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... Reducing ambiguity and redundancy
in American Spelling
Words that rhyme should be spelled the sameSpelling the /e/ sound
If we asked people, how should we spell the /e/ sound the answer would be "With an E." If we asked, instead, what is your preferred spelling of [friend], a large majority would prefer the dictionary spelling over pronunciation guide spelling [frend]. see ei and u:
Harry Lindgren advance a first stage reform proposal that involved the respelling of /e/ as e.
The proposal was to associate the [e] grapheme or character with the /e/ sound.In his book, he called this SR-1 (spelling reform, stage 1). Lindgren wanted to introduce an easily explained reform that would not disrupt any reading habits. Consistency in the spelling of the e-sound seemed like a good place to start.
Consistent e spelling is part of New Spelling, a scheme once promoted by the
The long e or /i:/ was not part of SR-1. Lindgren thought the long e should be a sound close to /ei/ as it is in German orthography. /i:/ is the long i sound. In German, the long i is usually spelled [ie]. This means that some spellings in English such as "believe" are close to being correct German spelling [believ].
In CKS, it would be spelled [ba'liv or biliev] depending on the version used - the first vowel is a schwa. In both German and English this lax central sound is usually represented with an e.
In UNI, [believe] would be spelled bilEv.The following provides some insight into the irregularity and polyvalence of the traditional English orthography.
In the second column, where there are differences between New Spelling and Checked Spelling, a second alternative is provided. [many => meny => meni]. [a'] in CKS refers to the schwa sound.
We write short "e": We pronounce short "e": men . . . e e. . . . men many. . . a e. . . . meny meni burial. . u e. . . . berrial beria'l said. . . ai e. . . . sed says. . . ay e. . . . sez head. . . ea e. . . . hed friend. . ie e. . . . frend heifer. . ei e. . . . hefer hefr aesthetic.ae e. . . . esthetic esthetik jeopardy. eo e. . . . jepardy jepa'rdi guest. . .ue e. . . . gest cleanse. .ea-e e . . . .clenz belle. . .e-e e. . . . bel We write long "e": We pronounce long "e": keen. . . ee ee. . . . keen kin, ki:n key . . . ey ee. . . . kee ki deceit. . ei ee. . . . deseet di.sit dise:t field . . ie ee. . . . feeld fild, fi:ld, fiyld people. . eo ee. . . . peepl pilp, pi:pl, piepl team. . . ea ee. . . . teem tim, ti:m, tiem leave . . ea-e ee. . . . leev liv, li:v, liev ravine. . i-e ee. . . . raveen ra'vin league. . ea-ue ee. . . . leeg lig, li:g, lieg cheese. . ee-e ee. . . . cheez chiez deceive . ei-e ee. . . . deseev d'siev believe . ie-e ee. . . . beleev biliev antique . i-ue ee. . . . anteek a.ntiek mosquito. ui ee. . . . moskeeto moskito ski . . .i ee. . . . skee ski squeak. . uea ee. . . . sqeek skwiek receipt . eip ee. . . . reseet risiet debris. . is ee. . . . debree dibri
For a more compact way to list orthographic options found in the traditional orthography, see /ei/ in day and /u:/ in guru. These are models for 30 more pages on spelling variations.Follick spelling totally eliminates the y. CKS reserves it for the initial position to distinguish ear and year, both are spelled iir in Follick spelling. Y is also used in CKS for /ai/ as in hyli (rather than haili) to be totally unambiguous, it would be spelled h'yli where the comma refers to the schwa or lax mid vowel sound.
Almost every letter in the alphabet is irrelevant to pronunciation in at least one word.
... Alphabet of Redundancy
Almost every letter is absent from pronunciation guide spelling in some word.
Partial listing below:A in 'hed', head, dead, & lead, should be the same as fed. The a was once a schwa sound: heh-uhd. /he
d/ or /heD/
B in 'dout' and 'bomb': doubt should be the same as about, loud, snout. bomb should be the same as mom.
C in 'sizers', scissors: siss should be the same as Liz. ors since unstressed should be the same as mister.
D in 'ajust', The j in adjust is an abbreviation for dzh so the d sound is already included. /@just/
E in 'privat', Adding the e would indicate a pronunciation of privait (see also foreign/forin) below.
F in dificult, difficult: The 2nd f is a marker but what it marks is too ambiguous to be useful.
G in 'forin', /for
GH in 'caut', caught should be the same as cauterize
H in 'scool' or 'skool', ch in some languages refers to the sh sound. chato in portugues is pronounced shato.
I in 'frend', friend: The exception to "..the first vowel does the talking." Friend should be the same as mend, send.
J in ..... (don't know of any redundant J. This is probably because this letter was added so late in the game [circa 1500])
K in nife and noll, knife should be the same as wife, life. knoll should be the same as toll or mole.
L in cam, calm, palm, alms should be the same as bom, pom, mom.
M in nemonic,
N in 'condem',
O in 'peple', /pi:p@l/ rymz with steeple [stEpL]
P in 'receit',
Q in ? Some argue that the Q itself is totally redundnat and could be replaced by kw. queen used to be spelled cwen.
R in ? The R is associated with three sounds including the vowel in "her". hurry/hRri, h3:ri plural/plRL, pl3:l
S in 'iland',
T in castle, often, catch (ch refers to /tsh/ so an extra t is redun.)
U in 'bild',
V in ??
W in 'anser',
X in ??
Y in ??
Z in (in the traditional orthography, the z sound is usually spelled with an s) and in many other spelling patterns
(Barnsdale) Abolishing the magic e iz one ov the main reasons I joined the society.To which Masha replied in part: The point is that 'a, o, i + magice e' is domminant pattern.
(I hav checkd with several sources for this and did sum counting in the 3000 most frequent words.)The which John Reilly says:
The most common "vowel + consonant + e" form is "are." Quite aside from the fact that word lists are not prose, any count has to include not just the hits but the misses
Masha further said:
>The best tu help children WITHOUT changing the look of TO tu drastically
>is clearly tu keep 'a + e' and eliminate exeptions tu that rool.I have always understood the expression, "the look of TO," to refer to things like letter frequency and the length of words. This is lost if "th" become becomes "q" or if every hard "c" becomes "k." It is not lost if "gate" becomes "gait."
I can only repeat that the magic-e cannot be used coherently to spell anything but monosyllables, and even then at the price of adding some extra rules about the treatment of endings.
It has previously been proposed that the "principle" of magic-e be extended, so that in every sequence of vowel + consonant + vowel, the first vowel will be long. Well, consider the word "eliminate". Magic-e works for the last
syllable, but what about the first three? If consonant doubling is used to shorten those vowels, the word becomes "ellimminnate." This looks like Martian, and it wastes space.I can only agree with David: ".. stripping English of the e-glitch is the beginning of wisdom."
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John J. Reilly.
| ... | Alphabet Rhymes - Chaos |
| In phonemic or alphabetic spelling, words that sound alike are spelled alike. There is a differenence between dictionary spelling and pronunciation guide spelling. There shouldn't be. |
Sound and
Letters don't agree
The Rules
of Rhyming: a poem
from the senco forum
| Our
Strange Lingo
When the English tongue we
speak.
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Beard is not the
same as heard
Cord is different from word. Cow is cow but low is low Shoe is never rhymed with foe. Think of hose, dose, and lose & think of goose & yet with choose Think of comb,tomb and bomb, Doll and roll or home and some. |
Since pay is rhymed with
say
Why not paid with said I pray? Think of blood, food and good. Mould is not pronounced like could. Wherefore done, but gone and lone- Is there any reason known? To sum up all, it seems to me Sound and letters don't agree. |
| IPA/Snapscript-RES-Olde
breik/braik/ fri:k/freek sou/so fju:/fiu v3:s/verss ho:rs/haurss/ w3:s/werss |
bird/beerd h3:d/herd
ko:rd/caurd w3:d/werd kau/cow lou/lo |
peid/paid
sed/sed
bl^d, fu:d, gud/blud, foud, guid mould, moald kud/cuid |
| Spanglish/Unigraf
breik friik/ brAk frEk so fiu/sO fU v@rs/vRs |
b@rd/bRd h@rd/hRd
kord/kord w@rd/wRd kau/kW lo/lO |
peid/pAd
sed/sed
bl@d gud fud/bl@d gud fud mold/mOld cud/kJd |
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nU @lfabets for EGliS
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x simplifYd speliG sOsYeti
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american litRasi kWnsL
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simplifYd speliG E-list
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