a precursor to Truespel - and the IPA

Tom Zurinskas truespel at HOTMAIL.COM
Mon May 24 16:58:25 UTC 2010


Thanks for this interesting site.  Pitman's English-based phonetic system back in 1850 was way ahead of its time, 37 years before the IPA was created in France.  It's even before the typewriter was invented.

What's interesting is that an Englishman named Paul Passe, possibly familiar with Pitman's phonetics, went to France and was largely instrumental in starting the IPA with the French folks.  (The IPA Journal was written in French until 1970.)  Their slant was to involve other countries as well in spelling the sounds of the world.  Nice idea, but phonetics became English unfriendly.  Who knew then that English would become the lingua franca of the world.

Now we have English spoken around the world.  Air traffic control is mandated in English.  95% of the scientific journals are in English.  So why shouldn't phonetics be English based to keep the linkage.  It's especially important for kids, because phonemic awareness is a key correlate to reading success, and the IPA is not useful for American kids.  It's not used in grade schools.  Not even dictionary pronunciation guides are used because they too have cryptic phonetics.

Thus truespel creates a simple phonetic base in English suitable for kids and adults, keyboard and computer friendly, using only letters of the alphabet.  It can be expanded to other languages as I've done in truespel book 1 with the addition of spellings for other language sounds.  But if the American Dialect Society wants an American based phonetic spelling system, they've got one in truespel.

My time and knowledge of languages is limited so I always look forward to help with truespel.  Truespel conversion is free at truespel.com.


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





>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Victor Steinbok
> Subject: a precursor to TruSpell
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> An 1850 "phonetically printed" Bible
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=AKJAAAAAIAAJ
>
> VS-)
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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