From Deca-Spell to dBLspel
Reducing Polyvalence & Inconsistency in English Spelling
Featuring CutSpelling, Chekt Speling, Unigraf, New Follick, and MenuSpell
by Steve Bett, October, 1997

 
Deca-Spel is a reference to the fact that in the traditional orthography, the 40 or so sounds of English speech are spelled ten ore more different ways.  Ideally, this would be reduced to one way (Uni-Spel) but to maintain backward compatibility with the polyvalent traditional system, a more practical goal might be to reduce to alternative spellings to two (double-spell).  TO (traditional orthography) is based on positional spelling:  how one spells a sound depends to a large extent on where the sound appears in a word. Initial sounds are not spelled the same as medial and terminal sounds.
TOC - Table of Contents Links
Introduction 
Advantages and Disadvantages
Making 1 spell pattern universal
Goals of Reform
Smalley's Criteria for WSs
Frequent Spelling Patterns
E-Spelling SR-1
Next
Simple Spelling Page
Problem with Spelng
Anjel
Sound Spelling
Spell Ryt, Nu Folik
Spell-Invention
Vowels

The Pros and Cons of a Broad Phonemic Notation for English

Anyone who has given the topic any thought concedes that there are just too many orthographic options in English spelling and that spelling should be a better guide to pronunciation than it presently is. On the other hand, after spending 10 years learning how to speed read English word patterns, most literate people are relunctant to accept a change that will (temporarily) make reading more difficult and reduce their reading speed..
 
Gains Losses
Easier to learn 
Easier to spell 
Easier to pronounce
Temporary loss of reading speed 
Some relearning required 
Familiar spelling patterns
Most people seem to equate the writing system with the language and think that changing the orthography will somehow change what has been made permanent - the representation of speech.. There is a down side to phonemic spelling, but this is not one of them.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), an advocate of simplified phonemic spelling, argued that the gains (listed above) would be worth any temporary inconvenience. Franklin, was not just an armchair advocate of alphabaetic spelling, he developed an augmented alphabet and a phonemic notational system (1768).

Some people think that if Shakespeare is spelled differently some of the beauty will be lost. The spelling that they find so beautiful, however, was not the spelling used by Shakespear (1564-1616). Spelling was reformed between 1650 and 1750. The reform, however, had little to do with the alphabetic principle. It was not a phonemic reform.

In Shakespears time, some spellings were more phonemic than today. love=luv, come=cvm. etc. Early 17th century spelling was not standardized and often contained redundant letters as in cwynne for queen. It is said that over his lifetime, Shakespeare spelled his own name over 8 different ways. (see restored spelling)
 

Follick B & C
New Spelling
Tu: bi: or not tu: bi: 
Th'at iz th'u kwestch'n 
Weth'r 'tiz no'bl'r in th'' mynd tu: suf'r 
Th'u slingz and ero'z uv outreij's forch'n 
Or tu: teik armz agenst a' si: uv trubl'z 
And by opo'sing end th'em
Too bee or not too bee 
Dhat iz dhu kwestch'n 
Weth'r 'tiz noeblr in dhu miend too suf'r 
Dhu slingz and aerouz ov outraejus forchoon 
Or too taek armz agenst a see ov trublz 
And bie opoezing end dhem
Tu bi or not tu bi 
That iz th kwestchn 
Wethr 'tiz no'blr in th mynd tu sufr 
Th slingz 'n ero'z 'v outre:j's forchn 
Or tu te:k armz agenst a' si 'v trublz 
And by opo'sing end them
Follick is already more space efficient than New Spelling.  Cut Follick 
(or Follick C), shown on the left, 
is even more compact.

A more phonemic (or alphabetic) writing system would be much easier to learn for a child or a second language learner. For the already literate, however, the gains would be limited to simplified spelling: greater consistency in sound representation and (depending on the notation) fewer characters per sentence.
 
Advantages Disadvantages
Children would save an enormous amount of time and emotional effort in learning to read. 

It would be of great help to children with learning difficulties. It would lower the bar to literacy. 

Because fewer letters would be used (a possible 15% savings), there would be a great savings in writer's time, and in the time and cost of typing, printing, and associated matters. 

There would be considerable benefits to foreign learners of English and thus to the spread of English throughout the world.

There could be a major break in continuity between old and new spelling, especially in the more radical schemes. The period of transition would present major problems. It is difficult to see how a program of spelling reform could be implemented in a practical reaslitic way 

All who have learned old spelling have a vested interest in it and few would be willing to learn an alternative or which to have their children learn one. The problem of inertia is insuperable.

The savings in costs could be outweighed by the need to reprint important works in the new spellling.

Unlike TO, standardized phonemic spelling needs to have a standard base pronunciation. To the extent that someone did not speak the standard dialect, they would have trouble spelling. Differences between accents might promote a demand for diversity in spelling.

There seems to be no agreement amongst the reformers about the optimum system.

English orthography has been called morpho-phonemic and lexical indicating that there are factors besides sound that determine how a word is spelled. For example, word origin or etymology is a factor. English is primarily a mix of Anglo-Saxon, French, and Latin and the spelling often reflects these diverse origins. 73% of the most frequently used words are AngloSaxon but only about 12% of the English vocabulary is Anglo-Saxon in origin.
 
Approx. Dates
Period
Event
Words
450-1100 Old English
1180 Orm's Ormulum 
double Cs after short V 
heo /he:'/-she, ste'n'-sto'n
nicht - night, scip-ship
Anglo-Saxon Invasion 
Beowulf 500 
Viking Raids 800-1000 
75 yr. Danish Rule 886
Danelaw
both, same
get, give, be
s- ending
hring, hnecce
1100-1500 Middle English
1st spoken in Parliament 
1425 End of 
100 year war 1450
Norman Conquest 1066 
Wycliff Bible 1380 
Chaucer 1345-1400 
Vowel Shift 1400 o'-e, 
Shakespeare 1564-1516
vse-use, gh
cwen-queen
eche-each
pat-that
Inglande
3onge-young
sych-such
1500-1750 Early Modern Caxton Printing 1476 
King James Bible 1611 
Royal Society 1660
myght-mi3t
su'n-sun
cu't-cut
1750 - 2000 Late Modern 1775 Johnson's Dict. 
Ben Franklin 1706-1790 
Webster's Dictionary 1828
g,r droping
band/ban,k
ban,

Universalize a common English spelling

The most conservative or least disruptive phonemic alphabets try to take the most common English spelling for a sound and makes it universal. This sounds like a good idea until one realizes that consistent spelling will change the look of over 50% of the words in a story.
 

start
NF
same
spelling
same
sound
Follick
Spellling
.
ea /i:/ bead feed fi:d This chart shows how 
TO uses the same letter combinations to represent six different sounds and how the same sound can be spelled six different ways 
in TO but only one way in a phonemic script such as New Follick..
h'rd heard beak bi:k
bred bread complete compli:t
breik break be bi:
fir fear happy hapi:
ber bear chief chi:f

TO spells six different sounds the same way and six identical sounds different ways.

In a phonemic writing system, words are spelled the way they sound so it is simple to sound out unfamiliar words and spell them the way the dictionary spells them provided that your pronunciation corresponds to the RP (base or received pronunciation) used by the lexicograhapers. The chances of correctly spelling an unfamiliar word in English TO is about 50%, according to Hanna, Kessler and others who have studied English orthography. This may seem optimistic given the fact that a typical vowel can be spelled about 20 different ways. Here are some of the different ways to spell the vowel in *fool: (ful, fule, fol, fole, fewl, fuile, fwol, foul, ...)

How many ways does the traditional orthography spell the vowel sound in rule?
In traditional English orthography (TO) the same sound is spelled an average of 14 different ways
Note that the first 4 spelling patterns account for about 75% of the dictionary spellings
  TO Graph TO Traditional WES World Eng Cut Spelling  NF Follick
| CKS
  TO Graph TO Traditional WES World En Cut Spelling NF Follick CKS
Chkt
38.2
1. u..e rule rool rule ru:l | rul 10. u ruby roobee ruby ru:bi rubi
20.5
2. ue flue floo flu flu: | flu 11. ou..e troupe troop trup tru:p trup
8.2
3. ui fruit froot frut fru:t | frut 12. ough through throo thru thru: thru
7.5
4. eu maneuver manoovr manuvr manu:vr 13. ooe wooed wood wooed wu:d wud
6.4
5. ou group groop grup gru:p|grup 14. oo..e ooze ooz ooz u:z uz
4.9
6. ew grew groo grew gru: | gru 15. heu rheumatism roomatism rumatism  ru:matism  
3.5
7. o..e move moov move mu:v | muv 16. ui..e bruise brooz bruse bru:z bruz
2.6
8. oe canoe cunoo cano canu:|canu 17. wo two too to* tu: tu
2.6
9. oo moon moon moon mu:n | mun 18. o do doo do du: du
Figure 3. Alternative Spellings of the /u:/ or /oo/ sound.
The chart above illustrates 18 of the 29 different ways that the /u:/ sound is spelled in TO. Cut Spelling reduces the number from 18+ to 10. Systematic positional notations such as RES, reduces the number of spellings to 2 [oo and u]. Phonemic systems such as WES, NS, and NF reduce the number of different ways to spell a sound to 1. See Dewey, 1971, for a complete list of the different possible TO spellings for every sound.
U: Table in Spelng

In a phonemic writing system, *fool would be spelt one way (See WES above). In TO (traditional orthography), the vowel sound in *fool is spelt [oo] about 38% of the time and [u] about 21% of the time. Adding to the confusion is the fact that the vowel sound in *wood is also spelled [oo] 31% and [u] 54%. Some phonemic alphabets are more easily read but they all look a little strange: e.g., rool, floo, moov, roobee, brooz, wood. As the last example indicates, some phonemic representations of the sound in *ooze look as though they should rhyme with *would. English orthography spells different sounds the same way (put, but, ruby) ( move, dove, cove).

The following table indicates the goals of spelling reform and the kinds of problems encountered when trying to implement a reform. If it was easy, it would have been done in the 18th century.
 

Questions & Problems Goals relative to TO
Traditional Orthography
What is the Base Pronunciation? 
Are the goals mutually achievable? 
Which spelling pattern should be universal? 
Should digraphs be avoided? 
Should diacritical marks be used? 
Should there be only one spelling per sound? 
Should there be only one pronunciation 
  per spelling?
  1. Simpler than TO, fewer rules
  2. Easier to learn and teach
  3. Closer to IPA w/o diacritical marks
  4. More regular and consistent
  5. A better guide to pronunciation
  6. Economic in terms of space
  7. Closer correspondence between 

  8. graphemes and phonemes
Anglic and other New Spelling notations were framed with the view of fufilling the following conditions:
  • To represent every word in one spelling, reflecting common speech pronunciations
  • To be phonemic while deviating little from existing or traditional spelling
  • To be easily learned by necessitating as few rules as possible
  • To simplify and save space by eliminating silent letters, double consonants, and other redundancies thereby minimizing complex and convoluted spellings
  • Quite a bit can be achieved by simply eliminating silent letters, double letters, and other redundancies. Such changes move the writing system toward greater regularity and make it more alphabetical (phonemic). Criteria of an adequate writing system in order of importance (Smalley, 1964, p. 34f)
     
    Smalley's Criteria for an adequate writing system listed in order of importance.  (Smalley, 1964, p. 34f)
      Goals of most spelling reformers 
      & orthographic notations 
      written in New Spelling Notation
    1. Maximum motivation for the learner
    2. Maximum representation of speech
    3. Maximum ease of learning
    4. Maximum transfer - ease of transition
    5. Maximum ease of reproduction
    1. Tu fasilitaet lrning tu reed
    2. Tu maek lrning tu spel unes'sery
    3. Tu asimilaet reedng and rietng tu hirng and speekng
    4. Tu provied a gied for th pron'nsiAsh'n ov Inglish aksesibl tu ol reederz provinsh'l and for'n
    It is not enough to develop a superior writing system (Criteria 2 &3). First and foremost, the system has seen by the learners (including peers and parents) as something that will improve their status or give them more earning power and prestige. One of Smalley's examples is the technically excellent writing system that was created for Hatian Creole that was later used by the Laubach literacy campaign. The only problem was that most Haitian people aspire to speak and read French and the writing system didn't look like French. The only way to get any acceptance was to compromise the notation so it represented French sound values. The resulting notation wasn't quite as simple and elegant, but it was more apealing.

    Such examples are used to critique elegant solutions to the problem of representing English speech sounds which deviate too far from traditional spelling. Systems that are close to IPA are typically rejected as impractical becasue they reflect continental rather than traditional English sound signs.
     

    Sound Signs
    Key word
    DS spelling
    IPA notation
    TO Spelling Patterns    (Hanna, 1971)
    Frequency of a letter 
    to represent sound (f=mostly final)
    f
    K
    Initial
    Age (Aj) /ei/ [a]45%f,  [a-e]35%,  [ai]9%,  [ay]6%,  [ei]2%  2.2 [a-e]95%
    Eel (El) /i:/ [e]70%f,  [ee]10%,  [i]3%,  [i-e]2%,  [e-e]2%, [ie]1.3% 2.5 [ea]95%
    Ice (Is) /ai/ [i]37%f,   [i-e]37%,  [y]14%,  [igh]6%  1.4 [i-e]95%
    Oat (Ot) /ou/ [o]72%f,  [o-e]14%,  [oa]5%,  [ow]5%,  [ou]1% 2.6 [o-e]50%
    Use (Uz) /iu/ [u]69%,  [u-e]22%,  [ew]3%, [eu]2%,  [ui]2% 1.2 [u-e]95%
    Ooze (Ooz)/u:/ [oo]38%,  [u]21%,  [o]8%, [u-e]8%,  [ew]5%, [eu]4% 0.5 rare
    hook (hvk)/u/ [oo]30%, [u]30%,  . .
    up (up)/^/ [u]60% . .

    Single letters are typically used in TO in the terminal or final position to indicate a "long" vowel. Single letters are also the most frequent way to represent a long vowel because they are also used in multi-syllable words.

    As shown in the last column above, the most frequent way to indicate a long vowel in the intial position is to attach a magic *e. This is used to represent all long vowels except /i:/.  [ea] is the most frequent way to spell a word beginning with the /i:/ sound.

    Although not the most frequent spelling pattern, [ee] is often selected as the representation for /i:/ because it is never used to represent another sound (See MenuSpell). As the statistics show, English spelling (TO) considers /i:/ to be a kind of [e] (the long e) rather than [or much more often than] a kind of [i]. (see Alt.spel)
     

    Laubach uses multiple spellings 
    IPA
    NF MF
    NS
    1
    Initial
    2
    Medial
    3
    Final
    ei e: A great maid  me:d made me:d day  de:
    i:  i: E bee eat  i:t complete key  ki:
    ai `i  y I tie I, item wide wyd high  hy
    ou o' O toe oat, oak  o't hope  ho'p  low lo'
    iu iu U true union fuel  fiul few fiu
    u: u: C ooze choose  chu:z tune  tu:n to tu: tC
    u u' c hook hook  hu'k pu't, gu'd wcd wu'd
    ^ u u up cup   ku'p acute a'kiu:t sofa so'fa'
    r 'r u'r R urn bird  b'rd hurry  h'ri her  h'r
    ir ir Er ear cheer  chir mirror  mi'r here hir
    eir er Ar air baer  ber merry  meri care ker
    c: o: c awe song saw, so: auto o:to'
    our or OR oar four floor  flor more
    au au C haus hau cow ouch auch
    ou o' O owe open  o'pn soak so'k toe to'
     

    What Smalley seems to be saying, however, is that unless the better writing system is seen as giving more status or earning power to those who learn it than TO, it will not be freely adopted. While languages evolve over time, historic changes in writing systems have generally been imposed following a change in the ruling class or a change in religion. There are examples of successful orthographic reforms (Portuguese was reformed in 1700, 1800, and 1900 to improve its consistency and to bring the writing system more in line with the spoken language) but there are also examples of cultures resisting change and retaining substandard writing systems.

    Technically Substandard

    A good criteria for a substandard system would be one that took over 40 hours to teach. If we are trying to get the most people safely across the stream, an effective technique is to lower the water level. We have the option of lowering the bar that we want students to jump. We can lower the literacy bar by teaching a simpler system, one that does not require the student to memorize the dictionary in order to be a good speller or reader.

    Using Smalley's insights, we might conclude that the basic problem with ITA (essentially New Spelling with ligatures) was that learners and their parents aspired to read and write TO not some invented provisional phonemic system.. The ITA (Initial Teaching Alphabet) seemed to many parents as a needless detour.

    New Spelling and Follick have one advantage over ITA, they do not require a special font. Both systems have universalized one consistent set of spelling patterns and provide a good basis for an easy spelling system. Double Spell is more TO oriented by having two orthographic options for each sound: Each sound has a one letter and a two letter representation. wvn/wuhn tu/too  thrE/three  fOr/four  fIv/faiv  six/sihks  sevn/sehvuhn  At/eit  nIn/nain ten/tehn.


    Notation 6 LONG Vowels: 
       @:       i:       a:      u:     e:    o: 
    6 SHORT Vowels: 
    a/cut, e/pet, i/pit, o/pot, u/put, a/pat 
    TO 
    SS
    NF
    SW
    DS
    The early green grass grew fairly tall 
    Dx Rli grjn graas gruu feeli tool. 
    Th' u'rly gri:n gra:s gru: fe:rly to:l 
    Dhu urly green gras gru ferly tcl 
    Th 'rly grEn gras gru ferly tol.
    I put the cat up in a copper kettle. 
    Ai put dx kat ap in a kopc ketl. 
    Ai pu't th' kat up in a kop'r ketl 
    Cy puut dhu kat up in u kcpr ketl 
    I pvt th cat up in a copr ketl 
    . 6 DIPHTHONGS:
    ai   ei   oi   au   iu   ou 
    Notational Systems
    TO 
    MS 
    SS 
    AT 
    NS 
    NFB
    SW
    DS
    DSU
    I say, new boy, go out! 
    I say, noo baw:ee, goh ah:oot!
    Ai sei, niu boi, gou aut! 
    I SA, NU BQ, GO CT! 
    Ie sae, nue boi, goe out! 
    Ai sei, nu: boi, go' aut!
    cy sey, nu bcy, go aut! 
    I sey nu boy, go aut!
    I sA nu bQ, gO Ct! 
    (Traditional Orthography)
    (Menu Spell)
    (IanSpel - Sound Spell) 
    (ANJeL Tug (tongue))
    (New Spelling) 
    (New Follick Euro-IPA) 
    (Spel Wel) 
    (dBLspel) 
    (dBLspel-unispel)
    IPA 
    CS 
    NF 
    DS 
    DSP
    MS 
    NES 
    AT 
    NA
    hau=how,   >=ah,   >:= o =awe,  or=awr,  ou=owe
    For a few in the crew, th lack th lak of good food fueled th feud.
    For a' fiu in th' kru: th lak uv gu'd fu:d fiu'ld th' fiud.
    For a fU in th crw, th lak ov gvd fwd fULd th fUd
    For a fiu in th cru, th lak uv gvd fwd fiuld th fiud.
    Fohr uh fyoo ihn dhuh kroo, dhu lak uhv guud food fyoouhld dhuh fyood.
    Faur a fue in the krue, the lak ov guud food fueld the fued.
    FoR u FU iN hu KRX, hu LaK uV GxD FXD FUeLD hu FUD.
    FoR u FU iN hu KRw, hu LaK uV GvD FwD FUeLd hu FUD.

    NF and DS use very broad transcriptions for particles such as the, a, an, and, and of. They are not strictly phonemic due to the abbreviation. *the=/dhv/dhee/=th, *an/and=n, and *of=/uhv/=ov or v.

    For the most part, each of these systems begins with the IPA notation in a pronunciation dictionary and tries to find an English spelling pattern that will cause the least disruption or "visual shock". SS, NFipa and ANJeL to not attempt to conform to the ideosyncracies of TO, the most other notational systems do.

    14th century English contained no silent letters. It was more or less phonemic and consistent. Need to get from point A to point B. Can lower the water level. Februa-festival of purification. doesn't change the etymology to drop the silent letter. The dictionary follows us with respect to the pronunciation guide. Give people to tools to shape their lives. Febuary.
     

    Alternate Notations
    TO Menu Spel NF NS Monofon ANJeL
    initiated ih-nish-ee-ay-tuhd inishi-eit'd iniesheeaet'd inESEAt'd iNESEAT'D
    donut 
    dough
    doh-nuht 
    doh
    do'nut 
    do'
    doenut 
    doe
    dOnut 
    dO
    DONuT 
    DO
    doubt 
    dot 
    draw
    dowt 
    daht 
    draw
    daut 
    dot 
    dro,
    dout 
    dot 
    drau
    dXt 
    dot 
    drq
    DCT 
    DoT 
    DRo
    unparalleled uhn-par-uh-leld unpar'leld unpar'leld unparLeld uNPaRuLeLD
    parachute par-uh-shoot par'shu,t par'shoot par'SWt PaRuSXT
    professor proh-fes-uhr pr'fes'r profes'r pr'fes'r PRoFeS'R
     

    Nu Folik: Nuthing `watevr iz mor tu, bi, dezyrd or mor delytfvl than th' lyt 'v truth:  for it iz th' sors ov wizd'm. Wen th mynd iz h'rast with obscuriti, distractd by dauts, rendrd torpid or sad'nd by ignorans or fols'tiez, and tru,th emerj'z az frum a' dark abis, it shynz forth instante,niusli, lyk th' sun dispersing mists and vap'rz, or lyk th' daun dispeling th' sheidz 'v darknes.

    To represent every word in one spelling and only one spelling has been the faith of all reformers for a hundred years or more. Yet double spell deviates from this article of faith not because it has to but because it provides a better bridge to TO.

    The real issue is really with the best representation of 9 vowels and dipthongs. ei, a, ae, v, i:, ai, ou, iu. au.

    This notation for English works pretty well.

    The rational for this apostasy, this deviation from the alphabetic principle, is to generate spellings that are more familiar and less visually shocking to TO readers. TO uses about 9 different spellings per sound hence it might take more than one spelling pattern to look like TO. dBLspellings:

    Hau much du: aI o' yu: for th'' do:g. (NFB)
    Hau m'ch du `I o' yu for th dog. (NFc)
    HX m'C dU I O U fOr D' dog. (MF)
    Hao m'ch du I ö ü for dh' dawg.

    The traditionally spelled *how is a suitable digraph for /au/ as long as *o=ah and *w=uu. The problem with TO notation is its lack of consistency: *W and *O have at least 10 other interpretations. The use of caps (majuscles) for different sounds is a common practice in IPA ASCII notation. It is a compromise rather than an ideal solution. As shown above, the caps could be replaced by umlauts, e.g., ü, if they were available. They are available in the Latin I character set.

    When spelling teachers talk about the English vowels,
    they mention 13 of the 18 or more vowels and blends.
    shown in black below
    Diagram:  13 English Vowels
    diphthongs shown in green
    Front         -       Central       -        Back 
    sit
    skid
    i ih
    index
    sea
    i,
    eel
    very
    shwi
    sofa
    '
    acute
    unstressed
    use
    iu, Uü
    bouy
    ui  uy
    ooze
    u, w oo
    fwd
    dude
    sue
    hook
    u' uu
    gvd
    shvd
    soot
    High
    set
    chef
    e eh
    elbow
    say
    safe
    ei
    avian
    such
    svfr
    u ^
    up
    boy
    oi  oy
    soil
    owe /ou/
    o'  ou O
    sow, so
    show
    awe /o/
    aw  o
    hawk
    saw
    Mid
    sat/sqt
    ae, a
    at, ax
    sax
    sigh
    `I  y  ai
    eye
    ay aisle
    calm
    a ah
    Sara
    want
    buy
    I  ai
    aisle/ail
    ice/ais
    owl /au/
    ao au V
    aoch
    scowl
    hot /a/
    o
    sOks
    sahks
    Low
    air
    Ar, er
    fare
    scare
    ire
    Ir ayr
    tire
    sire
    are
    ar
    car
    scar
    her/hR
    R 'r
    father
    sir
    our
    aor
    flour
    sour
    or
    or
    oar
    soar
    ear
    Er, ir
    mere
    sear
    dBLspel notation is shown in red when it does not correspond to NF
    Folik treats a as /ah/. DS uses the TO convention: a=/ae/, q=/ah/, & o=/awe/
    Another vowel diagram
    The table shows the cardinal positions for 18 vowels and 7 r-blends. The notation shown can be used for invented spelling. Another table would have to be used to convert from the broad phonemic notation to TO.

    In diphthongs, the u refers to /oo/ or /uu/, not to uh. nau=n/ae/-/oo/ or n/ah/-/uu/

    A passage written in New Follick Double Spell.

    It iz an ofn il'streitd fact that th spelng ov th Inglish langwij iz inc'nsistnt, and I wount repeet ol th igzampls hir. In spait ov its inc'nsist'nsy [move, cove, love] [moov, couv, luhv],   I pers'n'ly fInd it sou biutifwl that I am opouzd tw olmoust eny  pr'pouzl tw cheinj it. Yet, I hav atempt'd tw dezIn an Inglish speling sistim that wuud wrk strictly acording tw rwlz, hwail inheritng sumthing ov th tradish'nl biuty. Becoz mI Idi'z on th subject hav bin nirly stAb'l for sum yirz nau, I thot I shvd pr'zent it tw hoomevr wants tu reed it. It iz ment az a siryus propouzl, olthO it mey olsou be luukt upon az a dem'nstreishn ov how striktly aplaing rwlz leedz tw a Uzhuoly f'mily'r but sumtImz b'zar rezults."

    Double spell conventions

    Double spell provides two alternatives, one that optimizes economy and one that is a littl more intuitive to readers of TO. wwd might therefore be spelled wuud if there are doubts about the ability of the reader to recognize the shorter sound sign. Both systems are completely consistent. O=owe=ou.

    From Double Spell to Cut Spelling

    Double spell can be converted to CS in one step using the Spelling Converter. The converter, however, is dictionary based rather than rule based. It would be better if we could have rules.

    luv - lov (lauv)

    moov - mov (mauv)

    Alphabetic Method

    Recognition of patterns, recognition of sound, recognition of meaning.

    Almost universal from the early days of Greece and Rome until the end of the middle ages. It assumed that familiarity with the forms and names of letters helped the pupil to recognize and pronounce words. Pupils learned the names of the letters in their alphabetic sequence. Two letter combinations were then spelled and pronounced until they were wel known, and then lthree four and five letter combinations, forming either nonsense units, syllables or words.


    Key: [']unstressed uh or schwa, hvk=hook, o=awe, ou=owe, iu=you, hai=hI=high, eij=Aj=age, svn=sun, i=somewhere between ee and ih, y=closer to ee (but unstressed), ie or ee for ee. w=oo,
     

    A
    ei
    ei
    ey
    E
    ea
    ee
    e, y
    I . . .
    O OWE/ow/ou . . ...
    OO LOSE/looz/lwz . . .
    U USE/Uz/iuz iu . .
    UU HOOK/huuk/hvk v . .
    u UP/up/uhp u . .
    References

    Kessler, Brett. 1997. Regularity in the phonemic subsystem of english spelling: A study of 4,724 words to determine the degree of spelling regularity. http://bhasha.stanford.edu/~kessler/spellings/spellings.htm

    MacMahon, M.K.C. 1890? Henry Sweet's System of Shorthand. Shaw liked it so much to say that all that was needed was to beautify . Current, a phonemic shorthand, was developed around 1890

    Smalley, Wm. A. et al. 1964. Orthographic Studies: Articles on new writing systems. United Bible Societies.

    Eco, Umberto. 1990. Search for the Universal Language? London:Blackwell

    Wells, J. 1990.  Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. London: Blackwell



    To communicate anything about this page, contact Dr. Steve Bett
    Local (relative) links
    Spelling Links
    SiteMap-index
    ----
    Remote (absolute)
    Spelling Links
    SiteMap-index
    Delphi.com/spelreform
    Use back button on browser
    Back - Previous Page
    Next Page
    ---
      Original page elements:  Copyright ©1998 BETA Interactive   Report any problems to the Webmaster



    Developed April, 1997, at the Lamar University -ECRC, Orange, Texas.


    This page hosted by Lycos-WhoWhere.  Get your own Free Home Page
    © 1997 BETA Bett Educational Technology Associates div. of OUI, Inc.