Examples of language reforms are: •
Belgian Dutch (Dutch) – In 1844 (
Jan Frans Willems), 1864 (Matthias de Vries and L.A. te Winkel), 1946 (
Marchant), 1996 (
Actie) and 2006. •
Catalan – In 1917
Pompeu Fabra published Diccionari ortogràfic, the first
Catalan dictionary. The complete
Diccionari General de la Llengua Catalana was published in 1931. •
Chinese. • (1920s) – replaced
Classical Chinese with
Vernacular Chinese as the standard written language, largely through the efforts of
Hu Shih. • (1950s
PRC) – changed the script used to write the standard language by introducing
Simplified Chinese characters (later adopted by
Singapore and
Malaysia, but
Traditional Chinese characters remain in use in
Taiwan,
Hong Kong,
Macau, and various
overseas Chinese communities). •
Czech (19th century) – The dictionary of
Josef Jungmann contributed to the renewal of the vocabulary. In the 1840s the letter w was replaced by v. •
Deseret Alphabet (1854-)- Early LDS Church effort to restore all language to the pure
Adamic language used until the Tower of Babel. •
Dutch (19th and 20th century) — In 1883 (
De Vries and Te Winkel), 1934 (
Marchant), 1947 (
The Green Booklet), 1996 (
Actie) and 2006. •
Estonian (1910s/1920s) – reform movement led by
Johannes Aavik and Johannes V. Veski renewed the vocabulary, borrowing a lot of roots from Finnish and other Uralic languages and even inventing some roots. •
French (18th, 19th, and 20th century) — In 1740, 1762, 1835, 1992 by the
Académie française. •
German (1901/02) – unified the spelling system nationwide (first in Germany, with later adoption by other
German-speaking lands). Further reforms were enacted more recently, in the
German spelling reform of 1996. •
Greek (1970s/1980s) – while the written "pure" language, the
Katharevousa was full of
Ancient Greek words, the spoken "popular" language, the
Demotic Greek was not. After the fall of the military rule, a law was promulgated, making the latter the written language as well. For example, on Greek coins, the plural of the currency was drachmai (Katharevousa) before and became drachmes (Demotic Greek) after 1982. •
Hebrew (1920s) –
Modern Hebrew was created from Ancient Hebrew by grammatical simplification (especially of the
syntax) according to Indo-European models, coinage of new words from Hebrew roots based on European models, and simplification of pronunciation rules. Linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann argues that Modern Hebrew, which he calls "Israeli", is a Semito-European hybrid, based not only on Hebrew but also on Yiddish and other languages spoken by revivalists. Zuckermann therefore endorses the translation of the Hebrew Bible into what he calls "Israeli". •
Hungarian (late 18th and early 19th centuries) – more than ten thousand words were coined, thousands of which are actively used today (see also
Ferenc Kazinczy). •
Irish (1940s) – spelling system greatly simplified:
Gaedheal became
Gael, and
Ó Séigheadh became
Ó Sé. •
Japanese (1946) –
historical kana usage was replaced by
modern kana usage, while the
kanji system also transformed from
Traditional Chinese characters to
New Characters. •
Norwegian (20th century) – as Norway became independent from Denmark (1814), Norwegians wanted a written language closer to spoken Norwegian. The reforms in 1907 and 1917 made
Riksmål the written standard Norwegian, renamed
Bokmål in 1929. Bokmål and the more vernacular
Nynorsk were made closer by a reform in 1938. Today both language forms are written: on Norwegian coins, the name of the country is alternately Norge (Bokmål) and Noreg (Nynorsk). •
Portuguese (20th century) – replaced a cumbersome traditional spelling system with a simplified one (
asthma, for instance, became
asma and
phthysica became
tísica). •
Romanian (19th century) – replaced
Cyrillic script with the
Latin alphabet, deprecated thousands of
Slavic words in favour of
Romance words. Romanian has undergone spelling reforms in 1904, 1953, and, most recently, in 1993, with two minor ones in 1964 and 2005. •
Russian – 1918 – Major changes in
Russian orthography. Several letters were removed from
Russian alphabet. Minor changes in
Russian grammar. The reform has simplified some aspects of the language. Other reforms happened in 1708/1710 and 1956. •
Serbian (19th century) —
Slavonic-Serbian, the literary language of Habsburg Serbs, was disused with
Vuk Karadžić's reforms and standardisation as official language of Serbia. •
Somali (1970s) – modified
Latin script developed by a number of leading scholars of
Somali, including
Musa Haji Ismail Galal,
B. W. Andrzejewski and
Shire Jama Ahmed for writing the Somali language; made compulsory in 1972 by the
President of Somalia, General
Mohamed Siad Barre •
Turkish (1930s) – language and writing system were reformed beginning in the 1920s, such that the older language is called by a different name:
Ottoman Turkish. The
Ottoman alphabet was based on the Arabic alphabet, which was replaced in 1928 by the new Latin-based
Turkish alphabet. Loanwords of
Persian and
Arabic origin were dropped in favour of native Turkish words or new coinages based on
Turkic roots. •
Vietnamese (20th century) –
Classical Chinese lost official status in 1918, and the colonial schools instituted a "Franco-Vietnamese Curriculum" at this time. Vietnamese was taught using the
Latin alphabet, and this form soon became dominant. ==Instances in popular culture==