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]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------

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

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list