Use of /)/, /ae/

[Rudolph C Troike]

I think I may have been the one who started using the /)/ after noticing
how closely it resembled an "open o" on my screen. I much prefer using
/ae/ for the vowel of "cat", since it is immediately transparent when we
are discussing English. If we are talking about Spanish, we can easily put
a syllabic separation between, as in /pa.eya/ "paella". The real problem
comes in finding a distinction between a front low central vowel and a
back low central/unrounded low back vowel. I've been using the /@/ for
schwa for some time, as schwa is a totally non-roman character, and @
stands out and looks closest to it. On /ae/, after all, that's how the Old
English character got started. If one needed to, a ligature could be put
between them, but that seems unnecessary: /a^e/. It will help if we
standardize our usage.

        Rudy