Orthographic reform as a national priority, an ADS responsibility

[Tom Zurinskas]

Let's face it.  Every phonetic spelling is presciptive.  when I rewrote English according to the "spoken" words of the American Heritage Talking Dictionary, they too were being prescriptive.  All I'm advocating is how to spell each of 40 US English phonemes in an English friendly way with a stress and glottal stop rule.  The dialect issue is a whole nuther thang.  Interestingly, I find that the US 40 phoneme foenubet (list of sounds) is adequate for all US English dialects.
My quest back in 1986 was to simply link phonetics to the English spelling system so it would be simple to use, even for kids.  As a human factors specialist at the time, I saw phonetic systems needlessly complex to the point of being crippling and contrary to their own practical application.  Thus was born truespel phonetics in 1986, the same year SAMPA was born created by a bunch of European nations to replace IPA in a "practical" way.  Turns out truespel is much more practical, amenable even to spreadsheet use (See "letter o" analysis http://www.screenr.com/y0k8 )
There are two ways to spell anything, tradspel (traditional spelling) and foespel (phonetic spelling) (both my words).  For anti-prescriptionists, they can rejoice.  They can use truespel phonetics to spell in their own dialect.  It's the ultimate anti-prescriptionary tool there is.  Finally a solution.  Orthography can now be totally flexible based at the phoneme level!
Orthography becomes "Foethography", phoneme based, one spelling per sound!  For those anti-prescriptivists, this is your answer.  ~~Shil fer mee, broe~~.
Tom Zurinskas, Conn 20 yrs, Tenn 3, NJ 33, now Fl 9.
See how English spelling links to sounds at http://justpaste.it/ayk


----------------------------------------
> Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2012 11:36:10 +0800
> From: brewerwa at GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Orthographic reform as a national priority, an ADS responsibility
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Orthographic reform as a national priority, an ADS responsibility
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Sounds like a shill for Tom Zurinskas.
> Problem: Prescriptivism, a.k.a. linguistic bullying.
> Solution: Phonemicized orthography. Why hasn't ADS made this a national
> priority?
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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