Is stress phonemic?
m-w.com  lycos-rhume   more rhymes   schwa

Phonemic refers to sound.  All spoken languages are 100% phonemic since meaning is conveyed by variations in sound.  Writing systems that manage to visualize those critical aspects of speech [the 20 to 40 phonemes] are also said to be 100% phonemic.  Most alphabetic writing systems are over 85% phonemic.  English is an exception being only about 40% phonemic. 

A difference in sound is said to be phonemic when it changes the meaning or interpretation of a word.  There is no reason why features such a stress and pitch could not be phonemic.  The question is whether or not they are in English.

Stress would be phonemic if changing just the stress pattern in a spelling changed its meaning. In speech, a different stress can change a word from a verb to a noun.  re'bel vs 'reb-el.

There are many noun-verb pairs which are spelled the same yet have slightly different meanings depending on the stress pattern.  addict, differ,  convict, abstract, rebel, object, extract, and present are cases in point. 

For stress to be phonemic, only one case is required.  Clearly there are dozens of cases.
In many cases where stress is phonemic, the English writing system uses a different spelling; e.g., abutt [abut] and abbat [abbot].  
 

No difference in spelling	Spelling differences indicate stress differences
rebel  [rebbel, rebel] [reb&l r&bel] object [obbject - object] ['object &b'ject] convict [connvict - convict] ['konvict k&n'vict]	abut - abbot  [&'but - 'ab&t] ender - endure ['end&r - en'dur] order - hors'dourvre ['ord&r - or'duur]

If stress is phonemic, if it distinguishes the meaning of several word pairs, then it is an important feature for a transcription system to have. 

About 40% of the multisyllable words in Inglish are not stressed on the first syllable.  In many cases, the stress is on the root syllable which makes the problem less severe than it would initially appear. Unfortunately there are words where stress is not on the root syllable: e.g., unnacustamd [unacustomed]  unnderstanndabl.

For native speakers and those who know the language, stress marking is largely unnecessary. For those trying to learn the American accent, it would be essential.

Currently, about the only transcription systems to integrate stress marking into its basic design is Truespel and Spanglish. Other systems have avoided it because it adds a layer of complication and increases word length. 

I rather like the shwapaastrafy for marking unstressed syllables.
Doesn't work that well as an onset.   'baut    li'l 
 

1st syl stress      2nd syl stress

..abb't ..dezz'rt ..gall'n ..rebb'l

..a'butt ..d'zert ..b'luun ..r'bel

Spanglish substitutes a for ' except before or after an r

Archaic means that we still have vestiges in our spellings of devices that were used to compensate for a shortage of sound signs.  sc was used primarily to indicate sh before the h
was used for a marker.  ge was used before a j was added to the alphabet. 

DEFINITIONS
A phoneme is a difference in sound that makes a difference in meaning or interpretation. 
The phoneme is a category not a physical event.  It is a range of different sounds that are treated as equivalent.

All spoken languages are 100% phonemic, they signal changes in meaning by changes in sound.
A writing system is phonemic to the extent that it consistently marks all the phonemes.

Phonemic is a near synonym of alphabetic.  An ideal alphabetic system is one that assigns one
[and only one] symbol [grapheme, mark, shape, or letter] to each phoneme in the spoken language.
The mark becomes a symbol or sound-sign or phonogram when two or more people associate it with the same phoneme.

A symbol is a conventional sign. A written word is a sign of a sign.   A sign is anything that directs behavior with respect to something that is not currently a stimulus. A bell was a sign of food for Pavlov's dog.  Turning leaves are a sign of Fall and the approach of Winter.

An alphabet is a set or collection of sound signs -- An alphabet is a correspondence table linking graphemes and phonemes. If there is no consistent set of correspondences, there is no alphabet. 

ALPHABET: A type of writing system in which a set of symbols [letters] represents the important sounds [phonemes] of a language. 
DICTIONARY OF LANGUAGE & LANGUAGES BY DAVID CRYSTAL 

To make a stronger case for Truespel, a system that routinely marks non-first syllable stress, all we need is one word where failure to mark stress changes the meaning of a word.

Regular stress is on the first syllable in English.  However, the stress in 40% of the
words in the language are not stressed on the first syllable.  Thus, the use of a
schwa or some other stress marking system is extremely useful to the person trying
to read a page aloud.

contrastive pair test:
abut and abbot is almost a candidate of the tab | tub, pin | pen variety
abut and abbot are distinguished in print, but not systematically sound spelled.

We say that the tab| tub contrast proves that a and u are distinct phonemes in English.
They are distinctive sound features which distinguish at least one word pair.
 

notation / stress pattern>	initial /1st syl. stress	2nd syllable stress
Traditional Spelling	abut        abutt  abat TO             SAXON-SPANGLISH	abbot     abbataebot TO             SAXON-SPANGLISH
Truespel	abbut	abut
Traditional Spelling	differ      differ	differ    diffurr  dafer
Truespel	difer	diffur
Traditional Spelling	a vowel     a vaul	avow        avau
Truespel	u voul	uvvou
Traditional Spelling	mellon        meln	balloon     b'alun
Truespel	melun	bulluen

Truespel marks /^/ with [u] and merges /^/ and /'/
Spanglish d'az not show stress 'anles ther iz a syllabic or schwa involvd.
The goal of spanglish is to hav a clir path of abreviation.
videoclip on concept mapping - realaudio

Truespel

Truespel claims that marking stress reduces mispronunciation of some words.
It would be a much stronger case if it could be shown that mispronunciation
can lead to misinterpretation.  Here are some cases where not marking stress
could lead to mispronunciation and mispronuciation could lead to misinterpretation..

Where stress makes a difference

notation / stress pattern>	initial / 1st syl. stress	2nd / syllable stress
Traditional Spelling Spanglish in italics	abstract      abstract TO             SAXON-SPANGLISH	abstract      'abstract TO             SAXON-SPANGLISH
Truespel	abstrakt      [noun]	abstrrakt      [verb]
Traditional Spelling	addict         addict	addict         adict
Truespel	adikt           [noun]	uddikt          [verb]
Traditional Spelling	convict        connvict	convict       canvict
Truespel	kaanvikt      [noun]	kunvvikt       [verb]
Traditional Spelling	present        prezzant	prisent        prezennt
Truespel	prezint         [noun]	preezzent      [verb]

Truespel marks /^/ with [u] and merges /^/ and /'/ The two souncs are 
distinguished with the stress marking system, dbl consonants before stressed vowel
If there is no double consonant, stres is on the first syllable.

Spanglish uses a and er and syllabics to indicate stress - prizzm
Double vowels are used after short vowels to distinguish them from free vowels.

In most of the examples, Spanglish also shows a stress difference using the
somewhat counterintuitive schwa-apostrophe to mark a letter pronounced as
schwa.  'a 'e 'i  'u  are all pronounced the same as the IPA /'/

Spanglish cannot correctly reprsent upper  [TS uper]
becuase 'up'er transcribes to the ambiguously stressed  'p'r
IPA gets around this by using L  as in Lp'r  or RP Lp'

From Spanglish to IPA representation
c'anvict = c'nvict = c'nvikt = c'n ' vikt

Spanglish d'az not show stress 'anles ther iz a syllabic or schwa involvd.
The goal of spanglish is to hav a clir path of abreviation -
streamlined Weblish is one of the goals of Spanglish.

Weblish needs a consistent shorthand orthography.
Spanglish can provide this.  It eliminates all of the redundant letters
and clarifies the vowel sounds except for A which is aa, uh, ae,
but never /ei/ and in RAY.  This word is respelled as rey [ree in German?]
 
 

Pronunciation guidespelling

notation / stress pattern	initial /1st syl. stress	2nd syllable stress
Traditional Spelling	except [but]	except  [take] iksept
	ekksept   'eksept	aksept   @'ksept
Traditional Spelling	abbot	abut
	abbot    abbat	abutt    abvt
Traditional Spelling	differ	differ
	differ    disagree	difurr   postpone
Traditional Spelling	a vowel	avow
	a voul    vaul	avou    avau
Traditional Spelling	object       verb	object     noun
	objeckt	obbject
Traditional Spelling	rebel       verb	rebel      noun
	rebell     rabell	rebbal
Traditional Spelling	refuse	refuse
	reffyuus	refyuuz
Traditional Spelling	minute	minute
	minnat   minnit	mainut
	addict    adikt	aadict  addict
	addict	adict

wel, using one symbol for all unstressed weak vowels would definitli wud solv wan problem:
NOT OOL PIIPL PRYNAUNS DHY seim ANSTREST VAUYLZ -
mai dikxynyri (DANIEL JONES) sez dhaet ik'sept mei oolsou bii prynaunst EK'SEPT, wail yksept mei oolsou bii prynaunst aek'sept. bat ai dount thiqk dhis iz samthiq dhaet wii xud prii'skraib - ail liiv dhaet tuu dhi indi'vidjuyl.
ik'sept vs. @k'sept

Schwa

compliment complement
If u respected Websters opinnion (wich u ar recomending) that shwa and short 'u' ar 2 difrent things, u
       cood uze 'a' for shwa (wich is unstressd @ for moast linguists) and 'u' for short 'u'. Becoz if u considder
       them difrent sounds, u'l see that no letter is so rairly uzed for shwa az 'u'.

That's not tru. Reed my mesij tu Steve agin and u'l see a mes ov wrds I stuk in it wich has shwa as u. 

       And i think 'abndns' is misleeding, how can peepel kno that the ritten voul is unstressd and the stressd voul
       isnt ritten? 

I do'nt reely cair about stres (as u must no by now). It was bad inuf I had tu cnsidr it tu ditrmn wethr the ee sound was speld ee or y at the
end of wrds. 

         
       Wy dont u say: e in the final sillable, a at the beginning and at the end of a root werd, u in uther cases? 

       Becoz u want tu cut the shwas befor l-m-n-r.  

       Maybe: 'a' at the beginning or at the end of a root werd (in enny case), /sh@n/ speld 'tion' in enny case,
       dont rite the shwa befor l-m-n-r, u in uther cases?

phoneme frequency

[left] The 14  pure vowels are identical to IPA.  The chart shows more combinations than found in Jones' list of 21 vowels.  iu, aar, air, our are included here [teal]. [right] Notice that each vowel letter represents three sounds.  Usually there are two free vowels and a checked vowel.  U has two checked vowels up and hook. In a complete alphabet, there are almost as many vowels as there are consonants.

White=unstressed vowel  Yellow =vowel Tan = diphthong,   blue=consonant Green = semi vowel or syllabic consonant

 

is a phonemic transcription system based on the Saxon alphabet which makes the writing of English as consistent as Spanish or German.  The Saxon alphabet is a true alphabet:  It has a phonogram or graphic symbol for each important speech sound and no code overlaps.[ If ow is used for LOW it is not used for COW. ]  The Saxon alphabet is not perfect.  Most but not all of the letters in a two letter symbol [digraph] can be pronounced.  ei combines eh + ee but ie sould be ii.  The stressed and unstressed "schwer' is urr and er which means that one syllable words can be written two ways:  herfurr.  Only two syllable words have a fully predictable spelling: surrfer.  The alphabet uses er instead of the default schwa letter ar. If sur were used instead of surr the pronunciation would not be stressed and would tend to rhyme with sewer and tour. The pronunciation would be close enough but not as accurate as it coulr be. Saxon Spanglish is not a perfectly phonetic system because it uses positional spelling.  It does so because it is designed as a transitional or initial teaching alphabet for those primarily interested learning the traditional writing system. 
 
 

More words that are spelled the same in TO but have different meanings depending on stress.

        incline inklien (noun)
        incline inkllien        (verb)

       adept   adept   (noun)
        adept   uddept  (adjective)

        console kaansoel        (noun)
        console kunssoel        (verb)

        conscript       kaanskript      (noun)
        conscript       kunskrript      (verb)

        minute  minit   (noun)
        minute  miennuet        (adjective)

        invalid invulid (noun)
        invalid invvalid        (adjective)

        rebel   rebool  (noun)
        rebel   ribbel  (verb)

        subject subjekt (noun)
        subject subjjekt        (verb)

        object  aabjekt (noun)
        object  ubjjekt (verb)

        upset   upset   (noun)
        upset   upsset  (verb)

        produce praadues        (noun)
        produce pruddues        (verb)

        refuse  refyues (noun)
        refuse  reefyyuez       (verb)

List ten word pairs in English where the failure to mark stress
leads to ambiguous meaning or misinterpretation..
.
In English, we characteristically center the unstressed vowel.
Thus the pronounciation difference has two markers
 

abot desert galun

ubbout dussert bulloon

 

aebbot desert gall'n

a'baut d'sert b'luun

first syllable stress is normal and unmarked
butun    buttaan [button - baton]
melun   balloon
abot     abbout
aching    akkin
abbut    abbut  [abbot-abut]
rabid     rabbit   [same root stress, same initial vowel]
rabid     rabit    rimmit
desert   dussert

RITE reverses the pattern.
double vowels after a short vowel.
accomodate

abbot     about
dessert   desert
gallon     baloon

We could have i before e except after c by changing the spelling of the rule breakers.
sieze    size
sie said

>From: Steve Bett <stbett@yahoo.com>
>To: Tom Zurinskas <truespel@hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: truespel.com is registered.
>Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2000 20:53:13 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Taam,
>
>A CD will hold a little over 1/2 Meg.
>
>The free websites will give you 1 Meg or more of free
>space.
>
>The first task is to get it all in one place.
>
>With cuteFTP or another FTP program, you will be able
>to upload what you have so far.
>
>Tell me exactly how you registered the name.
>
>Will it go to the existing Truespel web page?
>Since you say you need about 70 Mb of space, we need
>to find a hosting service that will give us that much.
>  Fortunecity is maxed out at about 10 Mb.
>
>BTRSPL is fine for the proposed CD, but for the Web,
>use the Perl converter.  We do need to update the
>dictionary since Truespel dictionary now being used
>has only 7000 words.  I think we need a minimum of
>20,000 words.
>
>So far no one has commented on my truespel page titled
>- Is stress phonemic?
>
>What I need are some contrast words that are spelled
>the same in TES but differently in Truespel.
>
>dessert and desert are already spelled in Truespel
>fashion.  abbot and abut are not, but they are
>distinguished.  TS abut abbut
>
>Regards,
>
>Steve
>
>
>
>
>--- Tom Zurinskas <truespel@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi Steve,
> >
> > I tried namedemo.com again and it worked this time.
> > I have registered
> > truespel.com.  Thanks so much for your advice.
> > Right now the products I
> > have are.
> >
> > 1.  Truespel manifesto - Introduces and shows how it
> > works, 1 page.
> > 2.  Truespel game - cut out the foeneemz and make
> > words like scrabble.
> > 3.  The 59k dikshinairee, triple checked
> > 4.  95% complete analysis of how the sounds of
> > English are spelt.

>In English, regular stress is on the first syllable
unless that syllable is .....

>such as a-, de-  pre-  con- de- di- e-
i- pre- pro- re- ....

>These are exceptions to the regular first syllable
stress.  I don't think I would go so far as to call
[about] an example of regular stress.

U cood say that a sitty wair u can park evrywair has a simple regularity. If
u hav a sitty wair u can park in sum plases wair thair is no prohibition,
park for 10 minnuts wair thair is a sine saying so and not park at aul wair
thair is a sine saying so has rather complex regularity. But i wood caul
'parking iregularity' if u had tu gess wair u can park or not, and in sum
plases if u park u get a fine of $5, in anuther plase if u park u'r
executed.

German can hav the stress evrywair and if in english the ferst sillable is
stressd in 60% of the cases, it sertainly wil be less than that in german.
Stil i caul it 'quite regguler' becoz u usually no wair the stress is, aulso
in a werd u havnt seen befor: germanic werds hav a root werd and stressd
preefixes and unstressd preefixes and unstressd suffixes. Latin werds
usually hav thair stress befor the last consonant.

Spanish has moastly stress on the penultimate sillable, but i gess it is not
much mor than 60%. But sinse thay hav axents or rules for the uther cases,
the predictability is hy.

Russian has an iregguler stress. U just cant no wair the stress is, and
russians woodnt usually no wair the stress is in a werd thay dont no. the
advantej in russian is that u dont hav tu chainj the pronunsiation of the
hole werd if u get the stress rong, wich is the case of english.

    Welkam tu a nu wae uv rieting Ingglish — a raashanal wae.     FS - fonetic spelling
    Welkum tue u nue wae uv rieteeng Eenglish - u rashinool wae. TS - truespel
    wellcam tu a nu wey av raiting English - a raeshanal wey.         SS - saxon spanglish

    Witth tha taebool givan beelo (imeedeeyatle aafter "What's New"
    Withh thu taebool givin beelloe (immeedeeyitlee after "Wuts Nue".
    With the teibl givan belo [imiediatly affter "Watz Nu"

    and tha Intradukshan), eneewu*n kaan riet ene werd in the Ingglish
    and thu Intruddukshin), eneewun ken riet enee werd in thu Eenglish
    and the Intraducshan), ennywan cann rait enny werd in the English

    laanggwaj so thaat eneewun els hu aulso noez tha sistam kaan
    laengwij soe that eneewun els hue aulsoe noez thu sistim ken
    langwaj so thatt enywan els hu olso nowz the sistam cann

    reed it witthout ene kweschan about hou ene uv tha werdz
    reed it witthout enee kweschin ubbout hou enee uv thu werdz
    ried it withhaut eny queschan abaut hau eny av the werdz

    or pranounst. He wil eevan noe* hwut* aaksent yu speek,
    aar prunnounst.  Hee wil eevin noe wut aksent yue speek,
     aar pranaunst.  Hi wil ievan no wat akksent yu spiek,

    Amairikan aur British, bi hou yu riet werds* liek "skejool"
    Ummairikin or British, bie hou yue riet werdz liek "skejool"
     American or Brittish, bai hau yu rait werdz laik "skejul"

   FS aur "shejool", "kaan't" aur "kon't", "eether" aur "iether",
   TS or "shejool", "kant or "kaant", "eether" or "iether,"
   SS  or "shedjul", "caent or caant", "iether or aither"

    "tamaeto" aur "tamoto", etc. But I'm geting ahed uv mieself.
    "tummaetoe" or "tummaatoe", etc.  But iem geteeng uhhed uv miesself.
    "tameito" or "tamaato", etc. Butt aim getting ahedd* av maiself.

    Let us reetern tu staanderd speling tu eksplaen this projekt.
    Let us reettern tue standerd speleeng tue ekspllaen this praajekt
    Let uss retern tu stannderd spelling tu explein this projject.

    (If, houwever, yu'd ferst liek tu se maur Fanetik tu test
    (If, houwwever, yued ferst liek tue see mor Funnetik tue test
    (If, hauever, yud ferst laik tu si mor Fanetik tu test

    yaur abilite tu reed Fanetik witthout beeying toeld tha ruelz,
    your ubbilitee tue reed Funnetik witthhout beeyeeng toeld thu ruelz
    yor ability tu ried Fanetik withaut bieing towld the ruulz.

    klik heer. Tu go direktle tu tha taebool thaat givz tha ruelz,
    klik heer.  Tue goe durrektlee tue thu taebool that givz thu ruelz
    click hir.  Tu go directly tu the teibal thatt givz the ruulz,

    klik heer.)
    klik heer.)
    click hir.

What is the difference between a speech sound (phone) and a phoneme?

[JK] Great distinction.  For those who dig object-oriented programming, an analogy is that phonemes are "classes" while phones and (in AKSES) phonemic characters are "instances" in which they are "realized" for interpersonal communication.

A phoneme is an abstract structural unit that is a building block within a specific language.  It is
realized in phones -- that is, phones cause us to perceive a phoneme -- but what phones belong to what phoneme and in what context will they cause the perception of a given phoneme is specific to individual languages.

[JK] Not only in perception, but also in generation.  These abstract (mental) phonemes are the precursors of sound stream words we utter.  The exact instances produced by an individual are colored by random fluctuations in speech organs, culture and dialectic environment, and personal conditions (like emotional state) of the speaker.  The success with which a listener perceives the intended words is affected by similar personal and environmental conditions.  With a phonemic writing system like AKSES, the information interchange using recorded marks, the physical transaction is completely analogous.

Each language takes in its own way a set of phones or a phonetic area which then belong to a given phoneme. Sometimes certain phones belong to two different phonemes, depending on
where they occur.
 

[JK] I'm not sure what this statement is intended to convey.  It is certainly
true that the range of sounds produced by various individuals may create
instances that appear like this.  In such cases listeners normally exhibit a
common cultural ability to "hear" the sounds that are expected for the
phonemes rather than the actual physical instances that occur.

As humans, we learn to perceive the phonemes of our own language as 'sounds'.

[JK] I must say exactly the opposite.  We hear sounds, but perceive "mental
phonemes."  This is the only way in which transfer of information by speech
can be "explained."  This last step in oral communication lets the listener
"understand" the word/thought the speaker wanted to communicate.

  They don't, of course,
>match the phonemes of other languages, which is why we
>have difficulty 'hearing' other languages, and think
>other people don't hear clearly or that they hear
>'impossible' things.
>That is because the structure of phonemes in that
>language is different from ours.  The phones may or
>may not be the same, but the structure is different.
 

[JK] This is important to others in SaundSpel who want to develop an
international writing system, but not to me.  My sole concern and burning
purpose is to gain serious acceptance of a system that can be sold to the
political and educational establishment in the US.  The goal is to start our
children and ultimately all citizens on the road to achieving their
intellectual potential.  It must start with the ability to read and write
before they leave 1st grade.  I see the fixation on sounds to the virtual
exclusion of basing our work on phonemes, especially representating sounds
in languages that do not share (and have no reason to share) our cultural
language heritage as delaying or blocking progress.  If you realize that I
will be extremely lucky to have as many as15 years left to make my
contribution, perhaps you will be more understanding of my unseeming
impatience.

syllabics and semivowels

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What Sounds should be associated with each letter?
What sounds are associated...?
 

[left] The 14  pure vowels are identical to IPA.  The chart shows more combinations than found in Jones' list of 21 vowels.  iu, aar, air, our are included here [teal]. [right] Notice that each vowel letter represents three sounds.  Usually there are two free vowels and a checked vowel.  U has two checked vowels up and hook. In a complete alphabet, there are almost as many vowels as there are consonants.

White=unstressed vowel  Yellow =vowel Tan = diphthong,   blue=consonant Green = semi vowel or syllabic consonant

Spanglish gives one answer:  Three sounds should be associated with each letter and the letter name is rarely one of them:  A caps system can be added to allow letter name diphthongs to be included.  There are some useful applicaitons of the anglo barred letters such as in the word pronunciAshan. vacAshan

A is either schwa, aa, or ae - with a related dipthong [ai] [I]
E is either a schwa, ea, or ei [A]
O is aa, awe, or owe [O]
U is uh, ooh, or uu.  [U = yu]

R U D wN I O 10 dolRz tU?  See texting.

To restor the alfabet, each letter must be asociated with no mor than twu sounds.  [ c=sh]
English speakers can tolerate that much ambiguity since for the last 300 years they hav
livd with each letter being associated with a dozen different sounds.

In TS [traditional spelling] single vowel letters ar asociated with about 8 distinct sounds
while singl consonants ar associated with 2 or 3.  In 75% of the cases, vowel letters ar associated
with four sounds and most consonants with wan.  It is the high probability of one [wan] of 4 or less sounds being the
associate that makes the system workabl.

We are shooting for letters being associated with two or less sounds in 99% of the cases.

What balloons the number of associations are the digrafs and difthongs.
eaubeau can be deciphered as owbo [*oboe] but it is a rather inefficient way to express the sound.
gow show him a thiq or twu.

A working alphbet will not assign different sounds to letters used in digrafs and diphthongs.  If we make no
additional sound assignments, h can continue to be used as a silent marker.  The problem is that it does not
mark the same feature in CH, TH, SH, AH, UH, and ZH.

If e is used as schwa overlapping a as schwa, then it cannot be also used as a marker in kite, lite, and rite.

Here is a table that could be helpful in determining what sounds to associate with each letter and letter combination
The Spanglish values are provisionally inserted.  These can be changed.  Gus has suggested using the apostrophe
for both schwa and ah /a:/.  But he also uses it for /3:/ which adds ambiguity.  'rc = irk or arc?

The English writing system associates a half dozen sounds with each vowel letter and each sound is associated
with over a dozen letter or letter combination.  In the case of the vowel sound, 75% of the words are spelled
one of four ways.  The goal of this exercise is to reduce the number of alternative spellings to two.
 

Letters and Associated Sounds

Letter	lst sound	2nd sound	3rd saund	4th sound	overlaps	combination	R-com
a	/a:/  alms	'a   /'/  up	ae   ash at	ei  ace	ae, 'a, ei, o	ai, au, aw	ar  are
ae	/ae/  at					aew /au/	aer arrow
aa	aa /a:/					aay	aar  are
'a	/'/ ago sofa				'e, 'u	'ew  /ou/	'ar='er
au	/au/ house	aeu  *out	aew  *ouch		aeu, 'au, ou	AUTR OTHR	aur  power
aw/au	/o:/  awe	au  kraut	a  water	o cost	all, out
e	e   /e/	ey/ei	'e, 'er		'r  'a		/er/ eric, air
'e						' and 3:	'er  her other
ei	/ei/ they						eir air
i	/I/ bit, ill	/i:/ beat, eel	/ai/  my mice			ia iu via few	ir /ir/  ear
o	awe	owe	haat	u  to who	au, ou, aa	ow, oa	or
u	guru pool	put book	up cut	urban	u, ^, 3:  w	ou	ur  tour
b	/b/ bib	v, p				bl, bq, br	brg  berg
c	/k/	/s/ circl	ch /tsh/		k, s, ch, sh	ci, ce, ca, co	crd curd crud

Flat A, Broad A, unstressed A, 
 

Letters and Associated Sounds

Letter	lst sound short	2nd sound long	3rd sound unstressed	4th sound	overlaps	combinations	R-comb.
a	ae   ash at	/a:/  alms	a   /'/  ago	ace /eis/	ae, 'a, ei, o	ai, au, aw	ar  are
e	e   /e /	ei/ey	'e, 'er   /'/		'r  'a	ei ew eu eau	/er/ eric, air
i	/I/ bit, ill	/i:/ beat, eel	/ai/  my mice		schwa-schwi	ia iu via few	ir /ir/  ear
o	awe / ah cost hot	awe tawt taat	color /culler/	owe /eu/	au, ou, aa	ow, oa	or  ow'r
u	guru pool	put book	up cut  / L /		u, ^, 3:  w	ou, iu, eu	ur  tour
b	/b/ bib	/v/	/p/		debt	bl, bq, br	b'rg  berg
c	/k/	/s/ circl	ch /tsh/ cello		k, s, ch, sh	ci, ce, ca, co	c'rd curd
d	/d/	/dh/	t		dh	da de di du	d'r'abl
f	/f/	/v/	--		v	fif of ofn	f'r

Here is a candidate for possible addition to a short course on applied linguistics.

I would like to have it critiqued.

Truespel is a proposed writing system for English that marks stress
by doubling the consonant before a stressed vowel when stress does not fall on the first syllable.

I am not looking for a critique of truespel.

If you want to critique a notation, go to one of the notation discussion groups, e.g., saundspel@egroups.com.

I am looking for topics to be included in a short course on grafo-phonemics.  Stress is a possible topic.

Can anyone list ten word pairs where the failure to mark stress leads to misinterpretation?

Regards, Steve

"kiq o fonimz" TZ

Suggested resource
              <http://www.sunflower.com/~dewatson/alford.htm>
 

The task is to determine which two sounds go with each
letter.
u = u. and u
a = a. and a and 'a
e = e    ey
i = i. and i:
o=  o. and o [awe]
o. is a short awe in RP, and an ah in GA.
u = u. [hook], 'up or 'p, and u
This leaves 'r, one of the obscure vowels.

hi hwkt 'p d' hup.
hi hu.kt vp dh' hup.

I think one of the things that messes up any attempt
to come up with a notation that matches TO is the fact
that the o took over about 75% of the duties of the
old Latin A.  The old a was left with w beginnings and
R endings.

If we could write or for ar then we could simplify the
notations that try to go with the shifted values.

Unshifted sounds are like my Longman's dictionary.
pot is spelled pat in the pronunciation guide.

The turned c is used to spell cost.

> The Spanglish (below) looks marvelous.  Two values
> for some letters seems to work out fine.
>
> David

> ATTACHMENT part 2.1 application/applefile

> ATTACHMENT part 2.2 image/gif name=spanglish.gif

> Gus rote:
>
> >True. There are three times as many in Lincoln's Address. But of the
> remaining multi-syllable words, only 22% had stress not on the first 
syllable.
> Why
> should we be concerned about stress for that small amount when,
>
> 22% of say a dictionry like Taams is 10.000 werds. Thats not very 
littel.

Yea, but moast ov them ar wrds moast peepl nevr use.

> >in your discussion with Ed, he pointed out that English speakers 
already know
> where
> the stress lies in a word, and that 'foreners' could be understood if 
they
> used none?
>
> yes, but we'd like tu say the werds the rite way, and thats wy we 
like tu
> kno wair the stress is. we dont like that peepel think 'god, wat a 
bad
> english!'.

Non-naitivs wil olways hav an axent. (Just be shur u hav a nise wn.) If 
peepl
say that, stay away from them. Du thay think that way in the UK wair 
thair's so
meny axents? (It's way hardr for me tu undrstand a Scot, than an 
American
Southerner. I like the Irish broge. But I do'nt go eround teling them 
thair
English stinks.)

> but of corse, it is rellativly cleer for nativ speekers, exept wen 
thay ar
> stil lerning the menny werds (from 2 tu say 15 yeers old), wair thay 
hav tu
> heer them. i gess that eeven adults make quite a few mistakes 
acording tu
> the dictionries, but wen the werd isnt freequent, u mite nevver hav 
herd it.
> so if 2 peepel nevver herd a rellativly rair werd (menny werds ar 
offen
> ritten and seldom spoken), boath wil hav an idea (thay wil PREZUME it 
is
> like that) how tu pronounse it. If wun of them ses the werd and it 
dusnt
> mach the way the uther person gesses the werd is pronounsed, the 
uther
> person wont say ennything becoz s/he mite think s/he the rong wun. 
and eeven
> if thay ar shure thay'r rite, thay mite not tel the uther person, 
sinse
> anglos ar very polite peepel and rairly corect uther peepel.

Yea, thay ar. So, do'nt wury about how u tok.

> >I really feel its location should be ignored in our attempts to 
better
> English spelling, as its indication does nothing for English 
speakers, but
> instead lengthens words unnecessarily for them (thereby hindering 
their
> efficiency in typing and reading). And these are the ones a new 
system would
> have to be 'sold' to (now).
>
> >What 'good' reason(s) do you have for showing stress?
>
> I dont kno for spanglish, but i kno for RITE (at leest MY reezons): 
in RITE
> we sho the shortness of a voul and the stress (in thoze cases). if we 
hav
> nuthing shoing that but a dygraf for the long voul (az u du in 
inglish2),
> the dygraf dusnt sho the stress (aultho it makes it mor likely).

That's not a 'good' reesn (in my humbl apinyn).

By the way - wy du u use 'kno' for no (know)? Has that bin voted on?

Gus
 

Raptures of Root Recognition
David
cyuriositiez in letter form history
David
Alphabets,  Spelling, and Pronunciation
David In a fully alphabetical writing system, spelling is a guide to pronunciation.
Spelling pronunciation can be a strategy used with any partially alphabetical writing system to
reveal where the absurdities are located.  GHOTI is not a likely spelling of FISH but there are equally absurd spellings that are real orthographic options.
GH for F appears only in the terminal position.  TI is always followed by ON.  PHOSH would be a legitimate spelling.
The O in women is a bit of an oddity  woumen woujld be wuman.
good practice - spelling pronunciation - then spell as it should be spelled - the respel historically.
wim'n  wimman  - cant even get ther.
ther - add silent e, there
geiv - ga:v - gave
Should you learn SAXON spelling?  if you never read middle or old english.
Why not, it is simler than distorted non-alphabetic spelling.

http://www.FreeDrive.comnetscapesearch engine Multimeta: (http://www.multimeta.com/)sounds

VOWEL SHIFT
The great vowel distortion [and the consequences of alphabetic mispronunciation]
 From the standpoint of the Old English or Saxon alphabet, people started misprouncing groups of words in the 14th century.  To retain the alphabet, when the pronunciation changed, the spelling should have changed. Since the alphabet  This is the way that most langauge academies in other countries handled it.  It never happened in England.  300 years afterInglish the pronunciation shift or change, English spelling was standardized at the word level.  The accepted spellings were based on pre 1400 pronunciations, not on current pronunciation.  English writing thus becamed divorced from the spoken word and the alphabet was trashed.

Formalizing intuitive spelling
Invented spellings are what children who know a little phonics do when they try to represent a word they haven't seen before. There are certain spellings, however, that everyone agrees refers to a particular sound.  ee, ih, ah, owe, awe,    ah  ah-eh  eh ey [Oay] ee ai awe  owe you uh.  ey and ai are not always recognized as intuitive since ay in pay does not resemble ey in eye.

Menuspel
There is no unambiguous spelling for the vowel sounds in rye, ray, her, hook.   Menuspel uses ah eh ih awe oo yoo.

Vowe Frequency
Phoneme Frequency
Phoneme Symbols

Weblish [super short]  Inglish
  Gus has one proposal but it is not the same as a study of Weblish has adopted.

Texting
 Nik has a page on this.