Sam Butler

Herold period 3

The English language contains more words than any other language on earth. Old English was
first spoken by Germanic tribes in Britain around the fifth century. Since then, the language has grown
from about 50,000 words, to over one million. By having far more words than any other language,
English has become bloated, and far too complex for the majority of its speakers. Even the most
arrogant book worm, which may look up the most obscure words in the dictionary, and recite their
brilliant vocabulary to anyone unlucky enough to cross their path, will never be able to come even close
to fully using the entirety of the English language. So what is the point of so many words? With so many
synonyms and abstract words, that may have the exact same meaning as a simpler, more common
word, why should we subject ourselves to the confusion?

First of all we need to slim down our dictionary, and remove all the synonyms in our language.
Dictionaries, especially unabridged dictionaries, have become so large they could be a safety hazard.
With just a simple miss placement of a dictionary, that can weigh upwards of twenty pounds, people
could break their toes or even crush small children under a falling book. That is why it is of the utmost
importance to remove all synonyms. By only using simple words like good, instead of pleasant,
enjoyable, and lovely, we can be most efficient with our words, and prevent any confusion, while at the
same time lowering the risk of any accidents with overly large dictionaries. Also, we could eliminate any
antonyms with a well placed not in front of a word. Instead of saying bad or terrible, we could simply
stick with saying not good. This would help keep our conversations always the most efficient and
comprehendible.

Also, large portions of our writings and conversations are plagued by little words with no real
meaning at all. Words like and, the, so, a, and of, serve no purpose, and do not help advance the
meaning of a sentence. Therefore they should be dropped, clearing the way for the more important
words, and to allow the reader or listener of a sentence to only have to hear the gist of that sentence.
With the age of the internet upon us, and text and instant messaging being one of the most common
forms of communication, we as a society have done a stunning job at eliminating wasted, useless words,
creating many acronyms that eliminate these small words, along with the larger ones. Phrases like, be
right back, and talk to you later, have been compressed to just brb and ttly. By speaking purely in
acronyms, we could drastically decrease the size of gargantuan dictionaries, while at the same time,
eliminating the amount of time we need to talk and interact with one another.

I myself have found, that my own vocabulary, and the vocabularies of most of those around me,
never strays outside of just a few basic and predictable words and phrases. By keeping my language so
simple and narrow, I can easily run out of things to say, keeping conversation most efficient and least
time consuming. Though I do admit, a world where all of our most inner thoughts and ideas could be
expressed with a simple grunt or head nod is ideal and on the horizon, we have yet to come upon this
sacred achievement, and for at least the next few years, we shall be forced to use those things called
words.