Why Peoplese?

            The problem with the more than  6,000 existing languages is that they evolved bit by bit, so lack consistency; hence most are littered with irregularities.  That is no problem for native children, but a big problem for adult foreigners trying to learn the languages.

            English is evolving as the international language despite native speakers of only about 5% of humanity, therefore more than a billion English language students today are not native English speakers.  English grammar is simpler than Hindi, Arabic, and continental European languages, while Chinese, with tonal pronunciation requirements and no alphabet, requires much too much time for non-native speakers to learn.  But the average native Englsh-speaking middle-school student knows 3,700 irregular words, e.g. English blew (Peoplese blow۔d), blown (blow۔d), began (begin۔d), begun (begin۔d), bit (bite۔d), bitten (bite۔d), broke (break۔d), broken (break۔d), built (build۔d) - to name a tiny few of the words beginning with "b".  A second problem with English is that there are no rules or even guidelines governing its growth.  In the modern era words are added willy nilly almost daily.  Shall we write “database”, “data-base”, or “data base”? – a technical magazine editor with no philology background will make the decision, which others may emulate.  A USA or British university student needs to know about 20,000 words, Oxford English Dictionary contains more than 600,000 words, and altogether more than one million English words have been recorded.  The situation, worsening year by year, is not only torturous to students, but economically inefficient.
 
            The problem with creating new languages from scratch, history has proved, is that only a tiny percent of people will learn them.

            Peoplese is based on English the way English is based on Anglo Saxon.  Peoplese is English simplified, regularized, clarified, updated – plus the addition of numerous learner-friendly devices from Chinese, Spanish, and several other languages (articulated in the FAQ section), along with clear guidelines for forming new words that will ultimately simplify and beautify the language.

 
Summary of Main Features of Peoplese

            Root-words.  Peoplese is based on root words to which are added unique-meaning prefixes and suffixes.The root-words never changes spelling, and are separated by the prefixes and suffixes by a hyphnette (half-length hyphen).  For example, the past-tense of all verbs take the form:  root-verb + hyphennete + d, as in tell۔d, live۔d, sell۔d, re۔tell۔d.

            No irregular plurals.  The plural of English “leaf” is Peoplese “leafs”, of English “mouse”, “mouses”.  In Peoplese we say “ten thousands”, not, as in English, “ten thousand”

           Only four irregular verbs:  Peoplese learners are not forced to memorize hundreds of irregular verbs.  And unlike English, “s” is not added to third-person singular present-tense verbs, so we say “i come, you come, he come, we come, they come”.  (For details, click on “Grammar” button.)  Peoplese has no past-participles.

            Prefixes with unique fixed meanings.  Any prefix before a hyphenette (half-length hyphen) has one and only one meaning.  For example, “dis-” means “reverse the action of the following root verb”, so “dis-button” means to un-do what had been previously buttoned.  “Re -” means “again”, so re-sell” means “again sell”, sell to somebody else. Not only are the meanings of prefixed words instantly clear, those prefixes can be attached to any root word.  (For details and list, click on "Grammar" → “Prefixes”.)

            Suffixes with unique fixed meanings.  Like hyphenated prefixes, each hyphenated suffix has a unique meaning.  For example, “-ward” means “in the direction of” the preceding noun”.  E.g. out-ward, down-ward, school-ward, Paris-ward, Mars-ward, God-ward.  “Toward” isn’t hyphenated because it doesn’t mean “in the direction of `to’”.  Likewise “-ness” converts any adjective into a noun, as in “messy-ness”.  (For details and list, “Grammar” → “Suffixes”.)

            A big advantage of hyphenated prefixes and suffixes assigned to unique fixed meanings is that they can be applied to any words, not just words already in a dictionary.  When forming new words we try to utilize prefixes and suffixes as much as possible, because the new hyphenated word is instantly recognizable and requires no memorization.

            Derivative freedom.  Unlimited derivative possibilities are available in Peoplese.  Words such as "daredevil۔ish", "milktoast۔y", "orangie۔ish", "perfume۔y", "smell۔able", "un۔wear۔able" MS Word spell-check red-lines as errors, and a grammar teacher would mark them wrong, but any intuitively understandable derivative is permitted in Peoplese.

            Familiar & Formal Pronouns.  An endearing feeling results when a Spanish-speaking acquaintance, referring to you, switches from usted to tú:  the relationship just took a subtle shift to warmer.  She∙he for the first time used the familiar form of “you”, the pronoun used within all families and between close friends.  Now it’s up to you to respond, if you accept her∙his subtle offer of friendship, you may respond at the next available opportunity by referring to her∙him as tú.  That warm language feature – available in varying degrees also in Hindi, Russian, Portuguese, French, German, i.e. many of the main languages and more than 40 others – is not available in English, but it is available in Peoplese.  (For details, “Grammar” → “Pronouns”.)

            Elimination of Language Idiosyncrasies That Prolong Gender Bias.  In Peoplese, the genderless pronoun "ta" (from Mandarin Chinese) is used when the speaker/writer does not want to specify gender.  E.g., "Carpentor want۔d -- ta must have at least four years experience."

            Function Nouns.  Are Jian-guo and Neville personal names of males or females?  Unless you speak Chinese or French, you probably don’t know.  Is a farmer necessarily a man?  In the emerging one-world society where many women are finally allowed to choose any career, when writing or speaking about somebody, the reader or hearer doesn’t necessarily know the gender.  Functional things in Peoplese end in “or”, as examples “amplify۔or” (a thing which amplifies) and “blend۔or” (a thing that blends).  Similarly, a "farm۔or" is someone of either gender who farms, while a "farm۔ort" is a male farmer, and a "farm۔orm" is a female farmer.  Similarly, golf۔or, hike۔orm, inform۔ort, kidnap۔orts, perform۔orms.  And “murder۔eer” (somebody who has been murdered), “insult۔eerm” (a female who has been insulted).  “Foreignor” isn’t “somebody who foreigns”, but Peoplese assigns the neutral functional ending “or” anyway, althought without the hyphnette, because it identifies a person; so “foreignorms” are female foreignors. (For details, “Grammar" → “Function Nouns”.)

            Mid-dot Words.  In Peoplese a “mid-dot” (a raised period), separates two words whose combined meaning is immediately obvious.  Peoplese replaces the English noun “watch” with the mid-dot word “wrist∙clock”.  In similar fashion it eliminates more than one-thousand words that students of English are forced to memorize.  E.g. tooth·paste, train·track, street·lamp, stove·pipe.  (In English these wrods are sometimes two separate words, sometmies one single word, sometimes hyphenated - thus requiring memorization.)  Mid-dot words are at the heart of language simplification – discussed (and listed) in the Grammar and Creating New Words sections. On a keyboard we can type "alt d" and a mid-dot will appear; see FAQ section for instuctions..

            Accuracy Versus Sloppiness.  Just because there is no “wrong”, doesn’t mean conscientious language speakers and writers won’t try their best to communicate accurately and create lasting words and phrases.  (The rest of us can say and write whatever we want.)  Modern lap۔top and desk۔top electronic∙processors are dubbed “computers”, despite the fact that computing is a tiny part of their functionality; that’s alike dubbing a truck a “radio”, although it has one installed.  To declare that Shanghai is a city of 23 million people is almost certainly a falsehood; in Peoplese we say “ap 23 millions”, “ap”, which can stand in as an article alike “a”, “an”, and “the”, meaning “approximately”.  Can we seriously advocate "universal health care", when we haven’t the faintest idea of how many needy there are in the universe?  It’s figuratively and traditionally nice to say that the sun went “down” at sunset, but that’s not what happened.  Ap half a millennium ago Europeans proved that our world isn’t wide; it’s spherical, although pronouncing three w’s in a row – as in “world wide web” – may be irresistibly appealing.  And what we dub “up” is actually “out”.  That’s because the sky is no longer the limit. 
           
            Non-English Words.  There we go again, inventing words like “ap” and using “alike” instead of English “like” to mean “similar to”.  Peoplese have some non-English words, yet most have meanings that are intuitive to English speakers.  They can be grouped into several categories.  (1) New pronouns:  familiar pronouns (mentioned above) which English lacks, and “yous” as the plural of “you”.  (2) Combining English two-word combinations which make no sense; English “in vain” becomes Peoplese “invain”, “of course" becomes "ofcourse"; also “kickstart”, “peanutbutter”, “enmasse”, and others.  (3) New words which eliminate illogicalities of English words, such as “irrationalize” to replace English “rationalize” meaning to offer an irrational explanation to justify an unacceptable behavior.  (4) Non-English words for concepts for which English have no word, e.g. Chinese Mandarin “mianze” (面子), which is much more powerful than English “face”, and French “dejavu” (one word, no accent marks).  (5) Pleasing words like “heartberry”, to describe the tasty red berry shaped like a heart, which resembles not in the least a “straw”.
           
            Has / is, am, are, was, were.  Seasoned English speakers know to say “I have”, “you have”, “we have”, “they have”, but you better not say “he have” or if you’re a student you’ll be marked “wrong”, and if you’re an adult we’ll know you’re poorly educated.  Using “has” is a no brainer for native English speakers who learned it as tots, but it’s the bane of foreigners trying to learn English.  There is no such word as “has” in Peoplese, foreign learners will be glad to know.  In Peoplese, we say, "He have a nice smile."  Similarly, English "am", "is", and "are" (a headache for people in Asia where most people live) are replaced by Peoplese "iz"; and English "was" and "were" are replaced by Peoplese "wuz". Iz you okay with that?

FAQ