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ThuSullueshin T U E   T H U   A L F U B E T   P R A A B L U M short intro truespel-1 truespel-2 truespel-3 truespel-4 references The structure of English  sounds contact As shown below, the traditional writing system uses  108 symbols to represent the 40 to 50 sounds of English speech.  100 symbols suggests that there are only two or three ways to spell each sound.  This is not the case.  The traditional system allows over 14.    We could live with two or three spellings per sound so a perfect system is not required for communication.   Instead of two spellings per sound or two sounds per spelling, we have over three times the tolerable level of  inconsistency.  This is called code overlap or using homographic heterophones  [the same spelling for different sounds] and heterographic homophones [different spellings for the same sound].  The  The code overlaps make the system confusing to the young and prevents the old from correctly spelling infrequently used words.  Only 14% of the population can correctly spell these five common words [ acomodate, sincerely, ...]  There is no problem in a phonemic system such as truespel: sinseerly, accomudaet,...].  The inability to spell in the traditional spelling system is related to the fact that the same symbol can refer to over 6 different sounds and the same sound can be spelled with 14 different symbols.    [The problem with English Spelling] Truespel uses a basic set of 40 phonograms and each phonogram is used only one way.  If you know the sound you do not have to guess the letter or letter combination to use because each sound is associated with one and only one symbol.  Truespel is simplifies spelling and provides a clear guide to pronunciation. The notation does not have to be any more precise than the pronunciation guide in the dictionary.  The dictionary often lists more one pronunciation for a word, e.g.,  ink = eenk, ingk, ink.  In these cases, the writer has to make a choice.  Alternatively, the writer can simply use the Truespel phonemic notation to transcribe his or her own speech patterns. With a phonemic notation, there can be standardized spelling only to the extent that there is a standardized pronunciation.  Given the number of dialects of English, the only semi-standardized spelling would be at the regional level.  Truespel is linked to GA [General American].  There is a standardized pronunciation and this is what the dictionaries based their pronunciation guides on.  If everyone started writing in the Truespel notation, books would be printed in general american [GA] so there would be standardized spelling to the extent there is standardized pronunciation in the dictionary.    The Phonological Structure of English and the Traditional Writing System Any orthographic system for English should have a unique grapheme [symbol] for most of the 12 pure vowels and the important combinations of vowel phonemes [ei ai au ou...].  The sounds that Daniel Jones considered to be essential for a full description of English speech are listed below.  According to Harry Lindgren, many proposed reform notations for English fail by not having a unique symbol for schwa.  Schwa [an unstressed mid lax vowel] is one of the most frequent sounds in English speech. Roughly 10% of your utterances are [uhs] or schwas.  Lindgren considered this oversight to be sufficient to eliminate a proposed notation from serious consideration.  Lindgren's system had both u /^/ and schwa ['].  Many systems will merge these phonemes.  Truespel uses u for both, Spanglish uses a for both. Since Truespel always marks stress, it is easy to determine if the u is stressed or unstressed. Thus,  Truespel does have a way of referencing the schwa [or mid lax vowel] sound.  about = /'baut/ = ubbout In British English (RP) there are 46 different speech sounds: 21 vowels, 25 consonants (Wijk, p. 13).  According to Longman's Dictionary of American English, General American [GA] has 45 speech sounds [21 v  24 c].  Longman's GA merges [a:] and [o].  [see how many phonemes?] By showing stress, Truespel is able to eliminate the /^  '/ distinction,  reducing the number to 43.  Truespel does not differentiate between singer and fingger or the long and short /turned c/ -both would be spelled [au]. Sixty symbols are normally used to represent the vowels.  Unfortunately, some are used for more than one sound. Most symbols in TO are polyvalent or multi-valued.  The codes overlap. For instance, there are 29 ways to represent the sound /u:/ and 18 ways to represent the sound /ei/. 60 V-Markers found in TO: a, e, i, y, o, u, ar, er, ir, yr, or, ur, aa, ae, ai, ay, au, aw, ea, ee, ei, ey, eu, ew, ie, ye, oa, oe, oi, oy, oo, ou, ow, ue, ui, uy, aer, air, ayr, ear, eer, eir, eyr, eur, ew(e)r, iar, ier, yer, oar, oor, our, ow(e)r, uer, igh, aigh, augh, eigh, ough. In TO, 44 symbols are used to represent 25 consonants:  21 single letters + 23 digraphs and trigraphs.  The 23 combined symbols  are shown below:   23 Marked consonants: ch, dg, gh, gn, gu, ng, ph, qu, sc, sch, sh, si, ssi, sci, ti, ci, ce, tch, th, wh, xc, and zi.   (ci, si, and zi are used for /sh/ and /zh/). To represent 46 phonemes, English traditionally uses 104 different unigraphs, digraphs, and trigraphs.  Some are used more than once. The most serious problem with the tradtional English orthography is its lack of predictability.  The chances that one can spell an unfamiliar word is 50% OR LESS.  This estimate is based on the fact that no phonemic notation will match TO more than 50% of the time.  The best attempt is about 40%. Code overlaps are much more serious than using more than one letter or combination to represent a sound. Code overlap refers to the tendency for TO to use the same letter or combination to represent more than one phoneme. Each letter can refer to about 14different sounds.  The letters in TO are multi-valued or polyvalent.  (i.e., chaotic and confusing as opposed to alphabetic)  Educators intent on teaching spelling and reading generally discard wh as a distinct phoneme, and make a few other simplifications. Truespel merges wh and w.    From Traditional spelling  to  25 consonants 44 symbols 200+ spellings 23 consonants 23 spellings 25 vowels 60 symbols 300+ spellings 17 vowels 17 spellings 50 phonemes 108 symbols 500+ spellings 42* phonemes 40 spellings *Truespel adds 3 sounds by marking stress: schwa, schwa + R, and schwi [unstressed ee] Orton phonograms  bibliography   Truespel and Spanglish  asciibets [askee-bets] are used to indicate sound values below The basic code:  Each phoneme represented by only one letter or digraph  From sound to spelling. 25 consonants in English speech - 50 spellings in written English 23 pure consonants, j and ch are combinations 24 Consonant Phonemes [ng missing from both TO and Truespel] with one spelling by position b d h l p t v ng qu sh th tth with one dominant spelling pattern f g j k m n r s w x z ch The z phoneme is generally spelled with an s.  z is dominant only in the initial position 26 spelling alternatives for 12 consonants plus 73 consonant clusters - 99  Truespel and Phonemic Spanglish notations are used to clarify the following vowel sounds: 18 vowels have over 50 spellings in the traditional writing system - only 18 in Truespel Truespel recognizes yue as a combination of a consonant and a vowel 18 Vowel Phonemes [two phonemes are merged her/er and o/o:] click a letter to view a page showing the alternative spellings for these sounds - polyvalence truespel    a   i   aar   oi  e   aa   u   ee  ae  ie  oe   yue  aw  oo   ue   ou  er  or spanglish . a.  i.  aar   oi e    o.   u.    i    ei   ai   oa   iu     o    u.    u    au  'r   or spanglish. ae  y  aar   oy e   aa   v    i    ey   ai  ow    yu    o    w    u    ou   r   or Spanglish requires diacritics or markers to become a phonemic notation.  The alternative of recruiting r y w v as vowels [3rd line] can be visually disruptive  McGuinnes (1997), as above, ignores the schwa sound and most R-combinations. 32 spellings for 14 vowel sounds must be taught in TO (but not in a phonemic alphabet) e.g., /ou/ -  tone, goat,  told,  low, though,  obey,   owe, oh     Span -   to'n    go't    to'ld   lo'     tho'      o'bey     o'         [o' alternate ow]  Truespel   toen   goet   toeld  loe   thoe     oebae   oe  21 code overlaps must be taught for TO, e.g.,  ou is associated with over 7 sounds <ou> -  out, soup,  touch,  soul,   though,  cough,  thought OGD -   out,  suep,  tuch,   soel,   thoe,      kawf,    thawt Span -   aut   sup    tu'ch    so'l      tho'        cof        thot  According to McGuinnes (1997), most of the confusion in TO (the traditional orthography)  is caused by 26 alt. vowel spellings, 32 alt. consonant spellings, and 21 code overlaps. Paul Hanna (19--) also thinks that the sheer number of orthographic options makes the traditional writing system confusing and overly complex.  The obvious solution is to reduce the number of spelling options and eliminate the code overlaps.  Both Truespel, Spanglish, and most reform orthographies do this.  While there are no spelling rules without exceptions, there are probabilities and these can be learned and used to increase the matches with traditional spelling. spanish pronunciation Reform rules: We now have both a g and j in the alphabet.  Archaic historical spellings dating from a time when letter g had to be used for both sounds can now be dropped: guilty=gilty, gaol-jail, guage=gaje, ridge=rij, gem=jem, enough=enuf...   Single Consonant Spelling Alternatives  (idea from McGuinness, p. 103 and Orton) Different ways the consonant sound is spelled at the beginning and end of words Unlike the traditional orthography, Truespel always spells the same sound the same way Letters such as the [u] and [e] in guage are silent markers.  magic e endings usually indicate a long vowel:  exceptions have, give, ... sound phoneme key word     truespel word beginning word ending b  d  f  g  h  [silent in some words] j  k  l    [can be semi-vowel] m  [can be semi-vowel] n   [can be semi-vowel] ng p  r   [can be semi-vowel] s  sh t  v  w hw [semi-vowel] x  [ks, gs, z,  sh/ch/s]  y  [semi-vowel] z  boot, bib, tribe     trieb dog, did, mode     moed fun, fife, enough    ennuf got, gig, ghost,  guage  gaej hot, who hue, casbah cazbaa job  judge  juj, gem  jem kick  cold  chasm  arctic  log, lull,  till,  little  man, comb,  column,  prism  not, knot, gnome, foreign  sing, singer, fing-ger pig, pip, pipe  red, roar, write, rare  sat, sass, fence, confess ship,  hush,  show tot, tote, debt  van, valve, save  win, when,  tax, xerox, Xena yell, yacht zip, xerox, size, fizz, his b  d  f  ph g  gu  gh h  wh (hw)  j  g c  k  ch l  m  n  kn  gn --  p  r  wr ur er  s  c  sc  sh, ch t  v  w  wh  [foreign names]  y  z, x b, be d  de f  ff  ph  gh  fe g  gue  gg  ge -silent  terminal ge  dge k  ck  ic ke l  'l  ll  el  le m 'm mb  mn n  gn  ne ng p   pe r  'r er ur ir  re ce se  se  ss  s  sh  [c in Saxon] t  bt ght te v  ve ve -- [ ow is a vowel] x  -no consonant endings s se  ze  zz  z  ch [tsh] [-k]  ng  qu  [kw]  sh  sch  [sk-] [-sh]  S'n  [shun]  th [t, tth]  th [d, dh, d, x] chin  machine watch  singer/finger, bank quit, queen  shop, lush  school  illusion, suspicion  thin, breath [bretth] then, breadth, breathe ch  --   [Eng, Ing] qu  sh ch sch  x  sch, sk --  th  th  d  ch  tch  che ng  --  sh  she -  sion, cion, tion  th  th the dth ght silent h  silent w,  w as vowel marks 3 vowels honor, herb, Allah  who, write, wren  - /u/ short u sound - Welsh w [bwk] book h  silent w  silent awl, crawl taut, taught h   silent marker low [silo] snow  wow, cow, allow woe, low, know sk yu skunk, scheme, schism unit, sure, argue, argument sk sch sc u sk u ew ue ure The most likely spelling alternative listed first above.  Magic e endings have to do with vowel The options eliminated by most reform notations are in bold face.  References: Albrow, K.H. 1972. The English Writing System.  London: Longmans Carney, Edward.  1994. A Survey of English Spelling.  London: Routledge Coulmas, Florian. 1989. The Writing Systems of the World. Oxford: Basic Coulmas, Florian. 1996. Encyclopedia of Writing Systems. Oxford: Blackwell.  Crystal, David. 1995. Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language.  Dewey, Godfrey. 1971. English spelling: Roadblock to reading. NY: Teachers College Press. Dewey, Godfrey. 1970. Relative Frequency of English Spelling. NY: Teachers College Press.  Haas, W. 1970. Phonographic Translation. Manchester: Manchester University Press Hanna, Paul R., Hanna, J.S. Hodges, R.E. & Rudorf, E.H. (1966). PhonemeGrapheme   Correspondences as Cues to Spelling Improvement, Doc.OE-32008, Washington, D.C.:    U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare.USGPO Hanna, Paul (1992) Spelling: Structure and Strategies. University Press of American Jones, Daniel. 1950. The Pronunciation of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press  Lindgren, Harry. 1969. Spelling Reform: A New Approach. Alpha Books McGuinness, Diane 1997. Why Our Children Cant Read. Free Press Martin, J. H. & Friedberg, A. 1986, Writing to Read. NY, Warner Books  Pitman, James & St. John. 1970. Alphabets and Reading. London: Pitman Scragg, D.G. 1974. A History of English Spelling.  Manchester: Manchester University Press   Tom Zurinskas, founder  Truespel Foundation PO Box 71 Cologne, NJ 08213 truespel@hotmail.com info@truespel.com 609-645-7941   609-965-5514  posted 9-97  rev. 11-00  rev 7-01 short intro truespel-1 truespel-2 truespel-3 truespel-4 references Index Page |   |   |  | Sounds of English |  Key Concepts  | Captions writen in Unigraf Dc simplifYd speliG sOsYeti         cmericcn litRasi kqnsL              nU alfabets for EGliS            jQn Dc sVndspel egrUp . . ...  Truespel.com  is registered domain name [originally with namedemo.com].  If you go to www.truespel.com you will be redirected to http://victorian.fortunecity.com/vangogh/555/Spel/truespel-short.html. vowels and consonants chart 6x7 Comments & Questions  [please send in your questions to truespel@hotmail.com]

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