A BASIC PHONETIC READER
by
A. LLOYD JAMES, M.A.
Professor of Phonetics in the School of Oriental Studies, University of London ;
Linguistic Adviser to the British Broadcasting Corporation

THOMAS NELSON AND SONS LTD
LONDON, EDINBURGH, PARIS, MELBOURNE, TORONTO AND NEW YORK

Basic English is an attempt to give to every one a second, or international language, which will take as little of the learner's time as possible. It is a system in which everything may be said for all the purposes of everyday existence : the common interests of men and women, general talk, news, trade, and science. To the eye and car, it will not seem in any way different from normal English, which is now the natural language, or the language of the Governments, of more than 500,000,000 persons.

    This Reader contains extracts in the 850 words of Basic English, and facing these, page by page, transcriptions in the International Phonetic Script. There is also a long Introduction on the pronunciation of English.
    It provides a unique introduction to a universally intelligible variety of English pronunciation. It contains a wide selection of interesting passages, which can be used with equal profit by students in the process of mastering Standard English and by those concerned only with the minimum requirements of this great international auxiliary, Basic English.

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CONTENTS

PART I
THE PRONUNCIATION OF BASIC ENGLISH	3
EXAMPLES OF OPEN SOUNDS	16
EXAMPLES OF STOPPED SOUNDS	28
PART II
TOM THUMB	34
CRUSOE GIVES HELP TO FRIDAY	40
JERRY's NEW YEAR	50
FLORIZEL AND PERDITA	58
PART II b.
GULLIVER PUTS AN END TO A WAR	66
THE WHISTLE	74
THE STRANGE BEHAVIOUR OF MR. LEGRAND	80
KEAWE's BOTTLE	88
HOICHI THE BIWA-PLAYER	98
BUILDING THE ARK	106
PART III
THE DISCOVERY OF THE EGYPT'S GOLD	116
THE HOTEL	124
THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND WAR	132
THE KELLOGG AGREEMENT	138
THE SUN's SYSTEM	144
PART III b.
TRADE UNDER HENRY VII	150
WEIGHT AND MASS	156
THE STORY OF JUDAS	166
MONEY and PURCHASING POWER	176
HARRY POTTER and The Half-Blood Prince
THE BASIC WORDS	183
INTERNATIONAL WORDS	197


The following are the stories in Basic English, without the facing pages in International Phonetic Script.

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TOM THUMB ¹

    Far back in the past, there was a Woodcutter who was married and had seven sons ; and the oldest of the seven was only ten years old. The man and woman were very poor, and their sons were a great trouble ; because not one of them was old enough to do much work. In addition, the youngest was a very delicate boy, and did very little talking. His father and mother had the idea that he was foolish, but the fact was that his quiet tongue was the sign of a wise head. He was very small. At his birth he was about the size of a man's thumb, and Tom Thumb was the name which his father and mother gave him.
    Whenever anything in the house went wrong, Tom Thumb was said to be the cause, and he got the punishment. But he had more knowledge and quicker brains than his brothers. He kept his mouth shut, but his ears were open all the time.
    There came a very bad winter, when food was hard to get, and the man and woman were unable to keep their sons any longer. One night, when the two were seated in front of the fire, and their sons were all in bed, the Woodcutter sadly said ; "We have not enough food for them. They are getting thin and ill ; and the thought of the future keeps me awake at night. Tomorrow we will take them far into the wood ; and then come away when they are not looking. They will have no idea which direction to take -- and that will be the end of them."
    "What ? " said Mrs. Woodcutter. "Will you be so cruel as to let them come to such an end ?" He kept saying how poor they were, but she would not give her agreement to his suggestion. She was poor, but she was their mother. But then she gave sad thought to the future, when she would see her little boys getting nearer and nearer to death every hour ; and at last she said the Woodcutter was right, and she went crying to bed.
    Everything they had said had come to the ears of Tom Thumb. Hearing their voices, he had got out of bed and softly come to the fireplace and got under his father's seat. So, without having been seen, he had knowledge of what his father and mother had in mind. The little boy went back to bed ; but he had no more sleep that night --- he was turning over in his mind ideas for keeping himself and his brother safe from a cruel death. Early in the morning, he went down to the edge of a river, and got his pockets full of small white stones, and then came back to the house. In a short time, all the boys went out together with their father and mother ; and Tom Thumb said nothing to his brothers about the events of the night before.
    They went a long way into a very thick wood, so thick that they were unable to see for more than ten yards. At last the Woodcutter said : "I will get to work here ; this seems a good place. While I am cutting a tree down, you boys go and get dry sticks for firewood." The seven little boys did as their father said ; and when they had been working for some time, the man and woman went slowly and quietly from them. When the boys would no longer be able to see them, they went quickly back to the house.
    After a time, the boys were conscious that their father and mother were gone ; and the six brothers gave loud cries for help. It was no use ; their cries were wasted on the unhearing trees. Tom Thumb made no attempt to keep them quiet ; but he was certain they would all get back safely. On the way out he had kept dropping his stones ; and so every yard of the road to the house was marked. When his brothers were tired of crying, he said to them : :Have no fear. Our father and mother have gone from us, but I will take you back to the house. Come with me."
    They went with him, and he took them back. The stones kept them on the right road. When they were back at the house, they kept in fear outside the door. What would their father and mother do to them ?
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1 . From Stories from France, Charles Perrault, pp.80-83.

CRUSOE GIVES HELP TO FRIDAY ¹

    In the month of December, in Crusoe's twenty-third year on the island, he was surprised to see a fire on the sands, and nine black men dancing round it. It was quite clear that they had come to the island in two boats. Another group, in three boats, came to the other side of Crusoe's island, and had a meal of the men they had put to death. When they had gone he came across a number of bones, the signs of their disgusting meal.
    When Crusoe saw they had gone, he quickly put two guns over his arm and two hand-guns in his trouser band, and took a military blade. Then, without loss of time, he went to the slope where he had first seen the boats of the black men. There was no doubt that there had been three other boats at the place, and he saw them all on the sea together.
    Again his peace of mind was gone, and he went about all the time in fear that he might come across them at a time when he was no ready for them. But it was more than fifteen months before any of the black men came to the island again.
    In the middle of May in the year after, when the weather was very bad, the sound of guns from a ship in trouble came to Crusoe's ears.
    He says in his day-book " "I got together all the dry wood which was near, and made a fire with it on the top of the slope. The wood was dry, and the flames went high, and though the wind was very strong, it went on burning very well. When the fire was started, there came to my ears the sound of another gun, and after that a number of others, all from the same direction. I kept my fire burning all through the night till the morning : and when it was daylight and the air had become clear, I saw something at a great distance out to sea, east of the island.
    "I had a look at it frequently all that day, and in a short time saw that it was not moving, so I was of the opinion that it was probably a ship at rest. I took my gun in my hand, and went quickly in the direction of the south-east side of the island, to the stones. By the time I got up there, the weather was good, and to my great regret I clearly saw a damaged ship which had been forced in the night on to the masses of stone near the island, which were kept from view by the waves.
   "I was not ever certain if there were any living men on that ship or not ; but I made the sad discovery, some days later, of the body of a boy which had come up on to the sands at the end of the island nearest the ship."
    When the waves got less, and the sea was quiet, Crusoe went out in his boat and got to the damaged ship, which was fixed between two masses of stone. A poor dog, almost dead from need of food, came jumping out of the ship into Crusoe's boat ; but that seemed to be the only living thing on the broken ship. Crusoe put the dog and two chests from the ship, together with a powder-horn, some fire-irons, and some kettles, into his boat. He got back to his island at sun-down, tired with his hard work.
    The chests were full of shirts, pocket linen, and neck cloths. The boxes in the great chests had in them bags of money and masses of gold. About these Crusoe says :
    "It is true that I had more money than I had before, but I was no better off. I had no more use for it than the Indians of Peru had before the Spaniards went there."
    About a year and a half went by, and ten, one morning, Crusoe was surprised to see five boats come to the island together. The black men came on land -- there were about thirty of them -- and in a short time were dancing round a fire which they had made. Then, two unhappy men were pulled out from the boats, and one of them was quickly put to death with a weighted stick.
    The second got away as quickly as possible in the direction of Crusoe's house, with three men after him. He got across the inlet ; but only two of the other men went into the water after him, because it seemed that the third was not a swimmer.
    Crusoe now came into view. He made a sign for the man who was running away to come to him, and slowly went in the direction of the other two men.
    Crusoe saw that it would be best not to let off his gun, because the noise might make all the others come round him. So he went quickly to the first of the two men, and gave him a hard blow with the hand-part of his gun and sent him to the earth. It was not clear to the other what had taken place ; but he saw that he was in danger, and was about to send an arrow² at Crusoe, when Crusoe let off his gun at him. The poor man who had been running away, slowly came near Crusoe, went down on his knees, and gave the earth at his feet a kiss. Then he put his head on the earth, and at the same time put Crusoe's foot on it.
    When the man who had been made unconscious by the blow from Crusoe's gun made a move, Crusoe's new friend made signs to him to let him have his blade. Then he went quickly to the man, and took his head off. When Crusoe had put the two dead men in the sand, he took him to the hollow, where he have him food, and made him have some sleep.
    "After he had been sleeping a little more than half an hour," says Crusoe, "he came awake, and came out to me, because I had been milking my goats in the field near by.
    "When he saw me, he came running to me, and again went down on the earth, and made clear by every sort of sign how pleased he was t have been kept from death, and how ready he was to be my friend.
    "At last he put his head flat on the earth, near my foot, and put my other foot on his head, as he had done before. After this he made signs of great respect, to let me see that he would be happy to become my servant for the rest of this existence.
    "In a short time, I said some words to him, and made a start at teaching him my language. First I made it clear to him that his name would be Friday, which was the day I kept him from death, and I gave him his name in memory of the fact."
    When he went to the place where the black men had come on land, Crusoe saw a great number of men's bones, and all the signs of the disgusting meal they had taken after having got the best of some fight. Crusoe put sand over the bones and other signs of the meal, and then went back to his house with Friday.
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1 . From Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe (in Basic English), pp 67-72.
2. Pointed, feathered stick

JERRY'S NEW YEAR ¹

    Christmas and the New Year are very happy times for some persons ; but for drivers and drivers' horses they are no rest time, though they may be a gold mine. There are such a number of meetings, dances, and places of amusement open, that the work is hard and frequently late. Sometimes driver and horse are kept waiting for hours in the rain or snow, stiff with cold, while the happy persons indoors are dancing to the music. I have doubts if the beautiful women ever give a thought to the tired driver waiting on his seat, and his quiet animal kept there without moving till he has no feeling in his legs.
    I had now most of the night work, because I was quite used to not moving, and Jerry had more fear of the other horse getting a cold. We had a great amount of later work in the Christmas week, and Jerry's cough was bad ; but however late we were, Polly kept up for him, and came out to him with the light, looking serious and troubled.
    On the night of the New Year, we had to take two men to a house in one of the West End squares. We put them down at nine, and were ordered to come again at eleven. "But," said one of them, "there is to be card-playing, so you may be kept waiting one or two minutes, but don't be late."
    While the clock was sounding eleven, we came up to the door. Jerry was not ever late. The quarter-hours were sounded -- one, two, three, and then twelve -- but the door was still shut.
    The wind had come first from this, then from that direction, with falls of rain in the day, but now there was sharp driving snow and rain, which seemed to come all the way round ; it was very cold, and there was no cover. Jerry got off his seat and came and put one of my cloths a little more over my neck ; then he took a step or two up and down, stamping his feet ; then he made a start to give himself blows with his arms, but that made his cough come on ; so he got the four-wheeler door open and took a seat on the floor with his feet on the footway, so that he had some cover. Still no one came. At half-past twelve, he gave the bell a pull and said to the servant would he be needed that night.
    "Oh, yes, you'll be needed all right," said the man, "don't go, it is almost over," and again Jerry took a seat, but his voice was so rough it was hard to make out what he said.
    At a quarter past one the two men came out ; they got into the four-wheeler without a word, and said where Jerry was to go ; that was almost two miles. My legs were so cold that there was no feeling in them, and I had fear that I might make a false step When the men got out, they did not say they had any regrets about keeping us waiting for so long, but were angry at the price ; but Jerry never took more than was right, so he never took less, and they had to make payment for the two ours and a quarter of waiting ; but it was hard-got money to Jerry.
    At last we got back ; his voice had almost gone, and his cough was shocking. Polly did not put any questions, but got the door open, giving him a light.
    "Mayn't I do something ?" she said.
    "Yes, get Jack something warm, and then give me some boiling meal mixed with milk.
    This was said in a rough, low voice " it was hard for him to get his breath, but he gave me a rub down as he generally did, and even went into the roof for some more bedding. Polly got me a warm meal which made me happy, and then the door was locked.
    It was late the morning after before any one came, and then it was only Harry. He made us clean and gave us our food, and took the waste out of the boxes ; then he put the bedding back again as if it was Sunday. He was very quiet, not whistling, and there was no song on his lips. Later in the day he came again, and gave us our food and water : this time Dolly came with him ; she was crying, and it was clear from what they said that Jerry was seriously ill, and the medical man said it was very bad. So two days went by, and there was great trouble indoors. We only saw Harry, and sometimes Dolly. It was my idea she came for company, because Polly was taking care of Jerry all the time, and he had to be kept very quiet.
    On the third day, while Harry was in the horse-building, there was a soft blow on the door, and a friend of Jerry's came in.
    "I wouldn't go to the house, my boy," he said, "but I had a desire for news of your father."
    "He is very bad," said Harry.
    "If there's any rule that good men get over these things, I am certain he will, my boy," he said ; "He's the best man I have ever come across. I'll come in early tomorrow."
    Early the morning after he was there.
    "What is the news ?" said he.
   "Father is better," said Harry. "Mother has hopes that he will get over it.
    By degrees Jerry got better, but the medical man said he was never to go back to driving again if he had a desire to be an old man.
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1 . From Black Beauty, Anna Sewell (in Basic English), pp73-77.

FLORIZEL AND PERDITA ¹

    Polixenes, the King of Bohemia, had an only son, whose name was Forizel. When this young Prince was out one day for sport near the house of the sheep-keeper, he saw his daughter ; and he was so pleased with the beautiful, quiet, and queen-like behaviour of Perdita that he became in love with her straight away. From this time forward, under the name of Doricles, and dressed in the clothing of a private person, he came very frequently to the old man's house.
    Polixenes was troubled by the fact that Florizel was frequently away ; and ordered some men to keep watch on his son, he made the discovery of his love for the sheep-keeper's beautiful daughter.
    Polixenes then sent for Camillo -- the good Camillo who had kept him from the death designed for him by Leontes -- and made him a request to go with him to the house of the old man, the father, as it seemed to him, of Perdita.
    Polixenes and Camillo, dressed like private persons, got to the old man's house while they were having the great meal of the wool-cutting time ; and though no one had seen them before, at the wool-cutting every man who comes is given a place, so they were requested to come in, and take part in the general amusement.
    All was pleasure and amusement. Tables were covered and they were making ready for the great meal. Some young men and girls were dancing on the grass before the house, while others of the young men were getting silk bands, gloves, and such things from a trader who came round to the door.
    While all this was going on, Florizel and Perdita were seated quietly by themselves, and seemed more pleased with one another's talk than with the idea of taking part in the sports and foolish amusements of those round them.
    The King had made himself so different that it was not possible for his son to see who he was ; so he went near for the purpose of overhearing their talk. Polixenes was much surprised by the simple and quiet way in which Perdita was talking with his son. He said to Camillo, "This is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen in such a place as this ; everything she does or says seems like something greater than herself, quite out of place here."
    Camillo made answer, "Truly she is the very Queen of country girls."
    "Please, my good friend," said the King to the old sheep-keeper, "who is that good-looking young man talking with your daughter?" "He is named Doricles," said the sheep-keeper. "He says he is in love with my daughter ; and truly I am unable to say which of the is most in love. If young Doricles is able to get her, she will give him what he has little idea of," having in mind the rest of Perdita's jewels ; which, after he had got sheep in exchange for some of them, he had kept with care to give her when she got married.
    Polixenes then said to his son, "Young man ! Your heart seems full of something which takes your mind off the general amusement. When I was young, I made my sweetheart offerings ; but you have let the trader go, and have got nothing for your girl."
    The young Prince, who had no idea that he was talking to the King his father, made answer, "Old sir, she is not interested in such playthings ; the offerings which are valued by Perdita are locked up in my heart." Then turning to Perdita, he said to her, "Oh, Perdita, let me give my undertakings before this old man, who, it seems, was at one time a lover ; let him give ear to our agreement." Florizel then made the old man a request to take note of the undertaking he now made to get married to Perdita, saying to Polixenes, "Please give ear to our agreement."
    "I will give ear to this, that your agreement is broken, young sir," said the King, now making clear who he was. Polixenes then got angry with his son for giving his word to get married to this poor man's daughter, talking of Perdita as "sheep-keeper's baby, sheep-hook," and using other bad names. He said angrily that if ever she let his son see her again, he would put her, and the old sheep-keeper, her father, to a cruel death.
    The King then went from them angrily, ordering Camillo to come after him with Price Florizel.
    When the King was gone, Perdita, whose qualities of birth were touched by Polixenes' angry words, said, "Though it is the end for all of us, I had not much fear ; and I almost said to him that the same sun which gives light over his great house, does not keep his face from our poor one, but is equally bright in the two places." Then sadly she said, "But now that I am awake, I will take the part of a Queen no more. Go from me, sir ; I will go to my milking and my crying."
    The kind Camillo was moved by Perdita's good and sweet hehaviour ; and seeing that the young Prince was so deep in love that he was unable to give up his sweetheart at the order of his father, he got an idea of a way to give help to the lovers, and at the same time to give effect to a design he had for a long time had in mind.
    (more)
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1 . From Lamb's Stories from Shakespeare, pp 96-100
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