Most frequently used words

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>Somewhere, perhaps on this list, I read or heard that
>the international version of the BBC tv news was
>constrained to use a vocabulary of only 850 different
>English words (no doubt excluding proper nouns from
>the count).
>
>First question then, is this true?

I doubt it. But something like this has certainly been done experimentally.

>Second, if, true, where can a copy of this word list
>be found?

The 850 words of BASIC English are listed in Crystal's "Cambridge
Encyclopedia of Language" (p. 356 in the 1987 ed.). I think this may be the
restricted vocabulary to which James Smith refers.

-- Doug Wilson