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Reducing Ambiguity and Redundancy in American Spelling
Spell "E" Consistently [SR-1]The following provides some insight into the irregularity and polyvalence of the traditional English orthography. Harry Lindgren advance a first stage reform proposal that involved the respelling of /e/ as e. In his book, he called it SR-1 (spelling reform, stage 1).
The long e or /i:/ was not part of SR-1. Lingren 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 is usually represented with an e.
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 aesthetic.ae e. . . . esthetic 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 kien, kiyn, kin key . . . ey ee. . . . kee ki deceit. . ei ee. . . . deseet di.sit di.se:t field . . ie ee. . . . feeld field, fiyld people. . eo ee. . . . peepl piepl team. . . ea ee. . . . teem tiem leave . . ea-e ee. . . . leev liev ravine. . i-e ee. . . . raveen ra'vin league. . ea-ue ee. . . . leeg 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
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 mid vowel sound.
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