Neography and Writing systems

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What single addition would be most useful to the English writing system? (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Every once in a while I sometimes think about remaking the English writing system, as is normal I'm sure😅, and I wonder what would be the most useful revision of punctuation or phonetic.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (5 children)

"Most useful" is a pretty big role to fill but a proper second person plural would be great. The rednecks unironically got it best with y'all

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Well technically I think it's "you" and we used to have "thou" for singular. So, we had it and let it go.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

¡For real😁 I use it all the time with my Texan friends and it's great! It's nice feeling like I'm speaking similar to them but also I didn't realise how much I use the words "you guys" outside of writing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

*youse *you (and use thou as singular again?)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Both are great 😃👍

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Funny thing, I think that a plural you was dropped in the beginning because the Brits were trying to escape French and German royalty requiring formal address using the plural form.

I use "yous" when distinction is needed.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

"You all" are the words you're looking for. Y'all, is short for you all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

The phrase "you all" doesn't actually fit in the English standardization though and is itself just shorthand for "all of you [individuals]," which just highlights how clunky English handles second person plurals.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

hence my preference for "YOU'UNS" because if you're going to be grammatically repugnant then embrace it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Y'all is much more natural, there's nothing wrong with contractions.