If you managed to get through the first scenario, here’s the second which represents a future where regulation and control of language, proper and improper, has been the dominant trend for the last 50 years.

Reverse Timeline:

2060 Creation of new words and destruction of old words practically impossible.

2055 Each citizen required to use every word in their preferred language’s Complete Dictionary at least one time each year, including curse-words.

2050 Standard English declared the official language in the United States. Other languages can be used, but the use of a Universal Real-Time Translator (URTT) required in all public areas. Each citizen must declare their one preferred language.

2045 Foreign language teaching is considered unnecessary and programs are dropped from schools. Universal Translator created which only translates fixed foreign languages into Standard English.

2040 The Complete English Dictionary is completed. Registration of permanent language preference is required of all U.S. citizens. Only one choice is available per individual.

2035 The Department of English commissions research into mental methods of fixing language as well as to develop a universal real-time translator.

2030 Congress passes laws which require the use of Standard English by all government employees. The Department of Language is established to review petitions for new word creation and to compile the Complete English Dictionary. Creating new words becomes taboo or sin.

2025 In response to sentiments against Twext English, filtering and auto-completing technology is deployed. Creating new words, curse-words included, electronically is made impossible.

2020 The rapid destruction of languages prompts an international response to preserve language structure, syntax, and identity by appointing linguists to fix language according to their use in the Human Language Project in 2015.

2015 Linguists complete the Human Language Project, storing visual and audio recordings and texts in an online database.

The Scenario:

After recognizing the accelerated destruction of human language, linguists began developing a database of recordings which they hoped would preserve words and gestures for future generations. In 2015, they completed the Human Language Project (HLP) and had successfully recorded every word and gesture of every known culture. Mining this data became a priority for language experts and in 2020, linguists began organizing the HLP into dominant words, hoping to find the fundamentals of each language and make sharp distinctions between them.

In 2025, in response to older generations sentiments against Twext English (formerly twitter-text language), communication companies began integrating only those dictionaries which the HLP had determined to be essential language. Soon after, creating new words in electronic mediums became difficult or impossible. Attempts to partially complete a word, or use Twext, resulted in the software choosing the closest match to the essential language compiled in the HLP.

In 2030, citing the need to eliminate miscommunication and preserve essential language, congress passed laws requiring the use of Standard English by all government employees. Standard English was to be determined by the newly formed Department of Language which began work on a complete English dictionary and reviewed petitions for new words. When, for example, a new invention was created like our toaster-televisions, the Department would review the name and compare it to previously accepted terms to be certain the word or words existed in 2015. Likewise, all new parents had to send their child’s perspective name to the Department for review. Creating new words became anathema and was believed to reflect the ignorance or sinful nature of the user.

Recognizing the need to use one’s pure language and also communicate with foreigners, the Department of Language began development of a universal real-time translator (URTT). When completed, the device was able to translate Standard English into one of the numerous other standard languages. Direct translation routes were established and fuck you, for example, could only be translated into Standard Spanish as que te jodan and not te jodan or any other variation. Along with the URTT, foreign language instruction became unnecessary and programs were cut from schools. Foreign language was only taught in a few academic institutions, but became considered vestigial in most of the world. When Standard English was declared the official language in the United States, citizens were free to use other standard languages at home, but in all public spheres Standard English or the use of a URTT was the only acceptable method of communication. The 2050 census required each citizen to choose their preferred language from preselected standard language choice.

Believing that the need to preserve languages not only by restricting the creation of new words, but also using the old ones in their proper syntax and with their correct pronunciation, every citizen of the US was required to use each word in their preferred language’s Complete Dictionary at least once every year both in writing and in speech. This included the requirement of using all recorded profanities in one’s Complete Dictionary. By 2060, no one could even conceive of creating a new word or failing to use a word recorded in their language’s Complete Dictionary.

[Rex Troumbley]