For the most part, English spelling would seem to be phonetic. However, it’s arguably not very intuitive. One can of course go fully phonetic with the International Phonetic Alphabet, but that’s a lot to try to adapt to. How about something more medium?
Vowels
a e i o u w y q c j â ê ô û ó
Consonants
p b t d k g f v s z š ž
h l r þ ń
Consonant Clusters
tš dž x ś
pl pr bl br tr dr kl kr gl gr fl fr vl vr sl sr zl zr þr sp st sk sf spl spr str skl skr
Pronunciation Guide
a – “hatted rat” – hat’ rat
e – “wet net” – wet net
i – “sweet fear” – swit fir
o – “vote coat” – vot cot
u – “new suit” – nu sut
w – “want quest” – w kweś
y – “hi fire” – hy fyr
q – “hot slaw” – hqt slq
c – “mud blood” – mcd blcd
j – “give it” – gjv jt
â – “how about” – hâ •@
ê – “weigh & pay” – wê & pê
ô – “toy noise” – tô nôz
û – “future few” – fûtjr fû
ó – “put foot” – pót fót
A drawback is that it’s hard to type this way on a standard keyboard, but maybe a small program can run in the background and convert keystrokes for users without easy diacritic functionality.
So far, a secondary effect of this system is that many words have fewer letters. Let’s lean into that with an extended set of contractions.
A sample text
Þ Fótprjntz o Ġ by Greg Yls, Tšaptr 1
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‘My nêm s Dêvjd Tenant, M.D. Y’m profesr o eþjkz @ þ Uni o Vcrdžjnja Medikl Skul, n jf ur wqtšň þjs têp, Y’m ded.’
Y tók a breþ n gaþr’ m’self. Y djdn’t w t rant. Y’d mânt’ m’ Soni kamkordr qn a trypqd n rotêt’ þ LCD skrin in ordr t si m’self az Y spok. Y’d lqst wêt ovr þ paś wkz. M’ yz wr red w/ fatig, þ orbjtz šyni & dark. Y lók’ mo lyk a hqnt’ krjmjnal þan a grivň frend.
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