A PROPOSAL FOR SEMI PHONETIC ENGLISH ALPHABET
It is a common knowledge that everything in the world develops, including the languages. But the English alphabet is kept the way it was many centuries ago. Not to mention the fact that there was never a properly invented English alphabet to suit the English language. As a result the present alphabet is an absolute mess. It causes great discomfort to millions of people not only in the English speaking countries, but all around the world.
Of course there were many efforts to do something about it, but sadly they did not touch the core of the problem. No matter that the language advanced and the spelling system had to step in time with it, they kept the atavistic alphabet, creating whole new systems of supporting methods of learning it, making computer programs, implementing hundreds of methodologies, blaming each other for the low effectiveness of education, instead of simply reforming the writing system. Millions of children in the English speaking world, and also the rest of the world now trying to learn English, suffer a great deal of discomfort, having to learn this ridiculous spelling. How many people cannot write English properly? How many years of human time is wasted learning for years just to read and write, instead of acquiring valuable knowledge? How many millions of people are embarrassed that they always need a dictionary with them, even to write a simple letter to a friend! So many students leave school, discouraged by the archaic spelling system and don’t receive an education. Do the teachers care? Yet all the while there are advanced spelling systems in the world, like the Bulgarian and Russian for example.
In the Bulgarian language there are 30 letters, corresponding to the 30 sounds in it. Once the children learn those 30 letters they can automatically read and write. No difficulties, no embarrassment. They learn it in 30 days, practice it for another two months and in three months altogether they can read and write. All the rest of the school time, from grade one till year twelve is used for acquiring knowledge. Everyone there can read and write. There was no literacy problem there. It is not so in the English speaking countries. How many people are illiterate there? How many suffer a lack of basic knowledge, for all their efforts were directed toward the ridiculous English spelling?! In fact there is not so many people who are aware that there is another easier way of writing.
The English speaking countries are keeping the most atavistic system, preventing many children from learning and advancing. Spelling is taught from prep right through to year twelve and still many graduates can’t spell correctly. One can wonder whether their teachers really want to teach the pupils, or whether they are consciously trying to make learning hard and not accessible to all.
Of course there were proposals through the centuries for a phonetic English alphabet. Such is Bernard Shaw’s call for it. The writer donated a great sum of money to be used for spelling reform. Did his trustees pursue his dream? No. All they did was to create a few proposals of a simple phonetic alphabet. But they were never implemented. Not only that.
Let us look at the lawyers and judges. Not only did they do nothing to change the system, but after they had suffered all the punishment from this archaic English spelling, instead of reforming it, they took pride in feeling more knowledgeable than the others, and further created more difficulties for their fellow countrymen. They created a language within a language, speaking hard-to-understand words and gaining enormous payment for their services to the plaintiffs.
What the English authorities do, of course, is their own affairs. If they wish to torture their citizens for many centuries with an outmoded alphabet, they can. But now, when their language became internationally spoken, they have an obligation to the world to simplify their spelling system, so to make it easier for everyone to learn that language.
As a solution to the unnecessarily complicated English writing system I offer a simple semi phonetic way of writing in English, hoping that it can at least prompt a movement for a reform of the present archaic writing system. I have tried to make the changes not dramatic at all, implementing some new characters derived from the existing ones. In this manner many words look similar.
After a long consideration I came to the conclusion that the spelling reform must be based on three major principles:
- Finding all sounds of the language and accommodating each one of them with its own letter (character).
- Writing what one hears; writing as the words are pronounced.
- Omitting useless letters.
I had no intention of making fundamental changes – as for example, looking for a fully phonetic system. That would be very difficult, for some pronunciation differ in different English speaking countries. Even the phonetic presentation in different dictionaries differ from each other. So I was trying only to make the writing easier with not so much fuss.
In my proposal first I omitted the combination of letters that are not pronounced – like “gh”; and the useless silent letters no matter if they were in the middle of the words or at their end, like silent “-e” at the end of the words. The words then were simplified:
streit (straight) mot (mote) climing (climbing).
raptur (rapture) gost (ghost) influens (influence)
In the case of “sc” I left only “s” like:
asending (ascending) unsuseptibl (unsusceptible)
Then all double letters were crossed out, leaving one letter instead. In this manner I wrote:
leter (letter) leson (lesson) apointment (appointment)
When I looked at the alphabet I wanted to achieve great results with minimum changes, adopting similar letters where it was needed. My plan was to simplify the spelling by leaving a single letter where one sound is represented by many combinations of characters.
The first culprit in this respect was the letter “A a”. The same letter is used as in the words “alphabet” and “attitude”, but also as in “cat”, “man”, ”bag”, and also as in the word “late”.
I adopted a separate character – ₳ ⱥ – for the second case (ӕ) like in “cat”. That way, I thought, it would be easy to learn it as the letter is not so different from the used one and it will accommodate the need for a different character at the same time.
Words like “late”, “table” would be spelled as heard – leit, teible.
The biggest mess I saw from the sound “k”. Instead of the many characters like “ck”, “ch”, “c”, “qu” (que), “k” I left only “k”, crossing out all the rest. In this manner is written:
kuik (quick), kⱥt (cat), kemist (chemist), musik (music), sikret (secret), kuestion (question)
Another big culprit is the use of the letter “U u”. It’s main use is like in the words “union”, “universe”, “utility”.
But it is used to represent quite different sound, like in “ugly”, “but”, “butter”. For this case I invented this character – ʉ ʉ (crossed U u), which would be very easy also.
As for the sound “ou” like in “visual” represented by the same character “u”, it is suggested a separate letter ºU ºu (combination of “o” and “u”) – visºual.
The letter “u” is left to represent only the sound such in words like “use”, “pure”, “you”, “new”, “few”, “dew”. These words become:
uz (use) puәr (pure) u(you) nu (new) fu (few) du (dew)
unity ʉgli (ugly) visºual (visual)) v
universe nʉn (nun) rºuls (rules)
use stʉdi (study) vacuºum (vacuum)
That all looked all right. Then I sorted out the use of a few letters to mark one sound. Instead of having “ph” and “f”, “ph” was crossed out. Instead of using “y” and “i” for the sound of “i”, I crossed out “y”. Instead of writing “c” or “s” for the sound of “s” I left only “s”.
filosofi (philosophy) desaisiv (decisive)
The letter “y” is left in the combination with “e” – “ey” at the end of the words like in “grey”, “say”, “prey” for here it represents a different sound, which cannot form a separate syllable.
In the present spelling the letter “g” is used to represent two sounds and this leads to confusion, like in “grace” and “George”. In “graphology” or in “gorgeous” the same letter “g” sounds differently at the front of the word from what it is at the back of it. I left “g” to be used only for the sound like in “grace”, “green”, “greed”.
The mess of using “g” and “j” for the same sound like in “just”, “geometry” it is sorted out by having only “j”. In that manner the confusion is avoided and it is made very simple:
Grafoloji (graphology) Jeorj or Jorj (George) jeometri (geometry)
I decided to keep “-tion” at the end of the words. This combination appears to be stable; it seems it does not change and it can be learned as it is. In fact it is a typical characteristic of the English language.
I had to add a new letter though for a sound not represented by any specific character. That was the letter “ә”, for a sound extremely widely used in English. For example:
In “table” – there is a sound between “b” and “l” – tabәl
In “apple” – there is a sound between “p” and “l” – appәl
In “marble” – there is a sound between “b” and “l” – marbәl.
Also the combinations of -er, -ar, -ur, -yr, -ir, -or – they all need the same letter – әr. In that manner it is written:
teibәl (table) ⱥpәl (apple) marbәl (marble)
gәrl (girl) tәrn (turn) Pitәr (Peter)
hәrd (heard) wәrk (work)
That may look confusing at first to the people who already are using the present writing system, but to a child who is just about to learn for the first time to read and write it will look easy, logical and fun.
“Zh” was also adopted for the sound like in “pleasure”. It became plezhәr.
I kept the spelling of zz for the sound of “ts, ”like in “pizza”, “mezzo-soprano”.
In the present spelling system there is an absolute mess of the use of “w”, “u” and “ou” for one same sound. There is an obvious difference of the pronunciation of the sound marked by “u” at the front of the word “unaccountable” from what it is in the middle of it. The best way to sort that out I saw in writing what one hears.
әnakaºuntabәl (unaccountable)
I also decided to keep the letter “w” as it looks to be consistent and as it is a typical English characteristic. There is a special music in this sound (window, widow) and the letter represents it well.
For long vowels I used the same characters as for the short vowels, just double or underlined:
sii (see), biich (beach) god (good).
I thought also of keeping the articles “the”, “a”, “an” the way they are, as well as the pronouns too – “what”, “where”, “when”, “whom”, “which”, “this”, “that”, “those” etc.
If people would decide to keep “th” as the special English language identity, that would be not such a big trouble. For the combination is well established and stable.
I omitted the letter “x”. The words containing this letter can simply be written as they are heard – often “x” is pronounced as “z” or “ks” (zenon /xenon/, kseroks /xerox/).
The next big step toward simplification of English spelling was writing by what one hears, as it is in many other languages:
meit (mate) braun (brown) akomodeition (accommodation)
bai (by) klas (class) haus (house)
adres (address) kuik (quick) litәl (little)
yang (young) nolich or knolich (knowledge) biznes (business)
In summary here is an example:
inaf (enough) neibәr (neighbour)
butifºul (beautiful) nefu (nephew)
lengºuich or lengwich (language) izi (easy)
kolich (college) bekoz (because)
frend (friend) kemistri (chemistry)
ekonomi (economy) rait (right)
organaizeition (organisation) fenomena (phenomena)
It is true that the vowels are pronounced sometimes differently in the different English speaking countries, but even so the writing is still united. And the reform must be done on the existing writing system and adopted everywhere to avoid further confusion.
At first my writing looked very unusual to the eye. The new words are not familiar. But then as I continued writing I felt it so easy, so free from pressure and embarrassment. I wasn’t afraid any more that I would make mistakes. My heart was filled with joy and happiness. So I wrote this “Mesich”:
From me with lav
“Children from ol Inglish spiiking kantriis,
wraiting shud bi fʉn. Nolich shud not bi stolen from u.
Jʉst wrait as u hiәr. Get ʉp end stend ʉp for yorself.
U ar klevәr. U ken pºush for a speling reform.
Get the metәr in yor hⱥnds. Unait, fait for yor raits.
Guud lak.
I thought also about the pronunciation of the alphabet itself. In Bulgarian language all consonants are accompanied by the sound “ә”. This makes clear what letter is mentioned. So I decided to use the same system here. I believe it made it easier than ever. I left only the sound of the letter, accompanied by the sound “ә” where consonants are spoken. In this manner the pronunciation of the letter would not confuse the sound, which it represents – as it is now. But it would directly indicate it. So the alphabet became like this:
A a (a) – pronounced like the beginning of “absolute”, “apartment”, “acid”.
₳ ⱥ (ӕ) – like in “cat”, “man”
( A a – like in late, age – is to be spelled as “leit, ”eige”)
B b (bә) – pronounced like in “bed”, “bill”
( C c – optional)
D d (dә) – pronounced like in “door”, “date”
E e – pronounced like in “education”, “effort”, “elephant”
F f (fә) – like in “fast”, “feel”, “food”
G g (gә) – pronounced like in “give”, “go”, “grey”
H h (hә) – pronounced like in “house”, “horse”.
I i ( i ) – pronounced like in “ink”, “indicate”
(I i – like in icon, ice – is to be spelled as heard – “aicon”, “ais”
J j (dzh) – for the sound like in “just”, “jolly”
K k (kә) – for the sound like in “car”, “keep”, “quick”, “chemist”, “clock”
L l ( lә) – pronounced like the sound in “love”
M m (mә) – pronounced like the sound in “mum”
N n (nә) – for the sound like in “north”
O o (o) – for the sound like in “omit”, oppress (but not “ou”)
P p (pә) – like in “past”
R r (rә) – like in “rag”
S s (sә) – for the sound like in “sea”, “sick”, “secret”
T t (tә) – like in “table”
U u (iu) – pronounced like in “you”, “university”, “union”.
ºU ºu (u) – pronounced like in “guru”, “pool”
ʉ ʉ – pronounced like in “study”, “nun”, “but”
W w (ºu) – “double ºu” (not “double iu”) – like in “window”
V v (vә) – pronounced like in “victory”
ә ә – pronounced like in “table”, “apple”, “girl, “work”
Y y (ia) (io) – for the sounds like in “Yankee”, “yolk”, “yard”, “your”
Z z (zә) – for the sound like in “zero”, “zebra”, “zone”.
Ch ch (chә) – pronounced like in “Church”
Sh sh (shә) – pronounced like in “shoes”, “show”, “short”
Th th (thә) – like in “three”, “thrust”
Rare combinations:
Zz zz (tsә) – pronounced like in “pizza”, “mezzo-soprano”.
Zh zh (zhә) – pronounced like in “pleasure
At the end I felt very happy with the result. With such reform of the alphabet, the English speaking children could learn to write only in couple of months. The alphabet now had twenty eight letters plus four combined letters. If children are given three days to master a letter, then they still would learn in ninety-six days or about three months. That means even children who learn more slowly would be able to read and write in a few months only. And that would be all. No more debates in Parliaments about the ability of teachers to teach children. No more students dropping out of school because of the hardship of learning things lacking in proper rules and any sound logic.
This proposal for a spelling reform is only an example for the people to follow. I know that the best way of doing it lay in finding every sound of the English language and accommodating them with a single letter – no matter what it may look like. And then writing as one hears. It can be as simple as that. With no fuss or other complications.
Satisfied, I meditated on the idea and decided to dedicate my efforts to seeing it happen. I saw in my mind great opposition from old people, who after suffering for years to learn the spelling were accustomed to it and would not want to learn again. I saw the protests of the few thousand linguists who would argue against the reform because they earn their living from it. And also all conservative people united with them. The question is should the alphabet suit a few thousand conservative linguists or the millions of people who are using it? The progress of the world always comes with a fight against the old outmoded traditions. When something stands in the way of progress it has to be removed – if not by any other way, then by surgical action. This is what must happen today with the moldy, archaic, unsuitable English alphabet, which has no other purpose than to keep the young generations away from knowledge or to make it very difficult for them to acquire it. So the young people have to fight for themselves. And the parents if they really want their children to become knowledgeable have to stand beside them. That is the only way. Progress must win the battle!
* * *
There is something that bothered me a lot connected with the western education system. Coming to Australia from a foreign country and been engaged in teaching, I was able to get also insight into some other countries school network and the education methodologies there. I was absolutely amazed to discover that in many parts of the world the youngsters received deep and thorough knowledge of lots of subjects, of which the western students never heard. Eastern European and some Asian countries had marvelous educations and the people there were very knowledgeable. The secret for that lay in the fact that the governments there truly wanted to establish intelligent and capable nations. And they took care that every single individual should learn to read and write and should receive quite an extensive compulsory education. Children who abstained from school were escorted until they realised that they had no option. The education in Australia is compulsory till the age of fifteen. But it is only on paper. In reality thousands of young people spend their valuable time on the streets and no one cares. On the contrary – the teachers are partly responsible for that, for they want only the best kids at school. They do not want to make the effort of teaching all levels of students. And they make everything possible to expel, to discourage those children who show some difficulties in learning, until they drop out of school. Many of them are indeed very smart students with a strong sense for justice and once they disagree with the inappropriate actions of some teachers they become under fire and soon end up at the streets. This is the tragic reality.