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I remember having read a short story about the reduction of the German alphabet some years ago. The story is very short (only a few pages), but the interesting thing about it was that during the story, the reduced alphabet was used in the story itself. I don’t remember everything, but e.g. the author explains why the reduction from f, v, w to f is sufficient, so that the German car manufacturer Volkswagen then is spelt folksfagen.

Does anyone

  • have read the story as well?
  • remember the year, the title, or the author of it?

I hope this question is not to strange, if there is a better place to ask it, just move the question.

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13

I know this story. It's a satire. It takes for a ride the public debate of the German spelling reform at that time. It was published in the year 1989 (20th January) in the "Mannheimer Morgen" by Lothar Picht (Heidelberg, Lektor des Springer-Verlages).

You can google for Rechtschreibreform "ales sneler" to find a link to a book including the complete satire (one page).

"fil fergnugen!" (Enjoy it!)

Remark: as jarnbjo mentioned in a comment there are several similar English texts as well, e.g. here: the English Spelling Society. As Amigable Clark Kant mentioned in a comment: I think this may be the oldest recorded English version: very old?. Not sure how old it is, I think it might be very old. –

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  • Sie muss älter sein, denn mein Vater las sie mir am Mittagstisch vor als ich noch zu Hause lebte, also bis '83.
    – user unknown
    Commented Sep 24, 2012 at 3:32
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    Siehste mal: Da kennt man seit seiner Kindheit im Berliner Raum das Wortspiel, dass jemand einem statt „Viel Spaß!" ein „F. F.“ wünscht und, wenn man verständnislos genug schaut, im Nachsatz grinsend sagt „Fiel Fergnügen!“, und dann lernt man hier, dass das mal als Teil der Echtschreibreform diskutiert wurde! … Ach so, war nur Satire ;-)
    – Speravir
    Commented Nov 11, 2012 at 22:39
  • Kein Mensch spricht Wagen als "fagen" aus.
    – rogermue
    Commented Jun 22, 2015 at 12:35

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