基本英语

跳过字词转换说明

基本英语（Basic English）是一種人工語言，它基於英語的一種簡化版本而產生，由查尔斯·凯·奥格登（Charles Kay Ogden）創造。在他於1930年所出版的《基本英语--规则和语法的一般约定》一書中有詳細的介紹。

奥格登说，「学习英语要7年，学习世界语要7个月，而学习基本英语只要7星期。」因此，商業公司會將艱澀難懂但需要全球使用的文書寫成基本英語；而語言學校也會為了讓學生短期內學會簡單的英語，而教授基本英语。

奥格登不使用重复意义的单词，而且需要所有国家都适用这些单词。他利用大规模的测试和调整来得到这些词汇。在语法方面，他也做了简化，但是保留了英语通常的用法。

在第二次世界大战後，这种简化开始蕴含推进世界和平的理念。但是由于缺乏规划，发展出了不同地方使用的简化版本。

语法规则

奥格登基本英语的语法规则是为了让人们只用850个单词就可以解决一般交流。

1. 在单词词尾加-s作为复数，那些加-es和-ies的保留。
2. 四个词缀：-er可以变成300多个名词，-ing和-ed变成形容词。
3. 使用-ly变成副词
4. 对于数量，使用more和most，保留-er和-est.
5. 形容词的反义词是加前缀un-', 'im-'
6. 问句使用相反的词序，加上do.
7. 人称和代名词使用和一般英语相同。
8. 可以使用两个名词组合成新词，比如milkman和wordend；还可以是名词加方位，例如sundown.
9. 单位，数字，货币，月份，日子，年份，钟点和国际语同一般英语形式。
10. 使用专业和科技词汇。一些特殊词汇不属于基本英语，词性，复数等变化不遵守这个规范。

批评、不解和答复

• 批评意见：为了减少词汇量，使用了许多不常用和不地道的表达方法，比如 succeed（成功）用 make good 代替，而 fail（失败）用 make bad 代替。

答复：Make good 不是基本英语必须使用的，奥格登建议使用 do well，而 fail 使用 don't do well 和 doesn't do well。

• 批评意见：英语有大量习惯用语，现在一般的成语词典有4000条，需要2000个单词来描述，是基本英语的两倍。实际上英语使用者需要学习这么多的词汇和这些成语，而早期引入这些成语并无妨碍。

答复：基本英语实际上要减少使用成语，这些词汇用基本词汇引申出来。

• 批评意见：要注意到新的单词列表也除去了那些常用的英语单词，比如 world（世界）。

答复: 像 world 这样的单词之所以不在列表中，是因为使用不多，其他单词比如 earth、space 或 international society 足以表达这个意思。

• 批评意见：这是一种语言独裁主义，因为试图去造英语，更进一步说，没有考虑英语文化。也不利于不规则的英语变化延续发展。

答复：基本英语对于英国和英语的作用有限，比如 home（家居）就不在列表里。另外，由于限制，使动词增加了，而且使规范英语变化更加规范。

• 批评意见：不用时态就不能有效表达信息，因为 to be 表示允诺，而其他只表示状态的单词（像 equal 和 become）就没有这个意味。

答复：基本英语不使用 be 和 come 组合成 become。而 equal 用作形容词或量词。所以可能存在 This is equal to that.（这个和那个一样）这种表达。可以使用 seem 来代替。

参考历史

1944年，温斯顿·丘吉尔 在哈佛大学的一个演讲裡，起初支持用基本英语作为世界语言，但是由于一个故事他放弃了，就是那句“blood, toil, tears and sweat”（热血、辛劳、眼泪和汗水）写成基本英语就是“blood, hard work, eyewash and body water”（血液、努力、淚液和体液）。喬治·奧威爾的作品《一九八四》中可能有对基本英语的拙劣模仿。书后对“新话”的注解可以认为暗含着对构造语言的批评，尽管那在这本书的著作期间（1948年）呼声很高。

奥威尔的新话实际上更像是专为机器或网络设计的语言，不知晓网络的人士看不懂的。与之相比，奥格登的基本英语任何一个懂英语的人都能读懂，但它只能用作第二语言。

单词表

基本英语有850个核心词汇

动作 - 100 个单词

come, get, give, go, keep, let, make, put, seem, take,
be, do, have, say, see, send, may, will
about, across, after, against, among, at, before, between, by, down, from, in, off, on, over, through, to, under, up, with,
as, for, of, till, than,
a, the, all, any, every, no, other, some, such, that, this, I, he, you, who,
and, because, but, or, if, though, while, how, when, where, why,
again, ever, far, forward, here, near, now, out, still, then, there, together, well
almost, enough, even, little, much, not, only, quite, so, very,
tomorrow, yesterday
north, south, east, west, please, yes.

事物 - 400 个常用单词

account, act, addition, adjustment, advertisement, agreement, air, amount, amusement, animal, answer, apparatus, approval, argument, art, attack, attempt, attention, attraction, authority, back, balance, base, behaviour, belief, birth, bit, bite, blood, blow, body, brass, bread, breath, brother, building, burn, burst, business, butter, canvas, care, cause, chalk, chance, change, cloth, coal, colour, comfort, committee, company, comparison, competition, condition, connection, control, cook, copper, copy, cork, cotton, cough, country, cover, crack, credit, crime, crush, cry, current, curve, damage, danger, daughter, day, death, debt, decision, degree, design, desire, destruction, detail, development, digestion, direction, discovery, discussion, disease, disgust, distance, distribution, division, doubt, drink, driving, dust, earth, edge, education, effect, end, error, event, example, exchange, existence, expansion, experience, expert, fact, fall, family, father, fear, feeling, fiction, field, fight, fire, flame, flight, flower, fold, food, force, form, friend, front, fruit, glass, gold, government, grain, grass, grip, group, growth, guide, harbour, harmony, hate, hearing, heat, help, history, hole, hope, hour, humour, ice, idea, impulse, increase, industry, ink, insect, instrument, insurance, interest, invention, iron, jelly, join, journey, judge, jump, kick, kiss, knowledge, land, language, laugh, law, lead, learning, leather, letter, level, lift, light, limit, linen, liquid, list, look, loss, love, machine, man, manager, mark, market, mass, meal, measure, meat, meeting, memory, metal, middle, milk, mind, mine, minute, mist, money, month, morning, mother, motion, mountain, move, music, name, nation, need, news, night, noise, note, number, observation, offer, oil, operation, opinion, order, organization, ornament, owner, page, pain, paint, paper, part, paste, payment, peace, person, place, plant, play, pleasure, point, poison, polish, porter, position, powder, power, price, print, process, produce, profit, property, prose, protest, pull, punishment, purpose, push, quality, question, rain, range, rate, ray, reaction, reading, reason, record, regret, relation, religion, representative, request, respect, rest, reward, rhythm, rice, river, road, roll, room, rub, rule, run, salt, sand, scale, science, sea, seat, secretary, selection, self, sense, servant, sex, shade, shake, shame, shock, side, sign, silk, silver, sister, size, sky, sleep, slip, slope, smash, smell, smile, smoke, sneeze, snow, soap, society, son, song, sort, sound, soup, space, stage, start, statement, steam, steel, step, stitch, stone, stop, story, stretch, structure, substance, sugar, suggestion, summer, support, surprise, swim, system, talk, taste, tax, teaching, tendency, test, theory, thing, thought, thunder, time, tin, top, touch, trade, transport, trick, trouble, turn, twist, unit, use, value, verse, vessel, view, voice, walk, war, wash, waste, water, wave, wax, way, weather, week, weight, wind, wine, winter, woman, wood, wool, word, work, wound, writing, year

事物- 200个可用图表示的单词

angle, ant, apple, arch, arm, army, baby, bag, ball, band, basin, basket, bath, bed, bee, bell, berry, bird, blade, board, boat, bone, book, boot, bottle, box, boy, brain, brake, branch, brick, bridge, brush, bucket, bulb, button, cake, camera, card, cart, carriage, cat, chain, cheese, chest, chin, church, circle, clock, cloud, coat, collar, comb, cord, cow, cup, curtain, cushion, dog, door, drain, drawer, dress, drop, ear, egg, engine, eye, face, farm, feather, finger, fish, flag, floor, fly, foot, fork, fowl, frame, garden, girl, glove, goat, gun, hair, hammer, hand, hat, head, heart, hook, horn, horse, hospital, house, island, jewel, kettle, key, knee, knife, knot, leaf, leg, library, line, lip, lock, map, match, monkey, moon, mouth, muscle, nail, neck, needle, nerve, net, nose, nut, office, orange, oven, parcel, pen, pencil, picture, pig, pin, pipe, plane, plate, plough, pocket, pot, potato, prison, pump, rail, rat, receipt, ring, rod, roof, root, sail, school, scissors, screw, seed, sheep, shelf, ship, shirt, shoe, skin, skirt, snake, sock, spade, sponge, spoon, spring, square, stamp, star, station, stem, stick, stocking, stomach, store, street, sun, table, tail, thread, throat, thumb, ticket, toe, tongue, tooth, town, train, tray, tree, trousers, umbrella, wall, watch, wheel, whip, whistle, window, wing, wire, worm.

状态- 100个常用单词

able, acid, angry, automatic, beautiful, black, boiling, bright, broken, brown, cheap, chemical, chief, clean, clear, common, complex, conscious, cut, deep, dependent, early, elastic, electric, equal, fat, fertile, first, fixed, flat, free, frequent, full, general, good, great, grey, hanging, happy, hard, healthy, high, hollow, important, kind, like, living, long, male, married, material, medical, military, natural, necessary, new, normal, open, parallel, past, physical, political, poor, possible, present, private, probable, quick, quiet, ready, red, regular, responsible, right, round, same, second, separate, serious, sharp, smooth, sticky, stiff, straight, strong, sudden, sweet, tall, thick, tight, tired, true, violent, waiting, warm, wet, wide, wise, yellow, young.

状态 - 50 个有反义词的单词

awake, bad, bent, bitter, blue, certain, cold, complete, cruel, dark, dead, dear, delicate, different, dirty, dry, false, feeble, female, foolish, future, green, ill, last, late, left, loose, loud, low, mixed, narrow, old, opposite, public, rough, sad, safe, secret, short, shut, simple, slow, small, soft, solid, special, strange, thin, white, wrong.

外部链接

維基百科有此種語言版本：
   基本英语维基百科

• 查尔斯·凯·奥格登Basic English: 一般规则介绍
• 查尔斯·凯·奥格登, 基本英语及文法革新, 剑桥: The Orthological Institute. (1937).
• http://www.basic-english.org
• Wiktionary:Basic_English_template (uses Basic English word list as a basis for studying equivalent basic words in other languages)
• World English Organization
• 美國之音特殊英語版本:為英語學習者而設的新聞電台