Pieter Jansegers

Pieter Jansegers at

Newspapers: Browse Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld. : 1907 - 1954) Thursday 26 April 1934 Page 3 VOCABULARY OF 1500 WORDS. VOCABULARY OF 1500 WORDS. Simplified English Wanted. For All Needs. A vocabulary of from 1300 to 1500 words is enough to express anything necessary in world trade, diplomatic exchange, or public addresses, Dr. Janet Alken, of the English Depart ment of Columbia University said re- cently. Dr. Alken will head a committee of scholars being formed to work out a system of simplified English, which can be used as an International langu- age. She believes it can be done and without simplified spelling, which she termed 'anarchy.' In the opinion of Dr. Alken, a sys- tem of English with a vocabulary of no more than 1500 words would be far better as an International language than Esperanto, Ido and other at- tempts at a universal tongue. 'The trouble with Esperanto and the others,' she said, 'is that they start with one people, while English starts with 240,000,000 people. 'Pidgin English as it is used in China and in the Pacific Islands is an adaption of English for International use, but it is not culturally acceptable because respectable people won't use it. A workable aystam must keep to the language of educated people. WORLD NEED. 'People all over the world are cry- ing for an English they can use for purposes of trade, diplomacy, teach- ing, and so on, and hundreds of mil- lions would learn it if they could.' The trouble with teaching 'literary' English to foreigners, Dr. Alken said lies in its vocabulary of some 280,000 words, the difficulty ot its spelling and its irrational idioms. At the rate which people really learn new words, it would take a foreigner eight years to learn enough English to read the 'London Times' intelligently, she esti- mated. Simplified spelling doesn't help, Dr. Alken said, because it doesn't clear up the difficulties about vocabulary and idiom. She thinks it much better to simplify the vocabulary, and she said that a total of 1500 words is just enough for the average person to learn well in a year.


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