Thursday December 1, 2005
Basic English is the key
By RALPH BERRY
I’m a great supporter of Basic English. It refers to the name given by C.K. Ogden in 1929 to a simplified form of the English language that he invented, with a select vocabulary of 850 words.
Syntax was also simplified. But the system ran into criticism. Well, of course, restriction is difficult. Any writer knows that it’s easier to write 2,000 words on a given subject than 1,000. Besides, the language moves on, both vocabulary and syntax. When television and internet come into being, words have to be found for them. No straitjacket invented 76 years ago can hold English down. Yet Basic English, if not exactly as Ogden framed it, is the heart and soul of the language.
English came out of the Norman Conquest of 1066. The victorious Normans imposed their language, Norman-French, on the land. Theirs was the language of Government, Law, the aristocracy. Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) stayed with the defeated masses. But just as the people, Norman and English, intermarried, so did the languages.
English expanded at the expense of French, and French became an optional extra rather than the indispensable language of the ruling class. Middle English assimilated what it could of French, and gradually asserted its rights even in the law-courts, where French had to give way.
The character of the English language became stabilised as a meeting of two languages, Norman-French and Old English. What we have today is a fusion. And yet this fusion is not perfect. Basic English honours Old English.
Our present-day English is grounded on those 850 words. You can add any number of later arrivals, like garage and automobile. You have to put the car somewhere. You have to put petrol in it. But the basic vocabulary comes from the words that King Harold knew.
I’ve been looking at a key proof, the Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare. This is computer-driven, and sets out to print every word in Shakespeare in the context of every line in which it occurs. Obviously, this would be insane if taken to extremes – every line in which a occurs! So the editor decided to cut out the first 43 words in order of frequency in Shakespeare, and begin with the 44th.
You won’t want me to list those 43 words. They are ordinary and dull. I’ll simply name the first three – the, and, I – and the last three, our, on, now. They are the foundation to everything. Every one of those 43 words would have been used, a thousand years ago. Harold could not do without them, nor could Shakespeare, nor can we.
But what of today? I give you the successor and heir to Basic English: Plain English.
That word plain is the key. The Oxford Concise gives “Clear, evident; simple, readily understood”, as in plain English. This is not a system, nor is it restricted to a certain number of words. It is rather a way of using the language, and of thinking about it.
The guidelines were well put by President Clinton, in a memorandum issued during his Presidency: “Plain language in Government Writing” (1998). Government servants were advised to use
Common, everyday words except for necessary technical terms
‘You’ and other pronouns
active voice
short sentences
This memorandum lapsed with the end of the Clinton Presidency, but it remains a benchmark. The advice it gives is excellent. To take one point alone, “common, everyday words” are the hallmark of good writing.
For example, I found that I had drafted the words “originated from”, and then, after a moment’s thought, I changed to “came from”. That is simpler, means almost exactly the same, and is better.
What is the enemy of Plain English? At one time, the answer would have been “Latin”, and the attempt of writers to gain status from Latinate words.
These days, the enemy is bureaucratic English. It is the language of spin doctors, Government publicity agents, lawyers, civil servants. Know your enemy.
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