Spanglish and truespel both show primary stress without the use of diacritics.  This feature sets them apart from all of the other pronunciation guide spelling systems.  Both systems are adapted to the conventional keyboard and can be typed quickly.  This makes them suitable for use in general communication.  Both systems are designed to be used as i.t.a.'s or initial teaching alphabets. and as pronnciation guides in dictionaries.  Truespel is designed to be tansparent to those who are familiar with English and traditional spelling.  Spanglish is designed for ESL [English Second Language] students and uses the familiar international Latin sound - symbol correspondences.

The difference between these systems are often in the details.  Truespel and Spanglish represent two distinct approaches: one based on international latin symbol sound correspondences and one on uniquely English shifted sound values.  This difference is most evident in the reprsentation of the free vowels [aka letter name vowels].
 

Since Spanglish is a candidate for the representation system for world english, it is more concerned with making the system easy for [ESL] language learners who are already familiar with the international latin symbol to sound correspondences.  Truespel is more concerned with making the system transparent for those familiar with the traditional English writing system.

In the past, most people thought that an English writing system could not be realligned with continental systems.  Spanglish shows not only that it can be done, but it can be done without providing readers with a key to the code.  There is still significant resistance to the re-establishment of an alphabet based on the West Saxon standard.  However, this resistance cannot be based on the idea that it divorces English speakers from their cultural and linguistic heritage.  Spanglish restores most of the alphabet that was used before 1500 for both Old English and Middle English.

Truespel is an ascii notation since it uses no special characters or diacritics to reference the 40+ sounds in English speech.  Spanglish is also an ascii-ipa notation. Its symbols are nearly isomorphic with the International Phonetic Alphabet [IPA]. 

There are limits on how well a systematic orthography can match the traditiohnal unsystematic one. Spanglish, by starting with the last consistent  alphabet used for English [the west Saxon standard], comes as close as any.  The grapheme-phoneme corespondences for Saxon Spanglish are shown below.

There is a 75% overlap between the two alphabets [only 9 sound signs are different]. However, actual transcriptions appear to be related less than 50% of the time. 

There is a near 100% agreement on how to represent the short vowels and consonants  and a near 100% disagreement on how to represent the "long" vowels and how to indicate primary stress. 

Saxon Spanglish [SS] follows the latin based IPA conventions which were used in the original Saxon or Old English alphabet.  The practice of using double consonants to mark short vowels in multisyllable words came in around 1130. 

& Two systematic solutions to the alphabet problem

The Truespel Alfubet Truespel grapho-phonic alphabet Thu Truespel grafo-faanik alfubet a ask ae ape-aep au auto air air b bib ch -cherch d did e edge-ej ee eel er -erth f  fife-fief g goat-goet h hid i in ie pie j judge-juj k kick-kik l  little-litl m mum n nine-nien aa car-kaar oe own-oen oi oil ou out or or p pop-paap r roar-roer s sis sh ship t tot-taat th the-thu tth thin=tthin oo book u up ue due v -valv w when-wen y you-yue z zip zh -mezher 40 phonograms: 17 vowels - 23 consonants An alphabet is a grapheme-phoneme correspondence table:  A collection of sound signs linking visible marks to speech sounds. The traditional alphabet is truncated & does not show the full complexity of English.  The one above shows everything about Truespel except the stress convention.  [converter]

The Spanglish Alfabet Spanglish grapho-phonic alphabet The Spannglish graffo-fonnik allfabet a. ae ask ei ape-eip aw o awto-oto err air-eir b bib ch -cherch d -daddy e. e edge-edj ie eel-iel urr er murrder f  fife-faif g goat-goat h -hiddan i. i in ai pie-pai j judj k  c kick caet l  little-littl m mummy n nine-nain aa car-caar oa own-oan oi oil ou au out or or p pop-paap r roar-roer s  c sis citty sh ship t tot-taat th the-tha thh thin=thhin u book buk u. a up upp uu -zuulu v -vaelv w when-wen y you-yu z zip zh -mezher 40 phonograms: 17 vowels - 23 consonants Identical phonograms show non-controversial symbol sound correspondences.  Pink cells indicate vowel codes that do not match. Altho Spanglish uses Latin based sound values [vein yield tu] it achieves as close a match with traditional spelling as Truespel or any other systematic or alphabet based notation.

Spanglish and Truespel both use double consonants to show which syllable receives primary stress.  Spanglish uses the traditional Saxon convention of doubling after a stressed short vowel.  Truespel doubles before the stressed vowel except when stress falls on the first syllable. 

Spanglish also has a schwa [a] and schwi [y] that can be used to indicate the lack of stress.  very would have to be written as in berry to avoid ambiguity.  Spanglish [verry berry berrial] Truespel [vairy bairy baireeyul]

If you memorize these simple grapheme phoneme relationships, you can spell any word you can pronounce and use the truespel dictionary to locate words that are not necessarily spelled the way they sound.  How many homophonic heterographs are there for [prays].  Type in the truespelling [praez] and find out.

IPA	Spanglish	Truespel	Comment
@ schwa turned e @r [GA only] A: æ aI	a    ago sofa yuunat er [replaces ar] aa  [also o.] ae  [also a. stressed] ai   ais flait Saigon	u, i    uggoe yuenit er     [replaces ur] aa    baam caalm a      at ax ash ie     ies fliet siegawn	unstressed position exception rule ar/ur o. odd=aad a. add=aed aisle - ail - iel
b k s tS d	b     bobbsled c, k [ca co cu] cat s, c  [ce ci] ch   churrch d     dey they	b   baabsled k   kat kawst kaat s   sudz ch  cherch d   dae  thae
3:  V"  [BBC-E only] 3:r   [GA only] E e eI	aa    vaamin  urr   murrder e.   ellefant edj ei  [also they terminal]	u /aa  vumin stressed* er   merder e  elefint ej ae  dae laet	*non-rhotic spelling of vermin <u> as in up in TS. aa is more like a double schwa in SS
f g h	f  freit  off/awf g  gilty [guilty ok] h  hot	f  fraet  awf g  giltee h  haat	*both [a] and [e], schwa in SS can be used as silent markers [oa]
I i	i    it itch ill verry ie  iet iech iel	i   it ich il  veree ee eet eech eel	The e in SS is just a marker to show stress
dZ l m N	j   jem  judj l   littl m  Mom ng  fingger	j  jem juj l   litl m  Maam ng   finger [not used]	*SS has to have a double consonant after /^/ for the up sound.  Otherwise it is a /u/ or hook sound
Qr Q  O: ou oi	or   order cork o    <awe> cost o ao aw   cawt oa   oat boat boa oi    oil boy	or   order  kork o     not used [cf aa] aw   kawt  kawst oe   oet boet boe oi    oil boi	[ng] is not a phoneme in Truespel
p r S t T D	p    pop r sh t tth  thin* th   the thugg	p  paap r sh t tth  tthin th   thu tthug	*SS does not normally indicate the th sound in thin.  It is merged with /dh/ as in T.O.
^  V u:   u u   V	u.  v   cupp vp u   w   huk cwd put uu  u  huup cuul	u   cup up oo  hook cood poot ue   huep cuel	<up>  could be spelled ap [unstressed] in SS
w hw ks j z Z	w  waat hwot waach w  hwer hwen hwai ks  fiks fix y  very yello z  sez zipper zh  lezher  mezher	w  waat staap waach w  wer wen wie ks  fiks [no x] y   veree yeloe z   sez ziper zh  lezher  leezher	wat = wuht in SS This is usually an OK spelling since the word is often slurred. *w is a consonant only in the initial position in SS so hwer = huer

Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondence Table - 17 Truespel Vowels *starred-vowels have two values, blue vowels are not listed in the-alfubet short voulz laung voulz kumbbiend  a - at, ax, cat, ash  ae - sundae, aep [ape]  air - hair, stare  aar - are, far, star  e - edge, elephant, elbow  ee* - eel, tree, street  er* - her, berd [bird]  eer - ear, fear  i -  it, itch, index, pin  ie -  pie, siet [sight]  or - for, shor [shore]  uer- tour,  ier- ire, fire  aa - aaks[ox] kaat [cot]  oe - toe, koet [coat]  au - auto, cost, long  oi - oil, boi [boy]  u* - up, uggoe [ago]  ue - blue, yue [you]  oo - hook, cood [could]  ou - out, our, house *u and er can be stressed (hurt [hert]) or unstressed as in other [uther] and sofa [soefu] The phonograms in blue are vowel-consonant combinations and not included in the Truespel alphabet or is an abbreviated version of oer/aur and air is an alternate traditional version of aer/er.  Since or, air, and er  are ambiguous and not obvious combinations, they must be isolated. or could be oer, air could be aer or er - these combinations require clarification. Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondence Table - 17  Vowels *starred-vowels have two values, blue vowels are not listed in the-alfubet short voulz laung voulz kumbbiend  a. - at, ax, cat, ash  ei - sundey, aip [ape]  eir - heir, steir [stair]  aar - are, far, star  e. - edge, elbow  ie* - iel, trie, striet  urr-er* - her murrder  ier - ear, fear  i. -  it, itch, index, pin  ai -  pai, sait [sight]  or - for, shor [shore]  uer- tour, ier- ire, fire  aa - aaks[ox] kaat [cot]  oa - to[w] [toe], coat]  o-aw - oto, cost, long  oi - oil, boi [boy]  u. - ap upp ago struggl  uu - blu canuu, yu [you]  u - huk, cud [could]  ou - out, our hous, cau

Transcriptions Traditional Orthography The clay pot costs ten dollars. IPA pronunciation guide d' klei pot ko:sts ten dol'rz. Truespel-Ortthaagrafee Thu klae paat kausts ten daalerz Spanglish Orthografy The cley pot costs ten dollarz. Results of an automated transcription: Thee ubjjektiv uv truespel iz tue pruvvied u consistent noettaeshin that ennaeboolz yue tue spel ukkordeeng tue thee soundz or foeneemz yue heer. Convverselee, it ennaeboolz yue tue reed ulloud enee dieyulekt or laengwij speld in truespel. Truespel iz faar beter fer rieteeng dieyulekt than thu tradtional rieteeng sistim. Wun uv thee goelz uv thu truespel foundashin iz tue form u foenneemik anglocentric baesis fer lerneeng speekeeng reedeeng and anuliezeeng moest uv thee maejer laengwijiz.  [convert your own paragraph into truespel]

Truespel and Spanglish both establish a new expanded alphabets for English.  Both have a  convention for showing stress using double consonants.  Using these notations, you can indicate exactly how you pronounce any word, including regional dialects and most foreign words.  Either could be used with foreign language menus.

Both systems provide a pronunciation guide spelling that 

shows stress

uses common English spelling patterns

does not augment the alphabet with any special characters

does not require a special keyboard or font to display

Since phonemic systems such as truespel and spanglish visualize speech, i.e.,  give a written rendering of the spoken word, they will spells slang and accents as easily as the standard dialect [known as GA or General American]. In effect, you can spell what you hear. 

This capability both celebrates our diversity and enriches our communication.  Dialects can be clearly unambiguously  indicated using Truespel conventions.  Most books would be written mostly in the standard dialect [General American or Broadcast English] but it would be much easier to drop into a dialect.

To the extent that people could hear the standard dialect, they could spell it.  Most books would still be written in broadcast English or GA. Thus, in actual practice, spelling would be almost as standardized as it is today.  The definition of a spelling error would change and when the majority of people started to pronounce a word differently, there would be an automatic change in spelling. 

Today, as Noah Webster noted, a change in pronunciation weakens the alphabet because we have tried to standardize the orthography.

Truespel dictate a spelling standard only with respect to an established dialect such as General American.  In other words, the dialect establishes the standard.  Each dialect of English would be spelled in a different way and those reading aloud these spellings would tend to mimic the accent. 

The 17 Truespel vowels [below] plus  uer,  aar,  and eer  and 3:  equal 21 vowels, the number isolated in Longman's IPA. There is no sound in English that Truespel cannot represent as well as IPA.  There is one sound in British RP, the short o, that would require an additional phonogram to adequately represent.

&

Spelling Samples  [more .examples]
There are at least 100 different ways to code English speech.  The most common phonemic transcription since 1900 has been IPA [the International Phonemic Alphabet].  This is the code used by linguists, ESL teachers, and many dictionaries and pronunciation guides.

There are two basic problems with IPA.  (1) it uses non-standard or non-ascii symbols and (2) it does not look much like traditional English. The lack of visual resemblance may makes it more difficult than Truespel to learn, recall, and read. Spanglish is IPA with standard ascii symbols.  It solves the first problem.  The reader will have to decide whether or not it solves the second.

Which of the following transcriptions is the easiest to read.  Which would be the easiest to write? Which ones are the most consistent?  Which ones provide the best guide to pronunciation?  [quiz]
For more extended text samples, convert your favorite story to Truespel using the on-line converter at http://www.ldc.upenn.edu/cgi-bin/sb/orthography/convert.cgiand www.foreignword.com

Spelling Samples  [examples], Truespel, IPA, ALC Fonetic, Spanglish Which of the following transcriptions is the easiest to read.  Which would be the easiest to write? Which two notations are the most consistent?  Which one shows if primary  stress is on the first or second syllable? Truespel Fonetic - Sample 6:  Speleeng rifformers tipiklee waant tue riet withh u dikshinairee prununseeyyaeshin gied rather than truddishinool Eenglish speleeng. Thae waant thu speleeng sistim tue bee neerlee 100% alfubbetikool instted uv 40%. Eenglish speleeng iz haard bikkuz thair aar tue menee orthhugrrafik aapshinz. -source  I P A  broad romic)   speling rifmrz tipikli wont tu rait wið  dikòneri prnnsieyòn gaid rað ðæn tradiòanl Ingliò speling. ðei wont ð speling sistm tu bi nirli 100% ælfbetik insted v 40%. Ingliò speling iz haard bikz ther ar tuu meni rthogræfik opònz. ALC Fonetic  [20 exceptions to the rule] Speling reformers tipicaly wont to riet with a dicshunairy pronunsiaeshun gied rather than tradishunal English speling. Thay wont the speling sistem to be neerly 100% alfabetical insted of 40%. English speling is hard becauz thair ar too meny orthografic opshuns  Saxon Spanglish Systematic Spelling reformerz tippicly waant tu wrait with a dicshanerry pronunnciashan gaid rathr thaen tradishanal English spelling.  They waant the spelling sistam tu bi nirly 100% alfabettic instead ov 40%.  English spelling iz haard becoz therr aar tuu menny orthograffic opshans Truespel is more consistent than ALC fonetic which uses ar for aar, e and y  for the stressed and unstressed ee sound, c for k, and s for all plural endings rather than s and z, ...  In English, stress is normally on the root syllable which would be the first syllable in two syllable words ~ unless the first syllable was a prefix such a- re- or un-.  the suffix -er is always unstressed.  Words borrowed from Greek, Latin and French do not have this consistency. Leman [as in Lak Leman] would be pronounced 'lemon' in English but ley-maahn in French.  Truespel can represent this stress variation as lemun - laemmaan. In Spanglish, it would be  lemman - lemaan > MORE SAMPLES

Transcription of an BBC-E Speaker
both systems do an adequate job of transcribing the educated british dialect
* indicates a disagreement with respect to phonemes. e.g.,  Tru-tairer  SS-terrer

Tradspel – UKtruspeek –  USA-Truspl   BBCE-ss        GA-ss            

Hostile   - hustiel   -  haastiel     husstail       haastail
Pursue    – persyyue  –  perssue      pasiu          persuu     *   
Nations   – naeshunz  –  naeshinz     neishnz        neishanz  [*same]
Towards   – tuewaudz  –  tordz        tuuwardz       tordz    
Terror    – tai’u     –  tairer       te'a           terrer    [*disagree]
India     – Indyu     –  Indeeyu      inndya         inndia
Gotten    – gautin    –  gaatin       got'n          gaatan    [*NSD]  
Schedule  – shezhueld –  skejueld     shezhuld       skedjald  [*short u]
Detailed  – deetald!  –  deetald      diteild        diteild   [no sig. dif.]
Military  – militree  –  militairee   millitry       millitary
Arms      – aamz      –  aarmz        aamz           aarmz
After     – aaftu     –  after        affta          after
Last      – laast     –  last         laast          laest/lasst
Region    – reejun    –  reejin       riej'n         riejan    [*NSD]
Australia –Ustrraelyu -  Australyu    Astreilya      Austraalia
Violence  – vielints  –  vie’ulints   vailans        vaialan[t]s
Sargeant  – saarzhint -  saarjint     saarzhnt       saarjant  

It is often said that doubling consonants after short stressed vowels makes words excessively long.  However, as indicated above, the average length of a Spangish transcription is slightly shorter
than a coresponding Truespel transcription.  See [dual transcriptions]
 
36
 

Rules for orthographic development
Ruelz uv truespel divvelupment - Ruulz for orthograffic  devellopment

Associate sound segments in speech with one of the common traditional spellings [TS]

Use QWERTY [ascii] keys to spell the phonograms - Use no special symbols.

Avoid using symbols which cannot be found on a  standard keyboard

Use  only one spelling per sound

many  TRU  menee - U2  menE -  SS/RITE  menny 
penny  TRU  penee  -  U2  penE  -  SS/RITE  penny
menny/penny is closer to the common traditional spellings than more phonemic alternatives.  y and w can be positional and have a different sound as a terminal vowel
This is not phonemic but it is an easy exception rule to effectively extend the alphabet.

Letters can be used as silent markers [ae ie oe ue].  There should be no other silent letters.

There should be a way to indicate primary stress when not stressed on the 1st syllable.

glottal stops are extremely rare in citation spellings.  ITA uses the question mark. TRU [']

All phonemic notations can be used for writing dialect but such narrow transcriptions are not a major concern in a system designed for communication. 

• Readable without a key to the code. 
• Some backward compatibility - Learning the new code helps one learn the traditional one.

A phonemic system uses one symbol-sound association.  The traditional system uses over a dozen.  Learning Spanglish or Truespel means that there is one less association to learn.
• No special symbols or diacritics required to represent the phonograms

An augmented alphabet version can be available but only in addition to the ascii version
• Show primary stress
• Spellings can be pronounced by a non-speaker of English and understood by a native speaker
• System can be learned twice as fast as the traditional writing system
• Suitable for use as an i.t.a. [initial teaching alphabet] and a pronunciation guide.

C O M M E N T S

COMMENT: I agree with all of your points. But I fear that pragmatically a wholesale pickup of "World English" and any attempt to make all the really extensive changes that would be needed to represent the literally thousands of phonemes round the world, would instantly kill off any interest in any proposals from SSS.  John G.

Tom Zurinskas wrote:

Hello John,

A simplified spelling should be able to co-exist with a phonetic 
spelling. Both are compatible (even despite the double consonant method for 
stress in RITE, which is a ripoff of an original truespel idea and conflicting 
with the truespel technique).  But history has shown that all the money 
and power of Andrew Carnegie and Teddy Roosevelt working together couldn't 
change 12 targeted words.  So I assume patchwork simlification isn't the 
answer.

I think the vision of James Pitman of the SSS is the answer.  His 
simple i.t.a as modified by truespel can replace the IPA and extend into 
other languages as a common standard phonetic spelling.  Suppose truespel 
could teach average 10-year olds to read 13 languages in a week if 
truespeld.  A good thing?

I hear detracters about the i.t.a. but see no data, just 
testimonials.  Are there any studies done on its affects.  I only know one person that
experienced i.t.a.  She's a good speller.

taam

                 > My problem is that the word "thin" and "thing" have two different vowelz az
                 > I hear them.  The same with win/wing, sin/sing.  But the words key/king,
                 > flee/fling have the same vowel sound (ee).  We can hear this in the m-w.com
                 > talking words.  It goes for both UK and USA.
                 > If you play the m-w.com words do you not hear this as well?

                 Tom,

                 I went to the Merriam-Webster website, and listened to the
                 pronunciations of "thin" and "thing".  There is definitely something to
                 your observation, because the vowels DO differ, but not in terms of
                 laxness or tenseness of the throat, which is the standard for separating
                 (using Truespel spelling) "i" from "ee", at least, if you want those
                 letters to be tied in any systematic way to the IPA and other standard
                 transcription system.

                 To my ear, that quality of difference involves the relative LENGTHS of
                 the vowels, with the (TS) "i" of "thin" being slightly shorter than the
                 (TS) "i" of "thing".  In other words, "thin" has a "snappier"
                 pronunciation than "thing".  But in terms of the standard distinction of
                 the relative laxness or tenseness of the throat, I hear no difference. 
                 To see what I mean, try to think of Speedy Gonzales saying the word
                 "thing", with his strong Spanish accent, which is typified by a change
                 of all (TS) "i"s to (TS) "ee"'s.  Well, THAT style of pronunciation is
                 what you are suggesting for TO "thing" -- in other words "theeng".

                 Now Tom, I don't think you want people going around using some Speedy
                 Gonzales-style pronunciation, do you? :-)  I think that would be
                 carrying Steve's "Spanglish" thing, just a little bit too far, no? :-)

                 Generally, vowels are lengthened, according to either the phonological
                 context (e.g. before voiced consonants, etc.), or according to
                 conversational emphasis.  Regarding the phonological context, it is
                 interesting to note that close measurement reveals that TO "beet",
                 "bead", "beam", and "bee" reflect increased lengthening of the vowel,
                 starting with "beet", which has the shortest vowel length. 
                 Nevertheless, all four words are considered to contain the same tense
                 vowel: (TS) "ee".  And the same pattern exists in the case of lax
                 vowels, such as (TS) "i", where we see increased lengthening in the
                 three words: TO "kit", "kid", and "kim" (with there being no English
                 words ending in "i".

                 So after more consideration, I think this is what's going on, in the
                 case of "thin" and "thing". --David

 In contrast, the English alphabet has only one consonant, <v>, which has one sound, cannot be produced by other combinations of letters and is never silent. The five vowels have some 48 different sounds. There are also many homophones, which are words that sound the same but are spelled differently such as led and lead, and homographs, which are words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently according to their meaning, such as tear (in crying) and tear (rip).
However, most difficult of all are the small, common words which are totally irregular, such as was and to. Of the 100 most common words used in childrenÕs books, only 33 are regular. This is the greatest hurdle of all for dyslexic children.

English and Italian learners

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Sampa notationunicode    american english 

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