For June I have been writing in Common English: nine in ten words are common to Shakespeare and American English.
The idea is to write in an English that will still be readable over the next 400 years. It is the Abagond Principle applied to words: any word that has been current over past 400 years in the two main branches of English is likely to remain so for the next 400.
So what do I think now? What was good and what was bad about it? Should I continue?
First, it was much easier to write in Common English than I thought. At first I did not know if I would last the week – I was afraid there would not be enough words. But part of why it was so easy is that I have tried to favour words from Shakespeare since at least March.
In June I have had two good experiences and two bad experiences with Common English:
- Bad Experience #1: the first beatitude:I have not told you this yet, but there was one posting that you never saw: It was too hard to write in Common English. It was about the first beatitude: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.At the very heart of this beatitude are the ideas of blessedness and humility: words that Shakespeare often used but which in American English are less used than hydrogen and procedure! So they are not a regular part of Common English.That meant I would have to spend half the posting (or write other ones) on what humility and blessedness are. What a sad world I must live in! But looking at the West, I see that it is forgetting the Christian ideas it was founded on and which Shakespeare takes for granted.
Is such a language fit for man?
- Bad Experience #2: Howards End and the Mechanical Bride: I am reading both of these books now and both talk about the Grey Cheapness that has overcome the English-speaking world in the past 150 years. Can such a world be used as the model for anything good and true?
- Good Experience #1: Orwell:I printed part of Orwell’s “Politics of the English Language” and found that it was in Common English! What is good enough for Orwell is good enough for me.
- Good Experience #2: Ad copy and sound bites:Writing about ad copy and sound bites drove home the point that language above all is about getting your message across. You should use the simplest language possible. As Kerry found to his despair and Orwell had pointed out years before, it requires thought and imagination to express yourself simply. Most take the easy way out.
Being of two minds, I will write in Common English in July and see what I think then. Among other things, I will try to write the postings on the first beatitude.
See also:
Leave a comment