"Simple English" is a language on Wikipedia

Verily, this implieth the need for a Shakespearean English Wikipedia, for those occasions when thou needest additional bass in thy mix.

https://simple.wikipedia.org/

"The articles in the Simple English Wikipedia use shorter sentences and easier words and grammar than the regular English Wikipedia."

Sounds like the writing style in some major modern news media (e.g. USA Today). I call it "news for 8th graders."

Honest question: why post this on HN?

I found it curious how Wikipedia adapted middle school English as a whole new language. The had a feature (languages) but used it to rewrite articles in a different style.

Had the "hackers using features in unintended ways" feel to it.

Ok, fair enough.

FYI it's not uncommon to get for example news in simplified language for non-native speakers. And I think there's a version of Chinese that uses Latin alphabet, so indeed some languages are just "dumbed-down" versions of the real thing!