English spelt phonetically? [cf Truespel]
David Metevia
djmetevia at CHARTERMI.NET
Thu Mar 5 11:33:15 UTC 2009
_It's also simple enough to be learned by kids._
I am reminded of that joke that Chinese kids must be really smart since
they can speak and read Chinese.
Regards,
Dave
-----Original Message-----
Tom Zurinskas
Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 06:14
Subject: Re: English spelt phonetically? [cf Truespel]
Poster: Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: English spelt phonetically? [cf Truespel]
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Thanks Russ=2C
=20
Good points all. A healthy skeptacism is a good thing. Please note
that t=
ruespel is merely a phonetic notaton just like any dictionary key. It
mere=
ly uses the 26 letters of the alphabet to foespel (phonetically spell)
the =
40 sounds of the English foenubet (English set of phonemes). Avoiding
spec=
ial symbols makes this notation email and computer friendly=2C a huge
advan=
tage. It's also simple enough to be learned by kids. The phonetic
spellin=
gs of the truespel.com converter represent the spoken accents of the
Americ=
an Heritage Talking Dictionary and m-w.com mainly=2C not my accent. But
as=
far as accents is concerned=2C it can be used to show accent
differences a=
nd for phonemic awareness drills.
=20
No one before has come up with such a phonetic system for English
because t=
ruespel not only uses only letters of the alphabet but also shows stress
an=
d glottal stops. Thus it is a true dictionary key pronunciation guide
nota=
tion that is as English friendly as can be and that uses notation least
con=
flicting with tradspel (traditional spelling).
=20
The converter is not smart enough to handle all phonetic situations.
For i=
nstance "the" needs to be pronounced ~thee in front of a word beginning
wit=
h a vowel and the word "for" is more often pronounced ~fer in USA. So
teac=
her guidance is needed for these.
=20
Using ~fool and ~pool to foespel "full" and "pull" is a hard backward
knock=
on tradspel which is unfortunate. This vowel sound is historically
descri=
bed as "short oo" as in tradwerdz "wood=2C good=2C wool" and these are
true=
speld ~wood=2Cgood=2Cwool~. The tradstreeng (letters in sequence in
tradsp=
el) "oo" more often represents "short o" than "long o". Thus ~ool pops
up =
in truespel for lots of word endings (double=2Csocial=2Cgamble =3D
~dubool=
=2C~soeshool=2C~gambool). Some would use "l" alone here=2C so "social"
bec=
omes soeshl. The problem here is "socialize" should not be ~soeshliez
(2 s=
yl) but ~soeshooliez (3 syl).
=20
Check out IBM's Writing to Read system that was evaluated by ETS and
CAL. =
It was a huge experiment that showed that phonetic spelling is useful
for k=
ids in K-1 who learned to write as they learned to read (they used
keyboard=
s prior to learning cursive). They had no trouble later reverting to
trads=
pel=2C at least no more than usual considering the task of remembering
all =
the "sight words" of tradspel.
=20
Regarding foespeleeng "on topic" as ~aan taapik~=2C the letter "o" is
often=
used for this sound. Interestingly=2C it's most often used to spell
the s=
ound of short u=2C as in "uh" from frequency data of truespel book 4.
The =
letter "o" is too duplicitous in tradspel to spell a sound by itself.
If y=
ou see "o" your not sure how it's pronounced=2C for instance words
"to=2Cgo=
=2Cfor=2Con=2Coff". So to avoid backward confusion with tradspel ~aa
was c=
hosen to tradspel the "ah" sound. It has good aplication to other
language=
s.
=20
I've researched this area over the years and jumped in only after years
of =
trial and error investigating all such systems in the past. Truespel is
my=
best shot at creating an English friendly foespel with least backward
knoc=
ks to tradspel. It's learnable by a 3rd grader in less than an hour. I
ho=
pe you can find application for it over there in China. Considering the
al=
ternative phonetic spelling systems=2C it has many advantages.
Tom Zurinskas=2C USA - CT20=2C TN3=2C NJ33=2C FL5+=20
see truespel.com
Tom Zurinskas=2C USA - CT20=2C TN3=2C NJ33=2C FL5+=20
see truespel.com
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