RAMBLINGS About BASIC ENGLISH

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Basic English is a language created by Charles Kay Ogden as a subset of standard English -- although complete in itself, it is not a separate language. The intent was to utilize the minimum number of words to convey the maximum amount of thought, and thus be the least painful way to learn and the most immediately useful to speak.

I was recently in Holland and watched American movies with subtitles. Over and over I was impressed with the variations in English speech that were reduced to a lesser number of words at the bottom of the screen. "Of course", "Sure", "Clearly", "Obviously", "No surprise there." ... all were reduced to "Naturally". This reemphasized that there is no need in learn the full richness of English to adequately express oneself.

Even though Basic English is intended to be self-contained, it incorporates some of the idiosyncrasies of standard English such as full conjugation of the few Basic verbs. A criteria was compatibility so that (1) the speaker would be seamlessly accepted as an English speaker, and (2) the student can progress painlessly to the full language.

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About this Page: Ramble.html - ramblings about Basic English by Jim
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