Contrived scripts have tended to be unidimensional. They have attempted to improve on the standard English writing system in just one way, such as being more regular, being easier to read, being faster to write, being more space efficient, or being easier to learn and remember.

Typically, the new orthographic proposal was in fact superior in at least one respect to the traditional orthography (TO). However, to be adopted by a significant number of people, a new script has to be superior in virtually every respect. It has to perform well on a variety of dimensions. Elsewhere, Bett has identified four important dimensions and called them the 4 R's: Readable, Rytable, Regular, and Rememberable. (Compare to Smalley)

Pictographic monofon is easy enough to read, quick to write, phonemic, and designed to be easy to learn and recall. As shown in the chart, monofon ranks no better than any other phonemic script until one adds the ease of memorization dimension. Monofon is the only script in the group that concerned itself with mnemonics. 
 

Many phonemic notations can, like monofon, be read and understood. But, as shown by the example on the left, monofon looks a little strange. All phonemic scripts have this defect. They look a little strange on the printed page. Anyone who has spent over ten years to become comfortable with the irregular spelling patterns of English is initially slowed down when trying to read words that are spelled the way they sound. Since monofon has a character for the 18 sounds in English that are represented with a digraph, reading monofon means becoming familar with 18 new sound signs. 

In Standard English, the letter A is associated with over four different sounds. To preresent these four sounds, monofon uses four shapes for the letter A. Each shape is associated with one and only one sound category. It is not difficult to recognize a monofon A-shape, since three are essentially font variations. What has to be learned is which A-sound it is associated with. There is an A for the sound in AVIAN, an A for the sound in AX, an A for the sound in UP and AGO, and a A for the sound in OX and CHICAGO. The letter "up" has a short or unemphasized version [/]that is pronounced the same as the schwa.

The inability of phonemic scripts to appear familiar to readers of traditional English is noted in the rating above. No phonetic script receives as high a rating on reading ease and speed as conventional English or TO. The five judges were familiar with English and gave it a rating based on their comfort level. Shorthand was given some points on the readability scale although none of the judges could read it. Shavian, received a rating similar to Pitman shorthand because its characters are equally incomprehensible. The other phonemic scripts were quite readable but were usualy rated somewhat lower than or about the same as cursive (handwritten) English. 

Pictograms

Monofon is not just an initial teaching alphabet. Any auxilliary script that uses unfamiliar sound signs needs to have a mnemonic. Most readers will be familiar with other phonetic scripts but few will be able to recall the shape of the symbol for the vowel sound in book or hook. In monofon it is simple, the symbol is shaped like a hook. It looks like its name. If you recall the MF letter name, you can quickly reconstruct both the sound and the shape. The long-a in monofon a standard lower case printed a shape called "avian." This shape is found in Greek Uncial and the Carolingian scripts but it does not seem to have been associated with the Eg. vulture 'alef which had a similar shape in hieratic. Monofon goes back to the Egytian prototype.

On paper, monofon resembles Kingsley Read's Shavian script. However, there is at least one important difference. Monofon is readable. It is readable because the letter shapes are historical. Characters are changed slightly to make them single stroke or the closer in shape to a closely related sound, but even these modified characters are readily recognizable. In addition to being familiar, many monofon shapes are supported by multiple mnemonics. The new symbol for the /au/ or /awe/ sound is called "hawk" and looks something like a bird's head. The symbol can also be derived from its components sounds /ah/ and /uh/. These letters are named OX and UP in monofon. If the UP sign is placed in front of and inside the OX sign, it starts to resemble a hawk's head. See the illustration at the top of the page

Among the variations in the MF consonants is the sound sign for /g/. Monofon uses a variation of the Greek gamma is in place of one of the more familiar Latin G-forms because the gamma-shape, >, is a mirror image of the ancient Etruscan c-shape, <. The names of these letters are goad (Originally a camel goad or a throw stick) and corner (Eg. qenbt). 

The D-shape is also modified to be a mirror form of the T . This shape, referred to as digits, relates back to the hand (DR-T) used by the Egyptians for their D phonogram. The other D-shape, called delta (or door), relates back to the Semitic "daleth," the Egyptian hieroglyphic for door (a rectangle with hinges), and the pyramid shaped "di" (an offering). 

Pictographic monofon is an eclectic script that builds on historical letter forms and the ancient practice of using letter names to connect shapes and sounds. The distinguishing feature of monofon is its attempt to make every letter shape resemble the letter's name. The letter's name, in turn begins with the letter's sound. Using a technique that was developed with the first alphabets, it is possible to reduce the arbitrary assignment of sounds to symbols. 

It turns out that most of our letters were at one time pictures of objects. Unfortunately, the names of those objects that aligned with the letter's sound were in another language and therefore of little use. Pictographic acrophonic alphabets are language specific. When the shapes are used for another language, the relationships have to be reinvented. 

One can find acrophonic English names for hieroglyphic sound signs and Phoenician characters. In doing so, one probably retraces the steps used by those who developed the first alphabets. After locating names that start with the appropriate sound and have some connection with the object, it becomes easy to memorize and reproduce the character set. A is for avian, B is for boot, C is for cup, D is for digits (hand), and so on. Now all one has to do is draw an avian, boot, cup, and hand. The author noted that while using this technique, one could memorize the set of ancient character forms in a matter of minutes.

Monofon employs the same kind of mnemonic. A is for avian, ax, ox, and up. B is for boot, C is for corner, D is for digits (or delta), and so on. C (or K) is related to G so if you can draw a corner, you can also draw its mirror image. If you can draw the side view of a hand with the thumb extended, you can flip this image to draw the T-sign which resembles the tip of a spear. The two arrows can also be thought of as Top and Down.

Sound Categories

There are better ways to chart vowel sounds and determine which sounds are primary and which are secondary or derived. The affinities indicated by the traditional long-short analysis are not necessarily the ones that make the most sense. The following chart, based on Jones' cardinal vowel system, or vowel quadralateral.
 

Column 6 (marked in red) shows how each blended sound was derived. One could get by without the derived vowel sounds since substituting two primary vowels usually produces an acceptable pronunciation. If one uses the initial sounds in /el/ & /eel/ to pronounce /feh-eel/, the result is very close to "fail". If one combines the initial sounds in /ox/ and /eel/ to produce "fah-ear" the pronunciation is almost identical to "fire". The owl symbol could likewise be replaced by "ox" and "oat". "Foul" could be pronounced /fah-oh-l/. 

In several cases, the shape of a derived letter is a combination of its component vowel sounds. The letter "owl" , for instance, is a rotated combination of the ox horns of the letter "ox", and the circle of the letter "oat grain". The letter "hook" is clearly a comgination of the letter "hoop" or "U" and the letter "up" [^] . The letter "hawk" is a combination of the "up" and the "ox". Some of these relationships are shown in Figure 1. The shape of the letter "O" or oat is certainly not derived from the alleged component sound signs and some would argue that the sound cannot be derived from what is deemed to be the component sounds. 

The "avian" is, in addition to being an ancient bird shape, can also be derived from a bar a or a flipped e. The "eye" or /long-I/ is a combination of the short "i" and the dash. The shape is also related to the Semitic 'ayin and a side view of an eye. 

If this analysis was the basis of the MF letter shapes, there would be a few changes in the derivation of the shapes. In making the changes, however, the shapes would probably become less familiar. 

The fact that words composed of blended sounds can be spelled several different ways even with a phonemic alphabet, shows that an orthography or spelling dictionary is still required if letter patterns are to be standardized. At some point someone has to declare that "fair" will be spelled "fAr" not "fer" or "feEr". 

Refining Letter Shapes

Our most refined shapes are the numbers from 1 to 9. These tend to be the easiest to form, the most distinguishable shapes, and the quickest to write. We would like to have 40 letter shapes that were as efficient as the hindu-arabic numerals. 

Most of the consonant forms in monofon are abbreviated forms of the Roman characters. There are no digraphs in MF, so CH and SH are replaced with unique symbols named chick and sharp tooth. The new vowel shapes are borrowed whenever there was a usable Roman or greek shape. The only new shape is for the long I /ai/ which began as an attempt to incorporate a bar into the traditional I shape. Most of the long vowels are based on first placing a bar over the short vowel and then turning it into a continuous stroke character. A bar I looks like a T so in this case the bar was placed in the middle of the character creating a form [] that resembled the Semitic 'ayin. 

When the vowels are combined with R, it becomes readily apparent that what Anglo-Americans call long and short vowels are not necessarily the sounds that are the most closely related. E should be combined with the long A /ei/ since "error" is almost indistinguisable from "air". Likewise, /ir/ is indistinguishable from /ear/ indicating that the short I has the closest affinity to the long E. Although these relationships were noted, monofon keeps with the more traditional arrangement: The short-I goes with the long-I. The developers of Shavian opted to go with the more rational arrangement. Thus an augmented short I sign is used for the long E. 

A comparison of phonemic scripts - the long vowels(191 Kb) 

A comparision of scripts - the short vowels, diphthongs, & glides. (260 Kb) 

The historic connection for Monofon letter shapes

The monofon consonants (90 Kb) 

Pictograms and Logograms (90 Kb) 

Egyptian hieroglyphic and hieratic sound signs (200 Kb) 

Egyptian hieroglyphic uniliteral and biliteral signs (200 Kb) les3a?

Mnemonics

• A picturable letter name - ax, avian, up, ox, elbow, eye, leg, runner's leg, flag, etc. 
• A letter shape that resembles the letter's name - the reverse "c" (ox) looks like the horns of an ox
• A letter shape that is derived from the shapes of component sound signs
The letter "hawk" or "auk" combines the "ox" sign and the "up" sign (ah-uh-k).
• A letter shape that resembles traditional letter shapes 
The "auk" looks like a lower case "a" with its legs chopped off. 
The "up" looks like an upper case A without the bar.
• A sound that is (usually) identical to the initial sound in the letter's name 

There are other scripts that are as readable, writable, and regular (i.e., phonemic) as pictographic monofon. None of the others, however, attempted to be memorable. This has been a forgotten dimension in script development. 

There is a sizable amount of literature supporting the contribution of meaningful images to the retention of other wise meaningless characters or paired associates. The effectiveness of such mnemonics such as those provided by a pictographic shape and an acrophonic name have been recommended by countless books on memory improvement.

While the utility of the pictographic approach is supported in theory, the fact remains that pictographic monofon has not been tested for its alledged superiority. It seems to be more memorable for the few who have tried to use it, but this is about all that can be said at present. not been tested as an initial teaching alfabet. 

Rule based scripts

Shavian is a rule based constructed script. Its benefits stem from the rules used in its construction. To retain the benefits, one has to retain the rules. On the other hand, the rules are typically at odds with a traditional look. Following the rules leads to a look that is anything but traditional. It is no accident that scripts that follow an alphabetic rule fail to look like TO. 

To create a more traditional looking script, authors of rule based scripts have typically made concessions such as allowing some non-phonemic word forms. The challenge is to come up with a readable script without compromising the rules. 

The more rules that constrain the development of the script, the less arbitrary the product. The less arbitrary the relationship between shape and sound, the easier the script is to learn and retain. To facilitate learning, one should make the relationships between shapes and sounds more rule bound.

Rule based scripts are much easier to learn (from scratch) than chaotic arbitrary scripts. On the other hand, the more a script deviates from TO, the longer it takes those proficient with the TO to adjust.

Rules, such as those listed below, are designed to make a script easier to learn, easier to write, and to reduce ambiguity.
 

The rules and features that account for the success of Shavian are ones that tend to divorce it from T.O. Taking his cue from statements made by Shaw and the rules of the Shaw alphabet competition, Read made no attempt to use history as a guide in assigning sound values to his symbol set. The resulting disconnect from traditional sound-shape associations reflected Shaw's wishes: "The new alphabet must be so different from the old that no one could possibly mistake the new spelling for the old." (Shaw, 1941, p. 39) 

When most people use the term: rule based script, they are usually referring to the alphabetic rule (e.g. Yule, 1982). It is no accident that scripts that follow an alphabetic rule fail to look like TO. As shown above, at least five rules were used in the construction of Shavian including the rule 5. Similar sounds should have similar shapes. Following this rule in addition to the alphabetic rule typically leads to an even more non-traditional look. One cannot drop or suspend the rules used to construct Shavian if one hopes to retain its reported benefits.

Some of those who have studied the subject (Notably Wilkins, Pitman, Read, and Shaw) thought that the shape of the sound sign should derive from some internal logic and not be constrained by the imperfections of any existing orthography or letter set.

Conclusion

What one learns quickly are the 40 sounds of English and the shape associated with each sound. Since monofon is not a replacement script, one still has to move from a regular and consistent orthography to the irregularities of the traditional English writing system. 

All languages and scripts are more complicated and chaotic than they need to be. Monofon is an illustration of how a sense of order and connection can be brought into this arena. 

Questions to ponder

• How is the way that a picture is linked to a non-linguistic reality differ from the way a word is linked? Does an icon RE-present more directly? [ Review ] 
• Can the alphabet be described as an arbitrarily ordered set of meaningless signs arbitrarily linked to meaningless sounds? [ Review ] 
• If the relationship between shape and sound is arbitrary, how does one account for the continuity in sign designs, sound categories, and linked shapes and sound across the last 5,000 years? 
• From 3200 b.c. to 1000 b.c., writing systems have been said to have spread through stimulus diffusion. The Egyptians, for instance, borrowed the idea of a sound sign from the Sumerians but little else. The Semites borrowed the idea of what constituted a writing system from the Egyptians but they didn't copy. The conventional wisdom is that they could have copied. If what is being borrowed is the idea that the alphabet should be acrophonic and pictographic or iconic, this requires a reconstruction and precludes borrowing both the shape and the sound.

[ Review ] 
• Is the abbreviation "4 SALE" an example of pictography (4 => four =>: for)? Would such a sign be useful as an international symbol? Can it move across a linguistic boundary? [ Review ] 
• Ths sun sign is often used as an international switch symbol for brightness. Is this icon a pictogram? 
• To what extent does a phonetic script (one shape per sound) speed up machine transcription (text to speech)?