Like... Dutch?
this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2026
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Anglish - english without loanwords
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This fellowship is open to anyone who is nosy about delving into anglish. This fellowship is anti-fascists.
I will not frem any more steers unless it unfold itself to be needed.
https://anglish.org/wiki/Anglish
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I don't know dutch that well, but I've heard that Northern Frisian is the language that is most similar to modern day english given their shared roots.
Funnily enough, the North Frisians not only share the roots of their language with the English, but also the habit of elaborate daily rituals involving black tea ;-)
Like… Dutch?
I guess if you removed all the foreign words and influences added over the centuries and reduced it to its most fundamental origins, the result would be very similar to a mixture of Dutch and some Norther German Frisian dialect.
So: Yeah.
Well...
fascist - 1921, from Italian fascista, from fascio (“bundle, bunch”)
So first task seems to be finding an alternative word for that.
You may also want to talk to the guys from the German "ich_iel" community, they have longstanding experience fighting English loan-words in the German language (so similar, but also quite different...).
I'll check them out:)
I’ll check them out:)
Just make sure to not speak English to them! ;-)
I don't know german, but perhaps this would be a great way to start :P
I think the word "fascism" is very difficult to translate properly. However, I have seen somebody define fascism as "the ideology of thinking through the blood of the nation" and perhaps it could be a starting point for translating the word.
Yeah, fascism is a hard one, as it seems to not have a clear definition from the start...
The thing is that we can recognize fascism when we see it. So the question then if it is so easy to reckognize, then why can't we put a proper word upon it? I think it has to do with that we use certain political frameworks that makes us misunderstand the nature of fascism. Because if we use the wrong framework, we are going to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of that which we talk about.
lol, ok:
- national: [insert Anglish term]
- socialist: [insert Anglish term]
That's a common misconception.
While national socialists where fascists, not all fascists are national socialists.
So let's stick with the word the translator @activistPnk@slrpnk.net linked to:
"fascist" = "bundleriken bundleriker"
So, what /is/ the motivation¹? You didn’t mention this in your post.
It seems the exact opposite of Anglish is most useful. When I write something, I generally want to be the most widely understood. If I am writing something in English but know many of my readers know French as a first language, I would like to make heavy use of true friends (words that are similar both in spelling and in meaning).
It would be useful to have a translation tool that could bend a language toward another. E.g. we often use the English word “temporary” but the not English word “ephemeral”. “Ephemeral” is also French, so if my audience is French I could use ephemeral to ease their comprehension.
¹ IIUC, “motivation” is likely borrowed from French as it ends in tion.
(update) Found an English→Anglish translator, which is fun. But really I would like to find the opposite.. something that replaces pure English words with borrowed words.
There can be many reasons for learning about anglish. For curiosity, for poetry, for exploring word smithing in english.
My motivation is to speak more poetically because I believe it is a way to communicate images much more effectively and to ground ourselves to our local culture.
I like to think that there are two directions in approaching language. Using language to be understood, and using language for personal understanding. The former is externally focused, whereas the latter is internally focused. In my language work I focus primarily on the internal and secondarily on the external.
My understanding is that most of us are too focused on the external to the degree that we neglect the internal. And I believe we can see this in how we move away from the poetic, move away from an embodied language. That we become alienated from ourselves.
By speaking less poetic, we end up using the same words but interpreting these words with entirely different images. Leading us into needless friction.
I'm not expecting this to be convincing, but at least that is my sincere motivation.
¹ IIUC, “motivation” is likely borrowed from French as it ends in tion.
Ultimately Latin origin, both parts, i.e. motiv- and -atio. Though according to this chart it might have come via other languages, but ultimately still Latin.
Interesting!
Are you attempting to free English completely of foreign influence?
TIL that Latin had not as much influence on English as I thought but it still appears a daunting task.
What about wine, as an example? That's more than just linguistic.
I was told that English partially* uses Latin grammar but maybe that was wrong?
I think I'll be reading some fantasy literature with a different mindset now.
* important, it's not a romanic language
I am of the belief that languages becomes more poetic and down to earth when we remove ourselves from the most intrusive influences. This is my experience from my own mother tongue norwegian. Moving away from speaking bokmål which is a blend of languages norse, danish, german, latin and french towards nynorsk which strives to use words that derives from norse or dialects culturally rooted in norway.
To be blunt, anglish is not my initiative. I don't know too much about the creation process of the anglish community and don't have any dialogue with them since they are only on centralized social media. I am just drawn to the project for the same reason I'm drawn towards nynorsk.
I think the word wine is poetic so I don't have much against it. I'd say my vision is to make a language more poetic, and anglish is in that direction.
English is a germanic language and has grammar deriving from it's germanic roots (that is what I have been told at least). But it has a great amount of latin/greek words.
anglish is not my initiative.
OK.
I think the word wine is poetic so I don’t have much against it. I’d say my vision is to make a language more poetic, and anglish is in that direction.
I just used it as an example as not only the word for wine comes from Latin but also wine itself.
English is a germanic language and has grammar deriving from it’s germanic roots (that is what I have been told at least). But it has a great amount of latin/greek words.
Yep, according to this wikipedia I misremembered something there.
TIL that Latin had not as much influence on English as I thought but it still appears a daunting task.
Well, when looking at the Wikipedia diagram (and also when considering that french is a primarily latin based language), the amount of words with latin roots would actually be really high.
I am more surprised that the Germanic rooted words don't have a higher percentage.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Origins_of_English_PieChart.svg
Interesting chart, which apparently only accounts for borrowed words. I would like to see a pie chart that includes Anglish to show the words invented with no orgin. Though I suppose it’s tricky because every region that has many English speakers would have their own inventory of homebrew words (Scotland, UK, USA, Australia, NZ, Canada, and even China and India). And there is no Academy Français equivalent to English.. ppl just using slang until it becomes widespread enough for a dictionary to include it. Nothing official.