[dZ&gwar], [dZ&gjuwar], and [dZ&gwaIr]

[Tom Zurinskas]

Thanks for that.  
 
By my count the vowel sound /&/ as in the word "cat" is represented in English over 99% of the time (in terms of word frequency) by the letter "a".  So it's obvious to choose letter "a" to indicate that sound in truespel phonetic notation, because when you hear ~a it's spelled by letter "a" 99% of the time.  In fact it's the most consistent vowel spelling in English tradspel.  

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+ 
see truespel.com phonetic spelling


 
 

> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject: Re: [dZ&gwar], [dZ&gjuwar], and [dZ&gwaIr]
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> At 10:35 PM +0000 12/27/10, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
> >Phonetic spelling norms are so unacceptable as to be unteachable in
> >USA grammar schools. Yet they could be so simple that everyone
> >could learn phonetics even as a first grader. The key is to make
> >phonetic spelling simple and English based as does truespel
> >phonetics. This would lead to a revolutinary capability to explain
> >English pronunciation to all learners as does the free converter at
> >truespel.com.
> >
> >For the word "jaguar" the notations [dZ&gwar], [dZ&gjuwar], and
> >[dZ&gwaIr] are intelligible. The ampersand as a schwa is actually
> >incorrect here as I hear the words spoken (see below).
> 
> The ampersand, [&], doesn't represent a schwa in ascii, it represents
> the low front unrounded vowel of "cat". [@] represents the schwa.
> 
> LH
> 
> > Clearly the vowel is short a, as in "jag", not a schwa as in "jug"
> >(Usually schwa stands for the "uh" sound ~u).
> >
> >I click on the speakers in thefreedictionary.com and hear:
> >USA ~jagwaar (JAG-wahr) - clicking the speaker icon
> >UK ~jagyue'u (JAG-you-uh) - clicking the flag icon
> >
> >Note, if it's UK, the ending "r" is dropped. UK phonetics usually
> >don't reflect that.
> >
> 
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