Slashdot Mirror

• This one looks really interesting. It's a book about a German spy tasked with taking down the Manhattan Project.
• This is a good summary of WWII-related activities in the US (by Germany and Japan). They only provide a handful of links for more information though.
• Wow. Another great link. Read this.

Actually the allied powers made extensive use of the Axis research projects after the war. One example was Unit 731, responsible for the research and development of biological weapons through human testing. Not only were the perpetrators not prosecuted for war crimes, Shiro Ishii, the commandant was given a job by the US military! Makes you wonder what that fight for decency was all about really doesn't it?

Further details on Unit 731 can be found here.

Belligerent Acts Prior to US Entry into WW2, Committed by America against Axis Powers

Nuetrality was a myth. The US government was also aligned with the Allied cause. They just used the time to build up their industrial base while the other most industrialized nations in the world bombed the hell out of each other. This is how the US became so powerful when compared to Europe in the course of a four year war.

Try Ogden's "Basic English" , which has only 850 words .

It is clear that the problem of a Universal language would be solved if it were possible to say all that we normally say with no more words than can fit on a sheet of notepaper. The fact, therefore, that it is possible to say almost everything we normally desire to say with 850 words, makes Basic English something more than a mere educational experiment. Eight hundred fifty words are sufficient for ordinary communication in idiomatic English.

Six hundred words form a first stage a which a wide range of simple matter can be provided. By the addition of 100 words required for any general field (science, trade) and 50 for any particular specialty, a total of 1,000 enables any meeting or publication to achieve internationalism.

With this vocabulary, the style and brevity has no literary pretensions, but is clear and precise. Below the minimum 600, only Pidgin English or traveler's enquiries can emerge. Above the 1,000 maximum, we are at the level of standardizing English. Normal vocabulary hovers between the alleged 300 words of the Somersetshire farmer and the 12,000 of the average undergraduate. Most are shades of meaning that are not strictly necessary.

The 850 words can be learned in 40 hours spent during a month by a speaker of a European romance or Germanic language.

Try Ogden's "Basic English" , which has only 850 words .

It is clear that the problem of a Universal language would be solved if it were possible to say all that we normally say with no more words than can fit on a sheet of notepaper. The fact, therefore, that it is possible to say almost everything we normally desire to say with 850 words, makes Basic English something more than a mere educational experiment. Eight hundred fifty words are sufficient for ordinary communication in idiomatic English.

Six hundred words form a first stage a which a wide range of simple matter can be provided. By the addition of 100 words required for any general field (science, trade) and 50 for any particular specialty, a total of 1,000 enables any meeting or publication to achieve internationalism.

With this vocabulary, the style and brevity has no literary pretensions, but is clear and precise. Below the minimum 600, only Pidgin English or traveler's enquiries can emerge. Above the 1,000 maximum, we are at the level of standardizing English. Normal vocabulary hovers between the alleged 300 words of the Somersetshire farmer and the 12,000 of the average undergraduate. Most are shades of meaning that are not strictly necessary.

The 850 words can be learned in 40 hours spent during a month by a speaker of a European romance or Germanic language.

A fifth lingua franca which you forgot to mention is Aramaic which was spoken throughout the middle east and large parts of the mediterranean for many centuries. It is preserved today in a few isolated communities in Syria and in many jewish scriptures.

I agree that English is effectively the new lingua franca for the foreseeable future. Maybe it's time to revive Charles Kay Ogden's Basic English proposal - a subset of English that is more simple to learn than regular English. (yes, that's right, more simple, not "simpler")


----

English as an international second language seems likely for the next few years to go to the top instead of a made-up language.

In particular, some form of "plain English" (as proposed by Al Gore among others) or restricted vocabulary/simplified grammar/spelling might be a good project.

In our common language we need richness, so we can distinguish, for example, "sensual" from "sensuous." But such richness is bad when we need to prescribe instead of describe--our laws must be understood by all. Note, for example, that international standards now almost always have a glossary with agreed-upon definitions (even the Microsoft anti-trust case has them).

Many have made a try for a Basic English. See for example the 850-word language by C. K. Ogden (1934) at http://www.marshallnet.com/~m anor/basiceng/beweb.html

It might be interesting to make a Babelfish computer translator to Basic English. Any takers?