Spelling reform...
Please note, I wrote the following article many years ago...
I intend to redo and simplify it soon!
A NEW PHONETIC ALPHABET
A NYU FO-NETIK ALFABET
Why on earth am I interested in making up a new phonetic alphabet?!
Because .Writing/Spelling is an incredibly important (and complex) life skill.
Many children, and quite a few adults, find it difficult, if not impossible to spell. It simply should not be like this!
I believe that its complicated enough trying to make/write interesting sentences, without ALSO having to contend with a bunch of contradictory and inconsistent spelling rules! If children/people could get the hang of the spelling system sooner, they could move on to other more important subjects sooner! Rather than being held back for years by spelling problems!
We all (most of us anyway), found it difficult to spell as little kids. The adults and teachers, knew SO much more than us They eventually managed to explain all the complicated rules to us then we could read properly By then, we had stopped questioning the inconsistencies contained in spelling! Because we were now one of the smart ones, that could understand all the fancy rules of spelling- and we were now in the club Much safer not to question the rules anymore- and appear stupid!
We are all used to having been brought up to believe that spelling has to be this way, no it doesnt! Look at the way the Americans have changed various spellings to suit themselves.
And what about the poor Dyslexic people of the world?! (I was, as a kid).
English has become one of the leading languages, or at least leading second languages of the world.
There IS an international Phonetic alphabet .
However as usual, its too complicated to be used by anyone except an expert! Also, interestingly no country ever formally adopted it as their spelling system.
The English Language itself, is derived from many sources
Latin, Germanic, Norman, Norse, Anglo Saxon, Old English, Middle English ETC
And also, apparently the main reasons given for opposition to a new spelling/alphabet system are;
1. Potentially makes classics unreadable/inaccessible.
2. Dumbs down the language/spelling/people.
3. Suppression of regional accents.
So, I would say; Let people keep their regional accents, and perhaps even let theyre spelling reflect it! E.g. Scone can be pronounced at least 2 ways;
skon, or skown, which is correct? I would say; both!
An opposite argument, to dumbing down, would be that it would give faster/easier access to immigrants, or anybody learning the language,
And MUCH faster/easier learning for all children
Finally, in answer to the problem of ; classics unreadable I would say, keep knowledge of both/all alphabets. What I mean is, we have 2 Temperature systems; Farenheight/Celsius.Centigrade And 2 measuring systems; Metric, and imperial STILL co-existing So have easily accessible sheets, for swapping from one spelling system to another in other words, keep English spelling, alive and well, taught, as-well as a new system
ANONYMOUS ANONEEMUS
I take it you already
know,
Iy
tayk it yu alredy
now,
Of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Of tuf
and bo-w and cof and dow.
Others may stumble, but not
you,
Uthers
may stumbl, but not
yu,
On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.
On
hikup, thuru, laf and throo.
Well done! And now you wish,
perhaps,
Wel
dun!
And no-w yu wish pe-rhaps,
To learn of less familiar
traps.
To
learn
ov les familya-r traps.
Beware of heard, a dreadful
word,
Beware
of
haird, that dedful waird,
That looks like
beard and sounds like bird.
That
louks
like beerd, and so-wnds liyk baird.
And dead - its
said like bed, not bead,
And
ded
itz sed liyk bed, not beed,
For goodness sake,
dont call it deed!
For
goudnes
sayk, downt ca-wl it deed!
Watch out for
meat and great and threat,
Woch
o-wt
fo-r meet and grayt and thret,
(They rhyme with suite and
straight and debt).
(thay
riym
with sweet and strayt and det).
A moth is not a moth in
mother,
A
moth
is not a moth in muthe-r,
Nor both in bother, broth in
brother.
No-r
bowth
in bothe-r, broth in bruthe-r.
And here is not a match for
there,
And
heer
is not a mach fo-r thair,
Nor dear and fear for bear
and
pear.
Nor
deer
and feer, fo-r bair and pair.
And then theres dose and
rose and lose
And
then
thairz dows and rowz and looz-
Just look them up
and goose and choose.
Just
louk
them up and goos and chooz.
And cork and work and
card and ward,
And
co-rk
and wairk and ca-rd and wo-rd
And font and front and word
and sword.
And
font
and frunt and waird and so-rd.
And do and go and thwart and
cart
And
doo
and gow and thwo-rt and ca-rt -
Come, come, Ive hardly
made a start!
Cum
cum,
Iyve ha-rdly mayd a sta-rt
A dreadful language? Why
man alive!
A
dredful
langwij? Wiy man aliyve!
Id mastered it when I was
five.
Iyd
maasterd
it wen Iy woz fiyv
Unfortunately, loads of other people got there before me on this one! Before I show you my take on it- here are some of the others;
Spelling reformers;
http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/vangogh/555/Spell/spel-fun.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_reform
http://www.spellingsociety.org/
http://www.mantex.co.uk/samples/spell.htm
http://rudhar.com/lingtics/englspel.htm#SampleText
http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/spell/gyd.html
http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/spell/index.html
New Phonetic Alphabet Rules.
1. No silent letters. e.g. damn=dam, castle=casl, knife=niyf.
2. No double consonants. e.g. dummy=dumy, letter=leter, fuller=fuler
3. E after a letter doesnt change the previous one.
e.g. made=mayd, tone=town, site=siyt, mete=meet, spite = spiyt.
4. No U after Q (can be; QW or Qy or just Q also).
4.b. (possible variations; Kw, and Ky, and K,) Qween, Qyu, piqant.
5. K is used for sounds/words like keep and kettle, and kip.
6. The only use for C is in conjunction with H, as in change, or chip.
No longer uses its s sound; e.g. face.
6b Possible variation; Words traditionally started with c, can use c OR k,
as preffered e.g. cat, and cow, are permitted to start with c But, can also be spelled; kat, kow.
6c Words like watch, bitch, and stretch, dont really NEED the t sound in them so or woch, or bich, or strech is fine
Possible variation wotch, bitch, and stretch
7. G is only used for sounds/words like; God, good, great, etc.
8. J is only used for words/sounds like; jewel, jape, just. Etc
n.b. words like wedge, etc. would then be spelt; hedj, and wedj.
8b. words like wedge, hedge, smudge, etc dont really NEED the d in them,
So that either; hej, smuj and fuj and juj are ok
Possible variation ; hedj, Smudj, fudj, and judj also ok.
9. X stays as is. wax, sex, axe etc.
(Possible variation; KS).
10. Z, is used for all the soft s/z sounds.
E.g. lazy, was=woz, daisy=dayzy, hoze=howz phase=fayz, and cheese=cheez etc.
11. SH is the same as always ship and sheep, and shop.
11.b. zh sound, required for; treasure, measure, and pleasure
e.g. trezhour, mezhur, and plezhour.
12. SS is gone, and S stands for all the harder S sounds,
e.g. strong, wasp strap, flask, etc.
(A good example of the difference between the soft Z and the strong S, is
whiz, has the soft Z sound, and whisk, contains the strong S
Or, phase, has the Z sound, and face, has the S sound).
13. FF gone, F for hard sounds; e.g. stuff=stuf puff=puf off=of
14). V Stays exactly the same- but replaces any soft f sounds e.g. of = ov.
15. PH is gone, simply replaced by F.
Photograph, = Fotograf. Philosophy-filosofy.
15b ough also gone e.g. enough =enuf, and rough-ruf
16. ng, and ing, and ink, stay exactly as they are e.g. beginning, ink
17. The 5 vowels, when used singly, are assumed to be in their short form
so that a, e, i, o, u , would be the sound used in;
bat, bet, bit, bot, and but. And pat, pet, pit, pot, putt.
18. Long vowels are spelled; AY EE IY OW YU.
Eg; lay, lee, lie , low, few
And; pay, pee, pie, po, pue.
18.b. Words traditionally ENDED with y, are still allowed (to use the ee sound)
e.g. fairee, hairee.
Possible variation; fairy, hairy.
19. oo, stays the same. e.g. boot, and fool, and cool, and moon.
n.b. good, and wood, should are-written as; goud, and woud and shoud!
Because; good, and wood, would be pronounced; gooed, and wooed.
20. ee, stays the same. E.g. meet, and greet, and feet.
21 . oy, is the sound used with; boy , and toy, soil, and joy .
THE 5 SPECIAL-HYPHENATED- SOUNDS,
22. o-w. is the sound used with co-w, or o-wl, and no-w, and go-wn.
23. a-r, as in; a-rm, da-rk, and fa-rm. and as in
Possible variation; aa, if no r sound after it; maam , caam, and baam.
24, o-r as in; or or fork, or dork.
Not to be confused with the very similar;
25. a-w, is the sound used with la-w, pa-w, and ja-w.
ya-wn, cra-wl, la-w, fla-w.
n.b. In words like; all, and always there IS a very slight
w sound, which can be more-or less- evident/stressed depending on the speakers accent!
Also, please note; floor, becomes; flo-r NOT to be confused with; flaw, which stays as is!
26. e-r is the same sound as; ai, but is a;
Possible variation;
e.g. hair, and he-r, are pronounced the same. Both are correct.
AND THE 2 MAIN/SPECIAL JOINED VOWELS (YES ONLY 2!)
27. ai, is the sound used used in fairy, and hairy wary
Possible variation; e-r
28. ou sound used in; could, and should, and would,
re-spelled as coud and shoud, and woud
(N.b. Those 2 sounds, have 1 distinct sound each however the following sounds, have 2 sounds each Thats what sets the 2 double vowels just mentioned apart from the ones that follow)
Double vowels;
29.
In this system, there are only 2 main joined vowels;
ai, and ou as shown above
So . On the very rare occasions when there ARE 2 joined vowels
With 2 sounds, not 1
they are ASSUMED to be; 1st vowel long, second vowel short
ui= buik
oa= boa
ia= diamond
io=lion
ue=innuendo
and so on
30. EXCEPTIONS TO THIS RULE
30. a. Exception 1;
IE= Is used as the sound found in;
sentient
lenient
Fierce= fiers
ETC- because, eee, looks very wrong and, ee, is already in use! Note, this means- ie, stays the same
30. b. Exception 2;
BUT NOT in cases like;
friend = frend. Or
fried=friyd
Patient= payshent
Because these DO need to be re-spelled, Whereas lenient, doesnt!
Also please note;
ei
Either= eether/iyther
30.c. exception 3;
Words like; Duo, and duet/suet and actuallyand Tuesday, ARENT always said as written- some people do, some people dont;
(D)jyuo, (d)jyuet/syuet, and actyually, and Tyuesday, so these 3 slightly different sounds, are pronounced, in the NORMAL way, which is only a tiny variation of the sound/letter that is written, so that;
uo,
ue,
ua,
Are left as is- not following the new rules strictly in this case-
And/or can be spelled the new/longer way if preferred
This exception, allows these 3 to be pronounced as normal/usual!
Please note; There are already huge differences in the way different people pronounce these types of words .e.g. some people DO say Tyuesday, and others say Choosday
So that different spellings should be allowed Tuesday=choosday duet=jooet Different accents at work, both spelling allowed .
31. With double vowels, if the 2nd vowel is intended to be long,
it will be spelled out. E.g.
Hiatus becomes; hiaytus,
Neo= neow
Permeate= permeayt
32. Some words, that are spelled one way and pronounced another, are to be phonetically re-spelled, in particular; Double Vowels.
(re-spelled according to original SOUND)
ia changed to ea (at least when that sound is used)
Hernia, becomes; hairnea
Herniate, becomes, herneayt.
Newtonian; becomes; Newtonean
33. ious is changed to eu
Grevious, becomes; greeveus, and Devious, becomes; deeveus.
33.b Also note; Pious = pius Deciduous= deesiduus.
io , often becomes; eo, however, it depends upon the phonetic sound of the word Because sometimes you DO want the sound ion, or lion, so these 2 cases of io are NOT re-spelled- but other uses are
34.
Period, becomes peereod.
Nation = nayshon
Elation= elayshon
Idiotic= ideotik
Union= yuneon
Onion= unyun
bunion = bunyun
rule 35
The following TRIPLE vowel, I have attempted a small fix
Aeorta Aorta?!?! Ao (r)
36. All foreign words are left as that! So; Nuance, Naïve, Diego, Fiat, etc. left as they are!
Not my job to re-spell other languages . Not unless they want me to!
37. All words that sound the same HAVE to be spelled the same! So that;
There, theyre, and their are all gone. Replaced by; thair.
And piece, and peace, become pees.
38. In the case of words like the, sometimes people pronounce it; thee ,and other times; thu In this system, the person writing, can specify, which one they mean or want!
Similarly, some people pronounce glass, as glaas, this can be written down now..
Same as scone can be pronounced; skon, or skown, now the author can let you know what they intended!
49. All the rules of Grammar, are left completely untouched!
Finish/End!
p.s. Having used this system for a few days . A LOT of words stay exactly the same! And once you get the hang of the system, its actually very intuitive, and easy to use!
See the following poem about English spelling, in traditional, and nu speling, to see how easy it is to use/understand!