Language reform facts for kids

A language reform is when big changes are made to a language. These changes are usually done to make the language simpler to understand or to write. Sometimes, changes are made to make the language purer. This means getting rid of foreign words or parts that don't fit the language's original grammar.

Making a language simpler helps people use it more easily. It tries to make spelling, vocabulary, and grammar more regular. Language purification tries to make a language more like an older, "purer" version of itself.

Sometimes, language reforms happened to bring people who spoke the same language closer together. This is why many reforms took place in 19th century Europe when nationalist movements were growing.

Making Languages Simpler

The most common type of language reform changes how words are spelled. This is called spelling reform. A language's grammar can also be changed to make inflection (how words change form), syntax (word order), vocabulary, and word formation easier.

For example, English uses many different prefixes that mean "the opposite of," like un-, in-/im-, a(n)-, and de-. A language reform might suggest using only one prefix, like un-, for all of these.

Another good example of simplification is the word flammable. This word means something can catch fire easily. Originally, the word was inflammable. This came from Latin inflammare, meaning "to put something on fire." The prefix in- can also mean "the opposite of," like in transparent and intransparent. To avoid confusing people, most instructions now use flammable instead of inflammable.

Many major world languages have had big spelling reforms:

• French (in the 16th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries)
• Spanish (in the 18th century)
• Portuguese (in 1910 in Portugal, and in 1946 and 1972 in Brazil)
• German (in 1901/02 and 1996/98)
• Russian (in 1728 and 1919)

Making Languages Purer

Some people don't like changing a language. They want to keep it the way it is, or even undo past changes. Sometimes, trying to make a language "purer" can actually make it more complicated. This happens when people add false etymologies (ideas about where words come from):

• The word iland became island. This was influenced by the Latin word insula. However, island is actually a Germanic word, similar to the German word Eiland.
• The word ile became isle, also influenced by insula.

Examples of Language Reforms

Here are some examples of how languages have been reformed:

• Chinese
  • In the 1920s, Classical Chinese was replaced with Vernacular Chinese as the main written language.
  • Mandarin was chosen as the standard dialect from several Chinese dialects.
  • In the 1950s, the PRC introduced Simplified Chinese characters. These were later adopted by Singapore and Malaysia. However, Traditional Chinese characters are still used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and by many overseas Chinese communities. About 2,000 Chinese characters were simplified, mostly common ones.
• Czech
  • In the 19th century, the dictionary by Josef Jungmann helped renew the vocabulary. In the 1840s, the letter 'w' was replaced by 'v'.
• Estonian
  • In the 1910s and 1920s, a reform movement led by Johannes Aavik and Johannes V. Veski renewed the vocabulary. They borrowed many words from Finnish and other Uralic languages. They even invented some new words that didn't exist anywhere before!
• French
  • The most recent reform was in 1990. It simplified plurals of combined words, changed some hyphenation, and adjusted some accents.
• German
  • In 1901/02, the spelling system was made the same across the country. Other German-speaking countries later adopted it. More reforms happened recently in the German spelling reform of 1996.
• Greek
  • In the 1970s and 1980s, the written "pure" language, katharevusa, was full of Old Greek words. But the spoken "popular" language, dhimotiki, was not. After military rule ended, a law made dhimotiki the official written language too. For example, on Greek coins, the plural of the currency was "drachmai" (katharevusa form) before 1982, and became "drachmes" (dhimotiki form) after.
• Hebrew
  • In the 1920s, Modern Hebrew was created from Ancient Hebrew. This involved simplifying the grammar (especially word order), creating new words from Hebrew roots based on European ideas, and simplifying pronunciation rules.
• Hungarian
  • In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, more than ten thousand new words were created. Several thousand of these are still used today.
• Irish
  • In the 1940s, the spelling system was greatly simplified. For example, Gaedheal became Gael, and Ó Séigheadh became Ó Sé.
• Korean
  • In 1446, King Sejong had scholars create hangul, a writing system that was easy to learn and showed Korean sounds accurately. It was only used by common people until 1945.
  • After the division of Korea in 1945:
    • In North Korea, Kim Il-sung's government completely got rid of hanja (Chinese characters used for Korean). Hangul became the only writing system. Many Chinese loanwords (which were 60-70% of Korean words) were removed and replaced with native Korean words to purify the language.
    • In South Korea, hangul has mostly replaced hanja. However, many South Koreans still know some hanja and use them in official documents. Hanja is usually used for Chinese loanwords and homophones (words that sound the same but have different meanings) when the meaning isn't clear. Koreans are expected to know around 1,900 hanja today.
• Norwegian
  • When Norway became independent from Denmark in 1814, Norwegian started to become different from Danish. Reforms in 1907 and 1917 made Riksmaal the standard written Norwegian, which was renamed Bokmaal in 1929. Bokmaal and the more traditional Nynorsk were made more similar by a reform in 1938. Today, both forms are used. On Norwegian coins, the country's name is alternately Norge (Bokmaal) and Noreg (Nynorsk).
• Portuguese
  • In the 20th century, a difficult traditional spelling system was replaced with a simpler one. For example, asthma became asma, and phthysica became tísica.
• Romanian
  • In the 19th century, the Cyrillic alphabet was replaced with the Latin alphabet. Hundreds of Slavic words were removed in favor of Romance ones.
• Somali
  • In the 1970s, with help from Bogumil W. Andrzejewski, a Latin alphabet was created. It was made mandatory in 1972 by General Mohamed Siad Barre. The vocabulary was also renewed, with many new words created from existing Somali roots.
• Turkish
  • Language and writing system reforms started in the 1920s. The older language is now called Ottoman Turkish. The Ottoman Turkish alphabet, based on the Arabic alphabet, was replaced in 1928 by the new, Latin-based Turkish alphabet. Words borrowed from Persian and Arabic were dropped. Instead, native Turkish words or new words based on Turkic roots were used.
• Vietnamese
  • During French colonial rule in the 20th century, the classical vernacular script (based on Chinese characters) was replaced with a new Latin alphabet.

Language Reform in Stories

• In George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the English language is changed into Newspeak. This new language is designed to make official propaganda easy to understand. It also makes it impossible to express thoughts that the government doesn't like.

Related pages

• Language revival
• Constructed language

• Geoffrey Lewis, The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success, Oxford University Press, 2002, ISBN: 0-19-925669-1.

See also

In Spanish: Reforma lingüística para niños