an accusative case, requires agreement of adjectives with nouns, future tenses of verbs, and many other grammatical features that are unfamiliar to the more than one billion Chinese. The word order patterns of English (which are reflected in Acadon) happen to be more familiar to Chinese.

 

Let’s look at Asia. Vast numbers of people there will need communication skills in the future, needs never envisioned by their ancestors.

 

English is touted as the international language, and many sweat to learn it. Some succeed.

 

In 2006 a Chinese official stated that more than 300 million Chinese had studied English as a major or elective course. The reality is that many of these classes have been poor, the teachers hardly qualified. Yet these students have been exposed to many things to be found in Acadon as well as English. It can prime them for greater success if they focus on Acadon.

 

Among the more than a billion persons living in India many have substantial contact with English, and the teachers are far better qualified. Almost the entire population of Japan has studied English, and while the average Japanese is not in full control of English by any means, its structure and much of its vocabulary are widely known. More people are listed as speaking English in the Philippines than  in the United Kingdom.

 

In Africa, Nigerian Pidgin English is reported to be a second language for up to 75 million people. The Internet even has its Naija-lingo pages. Similar pidgins stretch across all of West Africa. English is an official language of many African nations, although the percentage of the population who have succeeded in mastering English is often small.

 

However, English has several strikes against it in becoming the international auxiliary language in the fuller sense:

1)  It is difficult to write correctly, since its spelling is chaotic. Thousands of hours are wasted even by native speakers in learning to spell. And even our electronic spell checkers cannot always help.

2)  Many words that are spelled the same, sound differently.

3)  Many words that are spelled differently sound the same.

4) Stress (accentuation) within the word is irregular, shifting, and unmarked.

4)  There are national variations in spelling, especially between the UK and US, but others as well.

5) Spoken English is a snarl, especially in the pronunciation of vowels. Most learners have to commit to either British or American English, but there are Australian and Indian and other well-established forms.

6)  Even then, the student of any form of English has to learn to distinguish and accurately produce an unusually large inventory of variant sounds (phonemes) and some of these are quite rare elsewhere.

7)  Many languages have five or six vowels, most forms of English have more than twice as many.

8)  There are many ambiguities in English that don’t exist in other languages and can be clarified.

9)  Some important distinctions are hard to hear in the spoken English. (For example, whencan or can’t is followed by a word beginning in t-.)

10) There are many grammatical irregularities in English that could be cleared up. (sing, sang, sung; go, went, gone; ).

 

There is, of course, also the historical or social dimension. This has changed over time. Some still consider English a colonial language. From time to time, the Soviets had tended to characterize English as if a capitalistic language. Some Islamic groups may consider it a Christian language. In parts of Africa, it may be viewed as the white-man’s language. Gradually, however, the diversity of those using English, especially on the Internet, has reduced these various stereotypes.

 

Unlike other designed languages, Acadon brings immediate access to vast amounts of data. This advantage will be the major consideration for potential learners. Languages are learned for a purpose.