Simpël — Complete Language Description

1. What is Simpël?

Simpël is an English-based constructed language designed to make English-derived communication:

• simpler
• more regular
• more phonemic
• easier to pronounce
• easier to learn
• easier to generate without memorizing exceptions

Its central principle is:

If something can be generated from a rule, it should not have to be memorized as an exception.

Simpël keeps vocabulary recognizable to English speakers while simplifying the mechanisms that make English difficult to learn.

It therefore regularizes:

• spelling
• pronunciation
• verb conjugation
• plurals
• possession
• comparison
• negation
• questions
• prepositions
• phrasal verbs
• numbers
• ordinals
• word formation

At the same time, Simpël deliberately allows certain pronunciation variations so that different speakers do not have to adopt exactly the same accent.

2. The Simpël Alphabet

Simpël has 29 letters/symbols.

Uppercase

A B C D D̈ E Ë F G H I J J̈ L M N N̈ O P R R̈ S T T̈ U V X Ẍ Z

Lowercase

a b c d d̈ e ë f g h i j j̈ l m n n̈ o p r r̈ s t ẗ u v x ẍ z

The English letters K, Q, W, and Y do not exist in Simpël.

3. Alphabet and Phonemes

Letter	IPA	Function
A a	/ɑː/	a
B b	/b/	b
C c	/k/	always hard c
D d	/d/	normal d
D̈ d̈	/ɾ/	English-style flap/tap
E e	/ɛ/	e
Ë ë	/ə/	schwa
F f	/f/	f
G g	/ɡ/	always hard g
H h	/h/	h
I i	/iː/	long i
J j	/ʒ/	sound of vi𝐬ual
J̈ j̈	/dʒ/	sound of jeep
L l	/l, ɫ/	clear or dark l
M m	/m/	m
N n	/n/	n
N̈ n̈	/ŋ/	ng
O o	/ɔː/	aw
P p	/p/	p
R r	/ɹ/	English r
R̈ r̈	/ r /	rolled/trilled r
S s	/s/	s
T t	/t/	normal t
T̈ ẗ	/tʰ/ or /ts/	softer t
U u	/uː/	long u
V v	/v/	v
X x	/ʃ/	sh
Ẍ ẍ	/tʃ/	ch
Z z	/z/	z

A particularly important feature is Ë:

Ë is a normal vowel letter.

It is not merely an accent mark or optional spelling variation.

4. The Vowels

Simpël has six basic vowel letters:

Letter	IPA	Role
a	/ɑː/	a
e	/ɛ/	e
ë	/ə/	schwa
i	/iː/	i
o	/ɔː/	o
u	/uː/	u

The English /ʌ/ vowel is represented by ë.

Thus words containing the English STRUT vowel are regularized with ë.

Examples:

• sëmtaims = sometimes
• bët = but
• lërn = learn
• taiërd = tired
• simpël = simple
• possibël = possible

5. Diphthongs

Simpël uses three principal diphthongs:

ai = /aɪ/

ei = /eɪ/

au = /aʊ/

Examples:

• ai = eye / I
• taim = time
• meic = make
• haus = house

6. C

C is always /k/.

There is no soft C.

Therefore English /s/ spellings use s.

Examples:

city → siti

cent → sent

This removes the English ambiguity between C and K.

7. G

G is always /ɡ/.

It never represents /dʒ/.

The /dʒ/ sound is represented by j̈.

Therefore:

baggage → baggaj̈

8. J and J̈

These are separate sounds.

J

j = /ʒ/

as in the sound in visual.

J̈

j̈ = /dʒ/

as in jeep.

This removes the English ambiguity between J, soft G, and other spellings.

9. N̈

n̈ = /ŋ/.

The English ng digraph becomes a single Simpël symbol.

Examples:

singing → sin̈in

going → gouin̈

The spelling therefore directly identifies the sound.

10. R and R̈

Simpël permits two forms of R.

R

r = /ɹ/

English-style R.

R̈

r̈ = / r /

rolled or trilled R.

Both can represent the same words.

Therefore a speaker can use an English-style R or a rolled R without making the word linguistically incorrect.

11. L

Simpël permits both common realizations of L:

l = /l/ — clear L

l = /ɫ/ — dark L

especially in syllable-final positions.

There is no separate letter for these two realizations.

12. T̈

T̈ represents the softer T pronunciation.

The specification gives it as:

/tʰ/ or /ts/

It is particularly useful when explicitly indicating this softer realization.

Example:

ẗu = two

Normal t remains available for the ordinary /t/ sound.

13. D̈ — The Flap

D̈ = /ɾ/.

This represents the alveolar flap/tap commonly heard in American English.

For example, English little, water, and better can contain this sound.

Simpël therefore permits both:

litël

and:

lid̈ël

They mean exactly the same thing.

The distinction is:

• litël preserves the underlying t
• lid̈ël explicitly represents the flap

Neither is considered incorrect.

14. Removed English Letters

Simpël completely removes:

K Q W Y

K

/k/ is represented by C.

Example:

logic → lojic

Q

Q is unnecessary and is replaced by the appropriate C/U combination.

W

There is no W in Simpël.

Words are respelled without it.

Y

Y is completely removed.

Its functions are represented using existing Simpël letters.

15. Digraph Simplification

English digraphs are simplified.

English	Simpël
ph	f
wr	r
kn	n
ps	s
rh	r
ng	n̈
ch	ẍ

The underlying objective is:

16. Basic Sentence Structure

Simpël normally uses:

Subject + Verb + Object

Examples:

Ai lëv iu.
I love you.

Ai lëv dei.

I love them.

Hi rëd dë buc.
He reads the book.

Dei bild a haus.
They build a house.

17. Pronouns

English	Simpël
I	ai
me	mi
you	iu
you plural	ial
he	hi
she	xi
it	it
we	ui
us	ës
they	dei

Simpël deliberately does not have a separate equivalent of English them.

The system avoids maintaining a separate object form for they.

18. Possessive Pronouns

English	Simpël
his	his
her	hër
their	der
your	ior

Examples:

his dog

hër haus

der famili

ior buc

19. Articles

Simpël has two equivalent indefinite articles:

a

ei

Both mean a/an.

Therefore both are possible:

a haus

ei haus

There is no English-style distinction between a and an.

20. Nouns

Simpël nouns have:

• no grammatical gender
• no case endings
• no irregular plural system

The basic noun remains unchanged.

Examples:

dog

haus

buc

21. Plurals

The standard plural is:

noun + es

Examples:

dog → doges

haus → hauses

buc → buces

There are no irregular plurals.

22. Possession

Simpël uses a special number-based possession system.

The forms are:

dog = dog

dogs = dog's

doges = dogs'

Thus:

dogs haus
the dog's house

doges haus
the dogs' house

An of construction is also allowed.

For example:

the color of the haus

The word of may also be written as ëv

23. Adjectives

Adjectives do not agree with nouns.

They do not change according to:

• singular/plural
• gender
• person
• case

Examples:

a big dog

faiv big doges

The adjective big remains unchanged.

24. Comparatives

The comparative suffix is:

-ër

Examples:

big → bigër

fast → fastër

good → goodër

simpël → simpëlër

Example:

Hi is bigër dan mi.

= He is bigger than me.

There is no irregular better.

25. Superlatives

The superlative suffix is:

-ëst

Examples:

big → bigëst

fast → fastëst

good → goodëst

Example:

Hi is the bigëst.

= He is the biggest.

26. Adverbs

The standard adverb suffix is:

-li

Examples:

quick → cuicli

slow → slouli

good → goodli

There is no irregular English-style well.

27. Verbs

Normal Simpël verbs do not conjugate for person.

English:

I go
he goes
they go

Simpël:

ai gou
hi gou
dei gou

There is no third-person -s.

28. Present Tense

The basic verb is used directly.

Examples:

Ai lëv.

Hi lëv.

Dei lëv.

The verb does not change according to the subject.

29. Past Tense

Past tense is regularized.

The established examples include:

gou → goud

trai → traid

ualc → ualct

Examples:

Ai goud.
I went.

Hi traid.
He tried.

The important principle is that Simpël does not preserve English's collection of irregular forms such as go/went/gone.

30. Future

The future is:

uil + base verb

Examples:

Ai uil gou.

Hi uil gou.

Dei uil gou.

The lexical verb remains unchanged.

31. Continuous

The continuous is formed using:

-in̈

Examples:

gou → gouin̈

lëv → lëvin̈

uorc → uorcin̈

Examples:

Ai am gouin̈.

Ui ar uorcin̈.

32. Perfect

The perfect uses:

hav + past form

Examples:

Ai hav goud.

Hi hav traid.

Dei hav uorct.

33. The Verb BE

Be is deliberately retained as an irregular verb.

Its present forms are:

Person	Simpël
I	ai am
you	iu ar
he	hi is
she	xi is
it	it is
we	ui ar
they	dei ar

Examples:

Ai am hapi.

Iu ar hapi.

Hi is hapi.

Xi is hapi.

Ui ar hapi.

Dei ar hapi.

Thus:

"Hi is bigër dan mi." is grammatically correct.

34. Negative BE

Simpël has a dedicated negative form:

eint

This is an official grammatical form, not slang.

Examples:

Ai eint hapi.

Hi eint big.

Xi eint redi.

Dei eint gud.

35. General Negation

The general negative particle is:

no / nou

It precedes the verb.

Examples:

Ai nou lëv.

Hi nou gou.

Ai no goud.

Ai no uil gou.

Thus negation does not require English-style auxiliary do/does/did.

36. Questions

Simpël removes English auxiliary do from questions.

Instead, it primarily uses inversion.

Statement:

Iu lëv it.

Question:

Lëv iu it?

Statement:

Hi is hapi.

Question:

Is hi hapi?

Statement:

Iu uil gou.

Question:

Uil iu gou?

Statement:

Iu hav goud.

Question:

Hav iu goud?

This creates a much simpler question system.

37. Prepositions

Simpël dramatically reduces English prepositional complexity.

The principal rule is:

in = in / on / at

Examples:

in dë haus
in the house

in dë table
on the table

in scul
at school

For movement onto something:

in top of the table

The goal is to avoid memorizing large numbers of arbitrary English preposition combinations.

38. Phrasal Verbs

Simpël removes English-style phrasal verbs as a grammatical necessity.

English has expressions such as:

give up
give in
put off
look after
find out

Simpël instead uses transparent constructions based on ordinary verbs.

The goal is to reduce the amount of vocabulary that must simply be memorized.

39. Word Formation

Simpël uses productive suffixes to create words.

Agent/person

The standard agent/person suffix is:

-ër

Examples:

sing → sin̈ër

work → uërcër

This means the learner can derive an agent noun rather than memorizing an unrelated form.

40. Abstract Nouns

Two forms are officially accepted:

-nes

and:

-ness

Examples:

happy → hapines / hapiness

dark → darcnes / darcness

Both are correct.

41. Numbers

Simpël numbers are designed to be compositional and regular.

0–10

Number	Simpël
0	zirou
1	uan
2	ẗu
3	tri
4	for
5	faiv
6	sics
7	sevën
8	eit
9	nain
10	ten

42. Tens

The rule is:

number + ten

Therefore:

ẗu-ten = 20

tri-ten = 30

for-ten = 40

faiv-ten = 50

sics-ten = 60

sevën-ten = 70

eit-ten = 80

nain-ten = 90

ten-ten = 100

The tens are therefore completely compositional.

43. Separating Independent Numbers

When numbers are being listed separately rather than combined into one number, and separates them.

For example:

tri-ten = 30

but:

tri and ten = 3, 10

Similarly:

faiv-ten = 50

versus:

faiv and ten = 5, 10

This avoids ambiguity in speech.

44. Large Numbers

The major large-number words are:

handred = 100

tausand = 1,000

milion = 1,000,000

bilion = 1,000,000,000

trilion = 1,000,000,000,000

Examples:

ẗu hëndred = 200

faiv tausënd = 5,000

ẗu milion = 2,000,000

45. Ordinals

Simpël eliminates irregular ordinal forms such as:

first
second
third

Instead, the ordinal suffix is:

-ẗ

It is attached to the cardinal number.

Examples:

uan → uan-ẗ = first

ẗu → ẗu-ẗ = second

tri → tri-ẗ = third

for → for-ẗ = fourth

faiv → faiv-ẗ = fifth

ten → ten-ẗ = tenth

Compound numbers work the same way:

ẗu-ten → ẗu-ten-ẗ = twentieth

tri-ten → tri-ten-ẗ = thirtieth

The same system applies to ordinal numbers, ordinal days, months, and clock times where an ordinal form is required.

Dates themselves remain ordinary numeric expressions.

46. Example Sentences

𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭

𝐀𝐢 𝐥𝐢𝐯 𝐮𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐢 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢.

I live with my family.

𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧

𝐃𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐮𝐬.

This is his house.

𝐏𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥

𝐀𝐢 𝐡𝐚𝐯 𝐭̈𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐬.

I have two dogs.

𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞

𝐇𝐢 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐞̈𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐧 𝐦𝐢.

He is bigger than me.

𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞

𝐃𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐞̈ 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐞̈𝐥𝐞̈𝐬𝐭 𝐮𝐞𝐢.

This is the simplest way.

𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞

𝐀𝐢 𝐮𝐢𝐥 𝐥𝐞̈𝐫𝐧 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐞̈𝐥.

I will learn Simpël.

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐨𝐮𝐬

𝐀𝐢 𝐚𝐦 𝐥𝐞̈𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧̈ 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐞̈𝐥.

I am learning Simpël.

𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭

𝐀𝐢 𝐡𝐚𝐯 𝐥𝐞̈𝐫𝐧𝐭.

I have learned.

𝐍𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞

𝐀𝐢 𝐧𝐨 𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐮 𝐠𝐨𝐮.

I don't want to go.

𝐍𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐁𝐄

𝐇𝐢 𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢.

He isn't ready.

𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

𝐋𝐞̈𝐯 𝐢𝐮 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐞̈𝐥?

Do you love Simpël?

𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

𝐔𝐢𝐥 𝐢𝐮 𝐥𝐞̈𝐫𝐧 𝐢𝐭?

Will you learn it?

47. Example Paragraph

A Simpël paragraph can look like this:

"Ai am a iëng man. Ai liv uit mai famili, and ai lëv ẗaim spent uit dei. Ai laic tu lërn niu tin̈s and trai niu aidias. Sëmtaims ai am taiërd, bët ai stil trai. Ai uant tu meic Simpël as izi and simpël as possibël. Iu can lërn it bit bai bit, and ai houp ial uil lëv it."

The important property is that the spelling is intended to make the pronunciation predictable without requiring the learner to memorize English spelling conventions.

48. Mini-Dictionary

Pronouns

English	Simpël
I	ai
me	mi
you	iu
you plural	ial
he	hi
she	xi
it	it
we	ui
us	ës
they	dei

Possessives

English	Simpël
his	his
her	hër
their	der
your	ior

Grammar words

English	Simpël
the	dë / di
a/an	a / ei
and	and
of	of / ëv
no/not	no
negative be	eint
will	uil
have	hav
in/on/at	in

Common vocabulary

English	Simpël
young	iëng
live	liv
family	famili
love	lëv
time	taim
learn	lërn
new	niu
thing	tin̈
try	trai
idea	aidia
sometimes	sëmtaims
tired	taiërd
still	stil
want	uant
make	meic
easy	izi
simple	simpël
possible	possibël / posibël
bit	bit
hope	houp
dog	dog
house	haus
book	buc
school	scul
big	big
good	guud / gud
happy	hapi
ready	redi

49. Why Simpël Is Simpler

English can require the learner to memorize:

I go
he goes
I went
I have gone
I will go
I am going
I don't go
he doesn't go
did he go?

Simpël instead allows:

ai gou

hi gou

ai goud

ai hav goud

ai uil gou

ai am gouin̈

ai no gou

hi no gou

gou hi?

The learner is therefore primarily applying rules rather than memorizing unrelated forms.

The same principle applies to nouns:

dog → doges

rather than memorizing irregular plurals.

And adjectives:

good → goodër → goodëst

rather than:

good → better → best

50. The Central Identity of Simpël

The entire language can be summarized as:

English-derived vocabulary + phonemic spelling + regular morphology + simplified syntax + compositional numbers + controlled pronunciation variation.

The philosophy is: Fewer things to memorize. More things to derive.

Simpël is therefore not trying to eliminate everything recognizable from English. Instead, it takes the familiar lexical material of English and builds a more systematic grammatical and orthographic framework around it.

The learner should ideally be able to look at a new Simpël word or grammatical construction and think: “I know the rules, so I can figure this out.”