World Orthographies
comparison of letters assigned to phonemes
across writing systems for different languages - Index
  wrld-ortho.html   hitchhiked orthos  A work in progress - comments and suggestions welcomed

How do other writing systems represent particular phonemes? This is not an easy task because the phoneme boundaries are not equivalent across languages.

What this table illustrates is that while any language can be written in any orthography, there will be certain phonemes that cannot be expressed adequately because the orthography has no conventional way of indexing or coding the sound.  Germanic languages start out trying to represent 20 vowels with only the four letters inherited from Latin.  Perhaps only 12-15 are pure unblended sounds.  It still means that digraphs and diacritics will be necessary if there is to be one and only one phoneme corresponding to each grapheme.

There are gaps and mistakes in this table because its author is no expert on Germanic languages.  Choosing good key words is a major problem. Over time, however, this work in progress should get closer to the correct representation. Please notify me of any errors. sbett@mailcity.com Hitch-hiked orthographies: Biutiful Princess story

Example  IPA SAMPA Spanish Dutch German Danish
at, ax, ash æ t } . . . æ
alms, wand a: 5 a a a a
edge, bett e e e e e e
hay ä e: e: rey ee e, ä i
même E 3 . e . .
egg  E: . . ee a: æ
ace ä ei . ey *rey ij . .
ill i . . i i ill
eel ë i: . i ie ie, i, ih il
ox a 5 . . . .
ox o . . . o .
awe o: . . . o, oo, oh å  a ring
oat ou . o . ? .
up ^ . . . a .
foot u . . . u .
ooze u: . u . u, oo .
a'go. c . . . . .
h'r *her c: . . . . .
. Y . .   put . .
. y . . . . .
eye  ï ai . ai aai ei, ai *mein æi
oil, deutch oi . oi ooi eu .
  eu *sneeue . . eeue . .
deux o 2 . eu(r) Ö  blÖd Ø
. iu . . ieuw . .
. yu . . uw *duw . .
. au . . . au .
neuf aoe . . . ü  &uuml .
wet . . uet *luego . vet .
yet . . iet . iet .
Latin 1 - The full list of spl. characters available in the character set for web documents and how to use them

Spanish Diphthongs A highly phonemic orthography with only 5 vowels but many combinations.

Word of the Day Bell Labs Voices in different languages Click & spell vowels
Click & Listen vowel sounds Sounds of English
 
Hitchhiked Orthographies
To what extent can words in one language be represented by the orthography of another language?  What insights does such an exercise provide? Transcribed text Hitchhiked orthographies: Biutiful Princess story
CCS-English Words Spanish Dutch German-Deutch Danish
yz - eyes aiz      
ys - ice ais      
irz - ears        
firz - fears firz      
firs - fierce firs      
h'r - her        
f'rst - first        
frost - frost        
kot - caught        
ko.t - cot         
ko't - coat cot      
         
Assistance is needed to complete this table. Contact Steve Bett sbett@mailcity.com

Spelling Reform Links       Delphi Forum - Spelreform       simple spelling      alphaglos.html

Updated: 1-99 A glossary and a FAQ can be found at the delphi forum link


Comments

Steev (Steve) sed
>My read on the situation is that we should come up with the most elegant
pronunciation guide.  I believe that this guide should be usable across a
range of languages other than English.

>This has largely been achieved by IPA so the pronunciation guide should
probably be a simplified variant of IPA.  The simplifications include
finding alternatives for the special characters used in IPA.

>The next step would be to produce a dictionary that used this notation and
then promote the script as a secondary code for the writing of English.

>What if every school child had to spell their name phonetically using this
phonetic notation?  Eventually, authors would start using the notation to
clarify the pronunciation of place names and other obscure words.

>Currently there are about ten different notations used in pronunciation
guides.  None of them are suitable for writing. Usually, if you move from
one dictionary to another, you have to learn a new guide.

>Steve

Taam commented:

Az thu authher uv thu oenlee truelee funnetik skeem in thu SSS (and in thu
werld, ie thheenk) ie upllaud theez kaaments bie Steev (Steve).  Mie
aabzervvaeshinz aar theez, az iev bin saeyeeng for aulmoest 2 yeerz nou in
this forim.

1.  Thu werld needz wwun funnetik speleeng standerd.  (Chek travlang'z "word
of the day" tue klik tue heer vaireeyoos laengwijiz prunnountsd and see
vaireeyoos speleengs for thu saem foeneemz.)

2.  Enee speleeng skeem that akts az u prunnunseeyyaeshin gied must
dieyulekts difrintlee.  ie,  thu UK speleeng wil bee difrint than thu USA
verzhin.  It must reefllekt hou wee speek.  ie gras vs graas.  This iz noe
big deel ie thheenk.

3.  Enee speleeng skeem must hav u wae uv indikaeting sillabik stres.  This
iz u must.  Just pikcher thu IPA prunnunseeyyaeshin gied witthhout thoez
stress maarks.  That wood bee inkumplleet inddeed.

4.  Reespeleeng naemz haz bin thu soel praavints uv truespel aan this bord
tue shoe that it iz yuesfool in this aireeyu.  ie  Zerriintskis  iz hou yue
sae mie sernaem "Zurinskas".

5.  Tue reeddues thu lerneeng kerv, truespel iz deezziend tue yuez moest
kunssistint Eenglish foeneemz az paasibool.  This sumtiemz reezzults in
launger werdz houwwever.  This iz u vairee smaul pries tue pae, ie beelleev.
When we beekkum siet uddaptid tue thu truespeleeng doent reed seengool werdz
eneewae, but skan hoel lienz instted, withh noe laus uv speed ie beeleev.
 

Taam (Tom)  truespel nj usa
 

last revised:  April, 1999
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