minimal english
2026-05-26_mini-e

#language

i remarked in semicolon that you dont actually need any punctuation at all to write english

its perfectly understandable to fluent speakers with only lowercase or uppercase letters space and newline

in fact most english speakers probably write approximately like this most of the time now

it is comfortable to write and reasonably comfortable to read especially in a text chat environment
although punctuation and capitalization make it far more pleasant for the reader
for example we could really use a comma or a period so we dont have to use so many newlines
and if you dont use apostrophes you will make fluent speakers want to strangle you through your screen

although your spelling is probably so bad that the missing apostrophes barely register

anyway

letters plus space plus newline equals twenty eight characters which fits in only five bits with another four characters to spare for some luxuries like a question mark
how else will you know to add rising inflection
oh okay yeah we just know

but then again we probably want some numerals
there are 10 of those so if we add them we blow right past 5 bits and into 6 with a total of 38 characters
this is a luxury we cannot afford for whatever reason in our hypothetical hyperconstrained environment

we need to delete 6 letters

there are some obvious freebies

k q x w

vve can cuicly eliminate those and still understand ezactly vvhat is meant
although it is very ugly and vvords vvith a leading cay might be an issue licce novvledge
cnovvledge

necst vve can remove f and replace it vvith ph
in phact this is so comprehensible phor english speaccers that people already do it in the vvild all the time
mostly to call you phaggot in a video game

same vvith the doubled c to be cute vvith vvords licce succ
and goths do the vv thing
they and blacc metal phans neopagans etc vvrite u as v sometimes so that is a candidate phor our last deletion

or vve could drop y or j vvhich vvould be rather more unintuitive to most
hobbie lobbie phor ecsample is phine but jes vvould be read as jess iph vve drop y

better to eyect j and yump into the conphusion head on
still loocs phunny but is less ambiguous

but vvait

vve have numbers

vvhat about 1337

vv3 c4n d31373 4n0th3r nin3 13773r5 8y m4ppin6 34ch num83r t0 0n3 0ph th3m

n07 73n 51nc3 9 i5 0ur cu3 vvhich vv3 r3m0v3d 34r1i3r

50 i 6u355 vv3 607 0n3 84cc

vv3 c0u1d a1s0 d0u813 up 8y m4ccin6 1 80th i 4nd 311
0r 4 b07h 4 4nd y

8u7 1375 n07 637 700 c4rri3d 4vv4y

17 n33d5 70 83 136i813 4ph73r 411

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