Basic English also known as Simple English is an English-based controlled language created (in essence as a simplified subset of English) by linguist and philosopher Charles Kay Ogden as an international auxiliary language and as an aid for teaching English as a Second Language. It was presented in Ogden's book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar (1930). Capitalised BASIC is sometimes taken as an acronym that stands for British American Scientific International Commercial.1

Ogden's Basic and the concept of a simplified English gained its greatest publicity just after the Allied victory in the Second World War as a means for world peace. Although Basic English was not built into a program similar simplifications have been devised for various international uses. Ogden's associate I. A. Richards promoted its use in schools in China.2 More recently it has influenced the creation of Voice of America's Special English for news broadcasting and Simplified English another English-based controlled language designed to write technical manuals.

What survives today of Ogden's Basic English is the basic 850-word list used as the beginner's vocabulary of the English language taught worldwide especially in Asia.3 Contents 1 Design principles 2 Word lists 3 Rules 4 Criticism 5 Literary references 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links Design principles

Ogden tried to simplify English while keeping it normal for native speakers by specifying grammar restrictions and a controlled small vocabulary which makes an extensive use of paraphrasis. Most notably Ogden allowed only 18 verbs which he called "operators". His General Introduction says "There are no 'verbs' in Basic English" with the underlying assumption that as noun use in English is very straightforward but verb use/conjugation is not the elimination of verbs would be a welcome simplification.4 Word lists

Ogden's word lists include only word roots which in practice are extended with the defined set of affixes and the full set of forms allowed for any available word (noun pronoun or the limited set of verbs).5

The 850 core words of Basic English are found in Wiktionary's Appendix:Basic English word list. This core is theoretically enough for everyday life. However Ogden prescribed that any student should learn an additional 150 word list for everyday work in some particular field by adding a word list of 100 words particularly useful in a general field (e.g. science verse business etc.) along with a 50-word list from a more specialised subset of that general field to make a basic 1000 word vocabulary for everyday work and life.

Moreover Ogden assumed that any student already should be familiar with (and thus may only review) a core subset of around 350 "international" words.6 Therefore a first level student should graduate with a core vocabulary of around 1350 words. A realistic general core vocabulary could contain 1500 words (the core 850 words plus 350 international words and 300 words for the general fields of trade economics and science). A sample 1500 word vocabulary is included in the Simple English Wikipedia.

Ogden provided lists to extend the general 1500 vocabulary to make a 2000 word list enough for a "standard" English level.78 This 2000 word vocabulary represents "what any learner should know". At this level students could start to move on their own. Rules

Also see Basic English ordered wordlist from Simple English Wikipedia. The word use of Basic English is similar to full English but the rules are much simpler and there are fewer exceptions. Not all meanings of each word are allowed. Ogden's rules of grammar for Basic English help people use the 850 words to talk about things and events in a normal way.9 Make plurals with an "S" on the end of the word. If there are special ways to make a plural word such as "ES" and "IES" use them. There are two word endings to change each of the 150 adjectives: -"ER" and -"EST". There are two word endings to change the verb word endings -"ING" and -"ED". Make qualifiers from adverbs by adding -"LY". Talk about amounts with "MORE" and "MOST." Use and know -"ER" and -"EST." Make opposite adjectives with "UN"- Make questions with the opposite word order and with "DO". Operators and pronouns conjugate as in normal English. Make combined words (compounds) from two nouns (for example "milkman") or a noun and a directive (sundown). Measures numbers money days months years clock time and international words are in English forms. E.g. Date/Time: 20 May 1972 at 21:00 Use the words of an industry or science. For example in this grammar some special words are for teaching languages and not part of Basic English: plural conjugate noun adjective adverb qualifier operator pronoun and directive. Criticism Like all international auxiliary languages (or IALs) Basic English may be criticised as unavoidably based on personal preferences and thus paradoxically inherently divisive.10 Moreover like all natural language based IALs Basic is subject to criticism as unfairly biased towards the native speaker community.11 As a teaching aid for English as a Second Language Basic English has been criticised for the choice of the core vocabulary and for its grammatical constraints.12 In 1944 readability expert Rudolf Flesch published an article in Harpers "How Basic is Basic English" in which he claimed "It's not basic and it's not English." The basic complaint was that the vocabulary is too restricted and as a result the text ends up being awkward and more difficult than necessary. He also notes that the words in the Basic vocabulary were arbitrarily selected and there have been no empirical studies showing that it makes language simpler.13 Literary references In the novel The Shape of Things to Come published in 1933 H.G. Wells depicted Basic English as the lingua franca of a new elite which after a prolonged struggle succeeds in uniting the world and establishing a totalitarian world government. In the future world of Wells' vision virtually all members of humanity know this language. From 1942 to 1944 George Orwell was a proponent of Basic English but in 1945 he became critical of universal languages. Basic English later inspired his use of Newspeak in Nineteen Eighty-Four.14 In his story "Gulf" science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein used a constructed language in which every Basic English word is replaced with a single phoneme as an appropriate means of communication for a race of genius supermen.15 See also Readability Plain English Simplified English International English General Service List Academic word list Bible in Basic English Controlled vocabulary References Brutt-Griffler Evans Davies English and Ethnicity Palgrave Macmillan2006 Time Magazine. Dec. 31 1945. Education: Globalingo Edmond H Weiss The Elements of International English Style pp. 17-18 M. E. Sharpe 2005 ISBN 978-0765615725 A good summary in Bill Templer: Towards a People's English: Back to BASIC in EIL Humanising Language Teaching. See the list of words which are assumed and not counted for details. Ogden's "International Word" List - Alphabetic Ogden's Basic English Next Steps Ogden's Basic English Combined Word Lists "Rules of Grammar". January 1 1996. http://ogden.basic-english.org/rules.html. Retrieved 2009-07-28.  Rick Harrison Farewell to Auxiliary Languages For instance a sample quotation from the auxlang mailing list archives and another from noted linguist Robert A. Hall Jr.. For instance by proponents of Essential World English. See a summary of EWE for instance and again the linguist Robert A. Hall Jr.. Flesch R. F. 1944. "How Basic is Basic English" Harpers March. pp. 339-343. Illich Ivan; Barry Sanders (1988) (in English language). ABC: The Alphabetization of the Popular Mind. San Francisco: North Point Press. pp. 109. ISBN 0-86547-291-2. "The satirical force with which Orwell used Newspeak to serve as his portrait of one of those totalitarian ideas that he saw taking root in the minds of intellectuals everywhere can be understood only if we remember that he speaks with shame about a belief that he formerly held... From 1942 to 1944 working as a colleague of William Empson's he produced a series of broadcasts to India written in Basic English trying to use its programmed simplicity as a Tribune article put it "as a sort of corrective to the oratory of statesmen and publicists." Only during the last year of the war did he write "Politics and the English Language" insisting that the defense of English language has nothing to do with the setting up of a Standard English.""  Heinlein Robert A. "Gulf" in Assignment in Eternity published by Signet Science Fiction (New American Library) 1953. Page 52-53: "It was possible to establish a one-to-one relationship with Basic English so that one phonetic symbol was equivalent to an entire word". Further reading I. A. Richards & Christine Gibson Learning Basic English: A Practical Handbook for English-Speaking People New York: W. W. Norton & Co. (1945) Basic English: A Protest Joseph Albert Lauwerys F. J. Daniels Robert A. Hall Jr. London: Basic English Foundation 1966. An answer to Robert A. Hall Jr.'s criticism. External links Simple English edition of Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Look up Appendix:Basic English word list in Wiktionary the free dictionary. Charles Kay Ogden Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar London: Paul Treber Charles Kay Ogden Basic English and Grammatical Reform Cambridge: The Orthological Institute. (1937). ogden.basic-english.org Ogden's books and wordlists online and several discussions. www.basic-english.org Ongoing project to support and update Ogden's Basic (with downloads). THE REFERENCE SHELF Vol. 17. No. 1 A discussion about Basic English with supporters and critics. VOA News - Voice of America Special English - News Radio for English Learners Online tool which might help you to write Basic English texts - Detect words which are not in some dictionary. Ogden's Basic English dictionary list included. Essential World English - some criticisms of Basic English and suggestions for overcoming its problems v d eWord lists by frequency (and number of words) English Basic English (850)   Simplified English (875)   Globish (1.500)   General Service List (2.000) Add-ons Academic Word List (570) Chinese Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi / HSK (8.848)   Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language (8.600) Japanese Japanese Language Proficiency Test / JLPT (8.009) v d eDialects and accents of Modern English by continent Africa Cameroon  Liberian  Malawian  Namibian  Nigerian   South African  Ugandan  Kenyan Asia Burmese  Chinese  Hong Kong   Indian   Malaysian   Pakistani  Philippine  Singaporean   Sri Lankan  Thai  Vietlish Europe Ireland Cork  Dublin  Ulster United Kingdom Black British  Black Country  Brummie  Cockney  Cumbrian  East Anglian  East Midlands  Estuary  Geordie  Kentish  Lancashire  Mackem  Mancunian  Multicultural London  Norfolk  Northern  Pitmatic  Potteries  Received Pronunciation  Scottish (Glaswegian  Highland)  Scouse  Southern  Sussex  Ulster   West Midlands  Welsh (Cardiff)  West Country  Yorkshire Other Czech  Dutch   Gibraltarian   Guernsey  Jersey  Maltese  Manx  Swedish North America United States African American Vernacular  Appalachian  Baltimorese  Boston  Cajun  California  Central Pennsylvania  Chicano  General American  Hawai'i English  Hudson Valley  Inland Northern American  Midland  New England  New Jersey  New York City  North Central American  Northeast Pennsylvania  Pacific Northwest  Pennsylvania Dutch English  Philadelphia  Pittsburgh  Southern American  Texan  Tidewater  Western  Yat  Yeshivish  Yooper Canada Cape Breton  Lunenburg  Maritimer  Newfoundland  Ottawa Valley Twang  Quebec  West/Central Canadian Other Belizean  Bermudian  Bahamian  Caribbean  Jamaican   Trinidadian South America Falkland Islands  Guyanese Oceania Australia General Australian  Broad Australian  Cultivated Australian  South Australian  Western Australian  Australian Aboriginal  Torres Strait  Victorian English  Queensland English Other New Zealand  Pitkern