Simple English

[Nachtswalbe]

Simple English is an attempt to imagine what English might need to change in order to become an easier to learn IAL than it already is. This is inspired by Justin B. Rye's criticism of Esperanto and his suggestions of what auxlangs should do instead.

Sometimes it's argued that the big problem with adopting an existing language as an international auxiliary is that nobody wants to be a “second‐class citizen” speaker. But if that's really the objection to World English, how about an alternative that's about as close as you can get to English in its core syntax and vocabulary, though with, for instance, a simpler inventory of vowel distinctions (barely half as many as my own native dialect)? One whose speakers are never going to be in a position to mock you for having a non‐prestige accent, failing to use “proper grammar”, or forgetting some absurd spelling rule?

Phonology
<m n ng> /m n N/
<p b t d ch j k g> /p b t d tS dZ k g/
<f s sh h> /f s S h/
<w r l y> /w r l j/
<a e i o u> /a e i o u/

Phonotactics
Rye said he preferred that an auxlang have a syllable structure comparable to Spanish, more complex than CV, but less so than English. Given English's already complex syllable structure, here is a simplification:

C1 C2 V C3
C1: All consonants besides <ng>
C2: any of <w r l y> e.g swit "sweet", brik "brick", slip "sleep", nyu "nyu"
C3: any non-obstruent or voiceless obstruent. All voiced obstruents are devoiced finally .
E.g <dog> is pronounced /dok/

Nouns

Nouns do not inflect for number. The particle <dem> is placed before nouns optionally to indicate animate plurals and <sam> for inanimate plurals
e.g <sam haus> for “houses”

but

<dem bowis> for “cows”

Pronouns

Subject/object pronouns:

	sg	pl
1	mi	wi
2	yu	yol
3	i	de

Honorifics include -(i)smol for lesser members and -big for more important ones
Possessive pronouns are indicated through <af> before the pronoun
Reflexive pronouns are indicated through <selfa> after the verb, like in Mandarin.
Demonstrative pronouns: <dis> 'this', <dat> 'that' and <dafar> 'that yonder'
<hir> 'here', <der> 'there' and <derfar> 'yonder'

Relative pronouns: wich 'which', hu 'who', wat'what'
Interrogative pronouns kwich 'Which', ku 'who?' and kwat 'what?'

Pronouns like "anywhere" and "nobody" are expressed as separate words like <eni ples> and <no parsin>

Verbs
Verbs don't inflect for tense or aspect. However there are optional preverbal particles.

Particle	Meaning
gana	future
dit	past
bi	imperfective aspect
dan	perfective aspect
istar	to start
en	to finish
bauta	FUT.PROX
jasaf	recent past

Adjectives

Adjectives are effectively treated as stative verbs
e.g Fores grin means "the forest is green" while fores dit bi grin means "the forest was green"
To create ADJ N V, one uses wich + ADJ after the noun. E.g
Dis kat wich braun slomuf
this cat REL. brown lazy
"The brown cat is lazy"

Adverbs
Adverbs are marked through Verb + X
Dis kat ran kwik
this cat run quick
"The cat runs quickly"

They always occur after the verb, never before.
De ran ol taim
they run all time
"They run always"

Measure words
Optional measure words exist for a variety of objects like in Indonesian and Mandarin.

word	meaning
silin	long holdable objects
shit	flatobjects
hanhol	powder
istraip	long flat objects
plet	flat circular objects

An example is below:
I mek gud dis silin paip
3sg. make good this CL pipe
“They repair(ed) this pipe”

Vocabulary

The vocabulary is based off of a small number of morphemes.
Compounding is used extensively.
N+N compounds like wadbuk “dictionary” are used, but N+V compounds where the noun is acted on by the verb e.g herwash “shampoo” are also used.
X_V+N compounds concern tools used to do X, places where X occurs.

For example kukples “kitchen” refers where cooking occurs, and itul “utensil” refers to the tool used to eat with.