SoundSpel
SoundSpel is a regular and mostly phonemic English-language spelling reform proposal. Written with the 26-letter ISO basic Latin alphabet, it is fully compatible with the QWERTY keyboard. SoundSpel can represent dialectal pronunciation, but it was originally based on General American English. Dating back to 1910, SoundSpel was developed "in response to the widely held conviction that English spelling is more complex than it needs to be." The American Literacy Council has endorsed the reform because English speakers can easily read it. History. In 1910, philologist Alexander John Ellis played a major role in developing a system now  known as "Classic New Spelling". Walter Ripman and William Archer wrote the first dictionary of the system, "New Spelling" (NuSpelling), which was republished in 1941 by the Simplified Spelling Society. In the early 1960s, Sir James Pitman developed the Initial Teaching Alphabet (I.T.A. or i.t.a.) which would become one of SoundSpel's predecessors. In 1969, Godfrey Dewey improved upon Ripman's and Archer's work, producing "World English Spelling". Dewey and Edward Rondthaler, a prominent typesetter and CEO of the International Typeface Corporation, corresponded from 1971. In 1986, the American Language Academy published the "Dictionary of Simplified American Spelling", a  book written by Rondthaler and Edward Lias. It calls for the improvement of English spelling, with clearer rules and better grapheme/phoneme correspondence. Its guidelines are less strictly phonemic than Classic New Spelling; for instance, the sounds /θ/ and /ð/ are represented by the grapheme ⟨th⟩ as to follow traditional spelling. Classic New Spelling opts instead for ⟨th⟩ and ⟨dh⟩, respectively. The system was further reformed from 1987 on and became SoundSpel. Description. Phonetics. Graphemes here are matched to their phonemic equivalents via the International Phonetic Alphabet. Examples in SoundSpel are accompanied by italicized traditional spellings. Rules. SoundSpel's rules  have changed considerably over time; listed below are generally the most recent guidelines. Notable former rules that have become obsolete or otherwise optional are also listed. The "Dictionary of Simplified American Spelling" notes that SoundSpel, at least in its 1986 form, was not a fait accompli. It reads: "We are now at the point where further fine tuning [of SoundSpel] is appropriate. Recommendations are welcome from all—phoneticians, linguists, educators, publishers, those with a special interest in the subject, and, very importantly, the public at large." If a pair of two vowel letters—such as "ea"—do not match a SoundSpel  digraph, then the syllable ends with the first vowel, as in "react" (read as "re-act"), "jeenius" ("genius"), and "creaetiv" ("creative"). In words with three or more vowels letters, the syllable ends with the first digraph. For example, "flooid" ("fluid", read as "floo-id" rather than "flo-oid") "hieest" ("highest"), "inueendo" ("innuendo"), "paeabl" ("payable"), and "evalueaet" ("evaluate"). In SoundSpel, hyphens have many uses. They separate adjacent letters that might otherwise be mistaken for a digraph. Examples include: ⟨nk⟩ in "man-kiend" ("mankind"), ⟨rr⟩ in "for-runer" ("forerunner") ⟨sh⟩ in "dis-harten" ("dishearten"), ⟨th⟩ in "pent-hous" ("penthouse"), and ⟨wh⟩ in  cow-hand ("cowhand"). Where "n-g" would be visually awkward, two n's mark the close of the syllable, as in "enngaej" ("engage"), "enngulf" ("engulf"), and "enngraev" ("engrave"). In fact, "enngaej" accounts for more than half of the double-"n"'s frequency. Hyphens are also used to indicate that the letter ⟨y⟩ is a consonant beginning a syllable ("barn-yard", "mid-yeer" for "mid-year") rather than a vowel ending a syllable ("handyman", "apreeshyaet" for "appreciate"), as the latter occurs much more frequently. Where "-y" would be visually awkward (as in "mil-yon" for "million" and "compan-yon" for "companion"), two  l's or two n's mark the end of the syllable, hence "millyon" and "compannyon". Excepting the preceding rules and those regarding /ɔː/, all doubled consonants have a consonant break in between them, including "meelles" ("mealless"), "unnumberd" ("unnumbered"), "buukkeeper" ("bookkeeper"), and "cattael" ("cattail"). These also often represent geminates. When a hyphen follows a prefix, it indicates that the vowel is long (e.g., "co-ed", "re-arm", "bi-lateral"). An adjacent preceding vowel is also long ("bio-", "neo-"). Compare "jeo-sentrik" ("geocentric") and "jeolojy" ("geology"). In "jeo-sentrik", the ⟨e⟩ is long because of the following long ⟨o⟩, and the  ⟨o⟩ is long because of the hyphen. In "jeolojy", only the ⟨e⟩ is long. When ⟨ar⟩ and ⟨or⟩ are followed by a stressed vowel (e.g. "maroon", "memorandum"), the ⟨a⟩ and ⟨o⟩ are pronounced as , and the ⟨r⟩ begins a new syllable. There are no changes in the spelling of the schwa () sound in the unstressed syllables of words like "organ," "novel," "pencil," and "lemon," unless traditional spelling would indicate a mispronunciation in SoundSpel (hence, the word "mountain" is spelled "mounten"). To represent the schwi ("half "ee"") sound, which can be pronounced more than one way, SoundSpel has three rules: ⟨e⟩  should be used in a word's first syllable (e.g., "event", "eqip" for "equip"), ⟨i⟩ should be followed by a schwa in the combinations "ia", "io", and "iu" (e.g., "insomnia", "joevial" for "jovial"), and ⟨y⟩ should be used terminally, or medially when not followed by schwa "a", "o", and "u" (e.g., "raedyo" for "radio", "joevyality" for "joviality"). Using ⟨y⟩ terminally in monosyllabic words (e.g., "bee") and their derivatives (e.g., "hunybee" for "honeybee", as opposed to "hunyby") is discouraged. The letter ⟨y⟩ should also be used to prevent ambiguity between graphemes, as in the words "terryer" ("terrier") and "audyens" ("audience"), in  which ⟨ie⟩ would otherwise be pronounced . According to Rondthaler and Lias, this system "combines most of the logic of Ripman['s system] with most of the visual compatibility of Dewey['s]." Rondthaler and Lias are less decisive when it comes to spelling schwers (a portmanteau of schwa and the digraph ⟨er⟩), where a stressed rhotic vowel (i.e., and ) becomes unstressed (i.e., ) in rapid speech. According to them, "[it was suggested that] certain unstressed syllables be abbreviated according to prescribed rules: that schwers be reduced to ⟨r⟩ ("numbr", "doctrd", "considret", "murdrr"), that -"tion" be abbreviated to -"tn" or -"shn" [reflecting SoundSpel 's -"shun"], etc." However, SoundSpel favors traditional spelling in these cases because, first, the reform's "immediate goal ... is to reflect a word's "full" pronunciation". Second, words' derivatives often contain a stressed rhotic vowel (e.g., "victor", unstressed, to "victorious", stressed). Keeping traditional spelling can be useful in retaining these aesthetic relationships. The following extremely common words remain irregularly spelled: "as", "be", "do", "has", "he", "his", "she", "me", "we", "is", "of", "th" ("the"), "thru" ("through"), "to", "U" ("you"), and "was". These words would otherwise be spelled "az", "bee", "doo", "haz", "hee", "hiz", "shee", "mee", "wee", "iz", "uv"/"ov", "thee", "throo", "too , ue", and "wuz", respectively. Words derived from these (such as "being", "together", and "thruout") do not alter their root, and the suffix "-ful" also remains unchanged. The word "I", like in traditional spelling, remains capitalized. The word "U", a respelling of "you", does the same. As Edward Rondthaler wrote: "Since we accept the flattery of capital I for 'me', let us extend the courtesy of capital U for 'you'." In SoundSpel's 1978 form, however, neither "I" nor "U" were capitalized. Exceptions. As for proper nouns, "little can be gained and much lost by pressing for reform [of proper nouns ]," and so SoundSpel tends to retain their spellings (including those of personal names). However, dictionaries could still use SoundSpel to indicate an irregular proper noun's pronunciation, and months and days of the week may also be respelled. There is no change in the plural suffix "-s" (as in "jobs"), the possessive suffix "-'s" (as in "man's"), and in the third person present singular verb suffix "-s" (as in "he runs"), even though in all these cases the "s" is sometimes pronounced . A double "s" can be used to distinguish these words, as in "caes" ("cays", /keɪz/) vs. "caess  (case", /keɪs/). This is a break from the "Dictionary of Simplified American Spelling" in which plurals would be spelled purely phonetically (e.g., "clooz" for "clues"). The letter ⟨x⟩ does not form the plurals of words ending with a /k/ sound. For example, the plural of "dok" ("dock") is not "dox", but "doks". This follows (formal) traditional spelling. Text examples. Section::::"Th Star" by H. G. Wells. It was on th ferst dae of th nue yeer th anounsment was maed, allmoest siemultaeniusly frum three obzervatorys, that th moeshun of th planet Neptune, th outermoest of all planets that wheel about th  Sun, had becum verry erratic. A retardaeshun in its velosity had bin suspected in Desember. Then, a faent, remoet spek of liet was discuverd in th reejon of th perterbd planet. At ferst, this did not cauz eny verry graet exsietment. Sieentific peepl, however, found th intelijens remarkabl enuf, eeven befor it becaem noen that th nue body was rapidly groeing larjer and brieter, and that its moeshun was qiet different frum th orderly progres of th planets. [657 characters] ("It was on the first day of the new year the announcement was made, almost simultaneously from three observatories, that  the motion of the planet Neptune, the outermost of all planets that wheel around the sun, had become very erratic. A retardation in its velocity had been suspected in December. Then a faint, remote speck of light was discovered in the region of the perturbed planet. At first this did not cause any very great excitement. Scientific people, however, found the intelligence remarkable enough, even before it became known that the new body was rapidly growing larger and brighter, and that its motion was quiet different from the orderly progress of the planets.") [680 characters] Section::::"Britten wen yung" by Frank  Kermode. We mae nowadaes be chairy about uezing th werd 'jeenius', but we stil hav a guud iedeea wut is ment bi it. For exampl, thair ar graet numbers of verry gifted muezishans hoo ar admierd but not calld jeeniuses. But thair ar uthers, manifestly prodijus, performing offen at extraordinerrily erly aejes, a varieety of feets so complex that th muezical laeman cuud hardly imajin, eeven with th moest desperet laebor, acomplishing eny of them, wiel eeven muezishans ar astonisht and we then reech for th guud, handy, vaeg Enlietenment werd and call them jeeniuses. Th list incloods Mozart and  Mendelssohn; and, despiet all th limiting jujments, it incloods Benjamin Britten. [668 characters] ("We may nowadays he chary about using the word ‘genius’, but we still have a good idea what is meant by it. For example, there are great numbers of very gifted musicians who are admired but not called geniuses. But there are others manifestly prodigious, performing, often at extraordinarily early ages, a variety of feats so complex that the musical layman could hardly imagine, even with the most desperate labour, accomplishing any one of them, while even musicians are astonished: and we then reach for the good , handy, vague Enlightenment word and call them geniuses. The list includes Mozart and Mendelssohn; and, despite all the limiting judgments, it includes Benjamin Britten.") [684 characters] Section::::"Oed to a Nietingael" by John Keats. <poem> Mi hart aeks, and a drouzy numnes paens Or empteed sum dul oepiaet to th draens 'Tis not thru envy of thi hapy lot, </poem> <poem> ("My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains" "Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains" "'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot," </poem>