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August 2, 2005
German 2.0
The German Spelling Council has set this week as the deadline to transition over to a new, simpler, written German language. As usual with these sorts of transitions from complex, but traditional, ways to newer, more efficient, ways, the young have adopted it easily, while the older generation is resisting furiously (I'm looking in your direction, US Imperial Measurement System). It's particularly annoying when "Tradition" is used as justification for holding onto inefficient constructs ("Dang nammit! The ß was good enough for the Kaiser, so it's good enough for me!").
Despite my aversion to dropping the u in colour, I'm fascinated with the idea of language reform. The Japanese began reforming certain kanji after the Second World War, and the Chinese have been fighting illiteracy by simplifying their 50,000+ character set. Even the overprotective French occasionally update their language through their Academie Française.
I really wish English had some sort of regulatory body so we could make our language a little easier to read and write (and I'm not the kind of guy who usually advocates more bureaucracy). My greatest fear is that in the next 10 years English will be co-opted by text messaging teens, so future textbooks will be totally illegible to me. Then I can make a big fuss to keep English's noble, traditional orthography.