Simplified English is a controlled language originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardized subset of English.
Proponents claim that Simplified English can:
- Reduce ambiguity
- Improve comprehension for people whose first language is not English
- Make translation cheaper and easier
- Facilitate automated translation
Simplified English has a lexicon of approved words and those words can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word close can be used in the phrase "Close the door" but not "do not go close to the landing gear".
The Aerospace Standard
Simplified English is sometimes used as a generic term for a controlled language. The aerospace standard is actually an industry-regulated writing standard for aerospace maintenance documentation. It is not intended for general use or as a general writing standard. The US government's Plain English lacks the strict vocabulary restrictions of the aerospace standard, but it represents an attempt at a more general writing standard. The regulated aerospace standard has been called AECMA Simplified English, because the European Association of Aerospace Manufacturers (AECMA) originally created the standard in the 1980's. The AECMA standard originally came from Fokker, which had based their standard on earlier controlled languages, especially Caterpillar Fundamental English. In 2005, AECMA was subsumed by the Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD), which renamed its standard to ASD Simplified Technical English or STE. STE is defined by ASD Specification STE100.
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