Full text of Robert L. Owen Collection, 1913-1946 : Global Alphabet : English Well Qualified As World Language, Except Spelling, Box 1, Folder 5, Item 2

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GLOBAL ALPHABET
ENGLISH WELL QUALIFIED AS WORLD LANGUAGE, EXCEPT SPELLING

The claims of the English language for consideration as a world language
have been excellently stated recently by Prof. Mario A. Pei, as follows:
"The adoption of English (Basic or otherwise) as an international
language is uppermost in the thoughts of many.
"English is probably, at the present time, the most widespread of
all tongues. Its native speakers number well over twc hundred million,
and colonial populations totalling over five hundred million can be
directly or indirectly reached with it. It is by far the most widely
used and popular of commercial tongues, while culturally it is probably
as far-reaching as French or German.
"From the grammatical standpoint, English is a comparatively simple
tongue. It has reduced inflectional endings almost to a minimum. Its
system of gender and number is logical. Its adjective is invariable,
its verb simplified to the point where a knowledge of three forms,
present, past, and past participle, plus a few unchanging auxiliaries,
covers all complications of person, number, tense, mood and voice.
"Syntactically, English is direct and straightforward to the point of
bluntness, saying what it means in the fewest possible words.
"The vocabulary of English is the world’s most fortunate blend of two
great linguistic stocks, the Germanic and the Latin-Romance, with plenty
of Greek and other languages thrown in. In addition, English is a free
and easy borrower, and readily grants admission and naturalization to
foreign words, from whatever source they may come.
"English pronunciation is not too easy, but foreign speakers seem to
adapt themselves readily enough, though not always perfectly, to its
rich assortment of vowel and consonant sounds,
"The great stumbling-block in the path of English, both as an interna­
tional language to be learned by foreigners, and as a national tongue
to be learned by English-speaking school-children, is its orthography,
which represents an archaic state of affairs that has long since ceased
to exist.
THE VALUE OF ENGLISH PHONETIC SPELLING
To the children who are first learning the language— how to read it, write it
and spell it— phonetic spelling can be learned in one day with the global alphabet
Books printed in the global alphabet can be immediately opened to young children
for their entertainment, instruction and development and advancing by a number of
years their knowledge of the world in which they live. The knowledge of these
things and the knowledge of phonetic spelling would give them rapid command of
many English words and greatly facilitate their ability to read the languages as
now printed in the newspapers. Phonetic spelling would save them years of time,
of precious time, urgently needed for immediate acquisition of knowledge of prac­
tical life.




R. L. Owen.