Introduction

Most of you know I started off as a translator. I like languages, the English one in particular. A long time ago, I came across a poem, written in 1920 by Dutch writer Gerard Nolst Trenité. He called it The Chaos, as it listed numerous spelling and pronunciation SNAFUs, making a decent case for “English is three kids in a trench coat posing as a language”.

As does life, language evolves. English is certainly not FUBAR, and The Chaos has taken on many forms over the years. Guided by OxCam's Mrs. Merriam-Webster and one Mr. Collins, someone Finnegans Waked it – and the following is a short version. Enjoy.

Please visit my shop to download the e-book (pdf or epub) for free.

I did a quick recording back in the day.
Transcripts and videos are available here.

Once again, I shall express my gratitude to Mr. Dominik Scheid of Foto Nieder Daun, who managed to coax reality into yielding this gorgeous picture in the month of October, 2021 CE. Awesome!