Status and Completion Requirements of the ACCESS System
Description of the ACCESS System
To obtain experience in the methodology of developing an IAL, the World Language Process has put extensive effort into the the development of the ACCESS System (Auxiliary Closed Captioned English with Simplified Spelling) and its ANJeL Tun as described below. However, it should be emphasized that the UNKOMMON Foundation and the World Language Process is in NO way 'soley committed' to the ANJeL Tun and that they will willingly, happily and cheerfully support instead any IAL that humanity may select. In that regards it MUST BE EMPHASIZED that wherever in the outstanding projects for the ACCESS System or the World Language Process that we make mention of an English related project, that will then instead AUTOMATICALLY become an IAL project, of whatever the IAL language may be.
Theoretical Basis of the ANJeL Tun
The ANJeL Tun is the most distinguishing feature of the ACCESS System. ANJeL Tun is sufficiently different to be classified as a separate language from English and while its present purpose is as an Intermediate Teaching Language it may properly be called a pidgin. The name Angel Tongue comes from the story reported in the Websters International Dictionary that when St. Gregory first heard it being spoken he said that this is surely the lash (the tongue has often been referred to as a whip or lash) of the Angles or Anglash, which evolved into the word English.
ANJeL Tun is based upon three theoretical principles, phonetization, elementalization, and regularization. These technical names are the designation of the author and came from the analysis and study of the theories of a number of experts.
Phonetization
Phonetization is the Simplified Spelling portion of the ACCESS System. There have been many attempts to develop an acceptable phonetical orthography for English. Historically, English was phonetic but because of the use of dictionaries as the authority for spelling the spelling did not change as the pronunciation did. Two of the best known present phonetic systems for English are WES (World English Spelling) and ITA (Intermediate Teaching Alphabet). In its development phase the ACCESS system has used the character set encoded in new television sets under the law of the U.S. Congress. This has the advantage of permitting materials to be developed anywhere there is type generating equipment that uses the standard English alphabet.
In future development, the ACCESS system would like to become more universal in its access. There may be difficulties to be overcome with the PAL and SECAM television systems used in other parts of the world. In reality, an even more foresighted solution may be necessary. What may actually be needed is an entirely new script because the Roman script is actually limited to 26 characters and it may be that 40 plus characters will be necessary to represent what will be finally accepted as a universal auxiliary language. Developments such as this, in the World Language Process, will probably have to wait upon social developments such as the formation of a world authorized committee with the the authority to make such decisions.
The ANJeL Tun FXNeTiK builds upon the research of Dr. Rondthaler and Dr. Lias and a host of scholars that preceded them. Technically, it is possibly more correct to say that the ANJeL Tun is phonemic rather than phonetic. Rather than trying to represent existing speech it phonemically designates the sounds to be associated with its character set.
Elementalization
Ogden and Richards discovered in their process of writing The Meaning of Meaning that there is much redundancy in English both as to words and syntax. Moreover, there are certain core words that are necessary to every English speaker but there are many others that are simply subject oriented. This concept was further developed by Noam Chomsky and found its implementation in what are called Basil texts for teaching English. Extensive use of computer generated word frequency lists have been
made to select the actual words used.
Elementary or basic ANJeL Tun uses the Chomsky concept of the distinction between 'form' and 'function' words (the latter including what some people call 'glue' words) to determine those words which should be taught and learned first. The English language has hundreds of thousands of form words which designate both concrete (words like boat, house, hammer, nail) and abstract concepts (like boating, housing, hammering, nailing and more particularly love, truth, beauty and other 'spiritual' ideas).
English, however, has at most only a few hundred 'function' words. These are the words that glue and relate the form words together. They are words like (of, to, if, and, for) and include relational words like (above, below, next, after). The function words are necessary to any form or discussion or writing that arises above pointing and naming. If one were to examine two entirely different essays - one dealing with the activity in a classroom and the other on a farm they would find entirely different form words. In the one essay they would find words like teacher, desks, chairs, blackboards, students, books and so forth and in the other they would find words like barn, cows, chickens, farmer, fields, tractors and so forth. It is easy to distinguish here which would probably be in which essay. However, both essays could share equally well the function words.
The most Elementary or most basic level of ANJeL Tun therefore seeks to teach only the function words. When one knows all the function words (just the few hundred involved) then one can say that they know the language. Of course they could not talk about anything, because they would not have any form words about 'things'. But still, we could not say that they did not know the language. If a Ph.D. in literature or language were to have opened before them a modern computer, and if they knew nothing about computers they could only say that there are colored wires and objects and things of this shape or that but they would not be able to talk intelligibly about the computer any more than they could stand at the elbow of a brain surgeon during an operation and describe the parts of the brain with which the surgeon was dealing. This is not to say, the Ph.D. does not understand the language, they just do not know the words or concepts for those subjects.
Once one has learned the several hundred function words of the ANJeL Tun -
then they know the language. But of course they still cannot talk about anything since they do not have the form words. But it is now simple to teach a person the form words for say their employment. A maid might learn the form words for a hotel room (towels, sheets, closet, mattress, bed, and another hundred words) and be able to communicate quite well about her work. Likewise a cook in the kitchen with a different set of words, or any trade such as carpenter, plumber, bricklayer, or electrician. There may be a culturally shared experience involving a set of form words that are understood by most 12 year olds of average brightness. To learn these words - would be a second level of accomplishment. Beyond that, the vocabulary for college admission or some particular profession may be still higher standards.
The size of one's vocabulary is reflective of their education and intellect. Intellectual growth is measured in the concepts and terms that one comprehends. Likewise spiritual growth may well be measured by the abstract terms, reflected in words, that one comprehends in that sphere, and for some this would be the mark of success in life. The concept here is that there can be ranks of elemental terms for any trade or profession - and indeed perhaps for general levels within various cultures themselves. One would build a vocabulary suited to their purpose upon a tree arrangement of the many available elemental lists.
Regularization
English is a language of exceptions but the ANJeL Tun reduces the language as much as possible to a logical system of rules. Some of these concepts, but not nearly so extensively, were applied by Ogden and Richards. In regards to using the ANJeL Tun as an Intermediate Teaching Method (ITM) the idea is that it is easier to first understand and learn a system of rules and then later to comprehend the exceptions. This conformity to rules is what makes the ANJeL Tun a pidgin.
Description of the System Development
The ACCESS (Auxiliary Closed Captioned English with Simplified Spelling) system started from the foundation of research on the BASIC English system of C.K. Ogden of London England and Dr. I.A. Richards of Harvard University. The latter received a grant from the Carnegie Foundation to produce movies at Walt Disney Studio to teach the BASIC English system but the cell animation technique of the time proved prohibitively expensive. The BASIC English system initially received considerable personal support from Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt but they both became
preoccupied with the concerns of World War II and consequently the BASIC English movement lost its momentum with the death of Ogden.
George Bernard Shaw offered to leave Ogden his fortune if he would combine BASIC English with some form of phonetic spelling but Ogden was adamant in his refusal because of the historic opposition to such phonetic spelling. Ogdens system was used in twenty-two countries and proved extremely beneficial. The claim for the system was that it could teach a person to speak English in just thirty days. The Ogden/Richards system of BASIC English was based on a list of 850 words plus that they felt to be universally accepted. It also had some rules for simplified syntax. The ACCESS System uses the function versus form words insights of Noam Chomsky
to further reduce this basic list.
The ACCESS system also adds further rules of syntax simplification, to such a degree that there are no exceptions, the language becomes a pidgin for the purpose of using it as an Intermediate Teaching Media (ITM) on the path to learning traditional English. The teaching language is combined with FXNeTiK spelling so there are no extra or silent letters and the learner can see on the video screen exactly what it is that they are supposed to be hearing.
At least eleven major technological advances have occurred in the fifty years since Ogdens and Richards time that make the development, use and distribution of such a system as this much more feasible than it was in their time. Further specific beneficial developments are anticipated in the near future.