Two Word Vocabulary or Gibberish is Our National Language

I would like to introduce two, hopefully new, words to you:

Toponym - a name for a place, typically geographic. America is a toponym.

Demonym - a name for a person from a place. American is a demonym.

For all you writers out there here is a list of the proper demonyms for each of the 50 united states:

• Alabamans
• Alaskans
• Arizonans
• Arkansans
• Californians
• Coloradans
• Connecticuters
• Delawareans
• Floridians
• Georgians
• Hawaiians
• Idahoans
• Illinoisans
• Indianians
• Iowans
• Kansans
• Kentuckians
• Louisianians
• Mainers
• Marylanders
• Massachusettans
• Michiganders
• Minnesotans
• Mississippians
• Missourians
• Montanans
• Nebraskans
• Nevadans
• New Hampshirites
• New Jerseyites
• New Mexicans
• New Yorkers
• North Carolinians
• North Dakotans
• Ohioans
• Oklahomans
• Oregonians
• Pennsylvanians
• Rhode Islanders
• South Carolinians
• South Dakotans
• Tennesseeans
• Texans
• Utahans
• Vermonters
• Virginians
• Washingtonians (both the state and D.C.)
• West Virginians
• Wisconsinites
• Wyomingites

Now i was going to list the rules for creating demonyms from toponyms, say for example you were writing a story and wanted to know what the 'proper' way to refer to someone from the fictional place of  Helios was. But guess what - there are no rules and there doesn't appear to be any real consistency. Stupid language. So if it's fictional just pick something that sound good to you, and if it's a real place then you just have to find out from them.

Why is it that over the entire history of man out knowledge has grown overall yet language has degenerated. Greek and Latin were highly structured languages that could be taught consistently and even grow based on established principles. It is because of these very qualities that it is no coincidence that Greek and Latin are used in science, math, or wherever a new word is needed [Case in point: toponym and demonym are both greek derived, and with a modest understanding of greek you could know their meaning without a formal definition - now isn't that efficient?]. Does our language try to emulate these elements? Hell no! We just say sure whatever goes, it doesn't make sense that we chose that word but if we use it enough people will have to get use it.

The language of the earliest men could not have been as structured as the early indo-europeans, so at some point somebody had to have created a formal language, could we not do that today, a kind of linguistic house cleaning, refine it to the point were it is easy to teach, easy to learn, and using it's simplified precepts easy to apply to various new and unknown situations? So, elect me as Supreme Leader of the World, and i will start this project immediatly. Thank you for your support.

Comments

[The Tartan Horde]

The hodge podge nature of English, while making it more difficult to learn than Greek or the Romance languages, allows one to communicate a far broader spectrum of ideas. To my mind, that virtue alone outstrips all of the benefits of structural simplicity.

[MathJames]

Modern english only allows for a braoder spectrum because it has had a chance to grow, even if it has been growing wild. Had [ancient] Greek continued in it's own tradition it too would be as robust.

And just to be clear, it's not a simplification that is needed but more a standardization. Also, the facility of learning such a language is a secondary, perhaps even coincidental, benifit to being able to teach concepts of the language that can be used on words that have not been expressly taught.

For example, which would you rather learn (or should i say memorize) the above list of 50 demonyms or a list of ten or twelve rules that can be applied to any and all toponyms, known now or to be encountered later? Even if relitively more difficult, I would rather an eclectic philosphy of linguistics, than a willy-nilly hodgepodge of mumbo jumbo. :)

[billy bonka]

You guys can discuss this. In the car. for the next 24 hours.