BBC Text Spelling

[Tom Zurinskas]

The BBC is into pronunciation guide spelling.  It's not called phonetic or phonemic but "text spelling." I put truespel next to it with comments.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/delivery/spelling.pdf
BBC TEXT SPELLING
Written pronunciations are given in a text spelling system based on English spelling conventions.
It is based on English sounds with the addition of some other sounds such as Welsh ll and the front rounded vowels found in French and German.
Syllables are separated by hyphens. Stressed syllables are given in CAPITALS.
Example: the word pronunciation would be respelt pruh-nun-si-AY-shuhn.

Vowels  (Note truespel, inserted, has 17 vowels for USA English)

BBC              ~ truespel
1 a as in hat          same ~a
2 aa as in father     same ~aa
3 arr as in marry    ?( is this the same sound as 1 above or as “hair”5)
4 ar as in bar         ? (is this not the same as 2 ~baar
5 air as in hair       same (but why not same as 3? No need)
6 aw as in law        ?~au (best not to use consonants as vowels))
7 ay as in day        ? ~ae (as in Mae)
8 e as in get           same
9  err as in merry   ? (in USA same as Mary,marry ~air)
10 ee as in meet     same ~ee
11 eer as in deer    same (why include it – same as 10)
12 i as in sit           same ~i
13 irr as in mirror  ? (seems like ~eer)
14 o as in top        ? (seems same as  ~aa)
15 orr as in sorry  ? (why the two r’s, only one will do ~or)
16 oh as in no       ? ~oe (best not to use consonants as vowels)
17 oo as in boot    ? ~ue (~oo is best as “short oo” as in “wood”
18 oor as in poor  ? can be ~poor (short oo) or ~por with ~or
19 or as in corn    same (but isn’t it same sound as 15?)
20 ow as in now    ? ~ou  (“ou” is most used for this sound in English)
21 oy as in boy      ? ~oi  (“oi” is most used for this sound in English)
22 u as in cup       same ~u
23 uh as in ago / the    ? (why is this not same as 22)
24 ur as in fur       ? ~er (“er” is most used for this sound in English)
25 urr as in hurry      ? (why is this not same as ~er)
26 uu as in book        ? ~oo (“oo” is most used for this sound in English))
27 y as in cry (also igh as in high)   ? ~ie  (“y” takes the ~ee sound mostly)

oe as in French peu or coeur
oey as in French fauteuil
ue as in French vu or German fünf

Consonants

b as in bat            same ~b
ch or tch as in church  same ~ch (no need for tch)
d as in day       same ~d
f as in fat        same ~f
g as in get      same ~g
h as in hat       same ~h
hl as in Welsh llan    ?
j as in Jack       same ~j
k as in king        same ~k
kh as in Scottish loch   ?  ~x (or xh if trilled)
or German ich
l as in leg              same ~l
m as in man        same ~m
n as in not            same ~n
ng as in sing        same ~ng
ng-g as in finger      ? ( just ~ng sill do)
nk as in thank       same ~nk
p as in pen          same ~p
r as in red            same ~r
s as in sit           same ~s
sh as in shop        same ~sh
t as in top             same ~t
th as in thin      ? ~thh (this form looks like “th” at least)
dh as in there     ~th (don’t voiced “th”, it’s far more frequent in text)
v as in van       same ~v
w as in will       same ~w
y as in yes         same ~y
z as in zebra       same ~z
zh as in measure       same ~zh

(ng) after a vowel indicates nasalization; as in French un bon vin blanc: oe(ng) bo(ng) va(ng) blaa(ng).
y between a consonant and a vowel is a glide: e.g. mute: myoot; manual: MAN-yoo-uhl.
Our respellings acknowledge word-final or pre-consonantal R, as in words like party and hair, which is pronounced in some accents of English (rhotic) and not in others (non-rhotic). Therefore Parker is transcribed as PAR-kuhr, not PAA-kuh, and the rs will be pronounced or not according to the speaker's accent.
The way the words are broken into syllables in the respelling is not an attempt to reflect actual syllabification in a given language. Instead, it is a tool to reinforce vowel pronunciations and to ensure the most intuitive transcription. When a vowel is long, the following consonant will be placed after the hyphen, as in PEE-tuhr for Peter. When a vowel is short, the consonant goes immediately after the vowel, before the hyphen, as in JEN-i for Jenny.



Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
see truespel.com
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