Kurrent Spelling KS PV for Panel 2018 Oct 08
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ENGLISH • SPELLING • SOCIETY Personal View Kurrent Spelling The self-expression medium (KS) [[draft]] for Society members by Marvin Beachy 8 October 2018 The views expressed here are the author 's and are not necessarily shared by A. Design Priorities the Society, or a majority of its members. Kurrent Spelling (KS) is an English spelling reform notation that attempts to find the optimal balance of minimal visual disruption, maximal ease of learning, and other important The Author considerations. Six of its highest design priorities are to: (1) Resemble Traditional Spelling (TS) enough to allow most Marvin Beachy was born in Iowa in 1962 TS readers to immediately read simple KS texts. and grew up there. In college he was (2) Give readers the immediate impression that KS texts are at intrigued when his History of the English Language class covered various attempts least aesthetically acceptable, or better, visually attractive. to improve the English writing system. Back (3) Make it easy for new readers and writers of English by then the difficulties that dialect differences providing consistent correspondence between sounds and and societal opposition presented seemed symbols, with relatively few positional rules or exceptions. too formidable to allow much hope for change. Since then he has become more (4) Make it easy for fluent readers and writers of English by aware of the need for change because he minimizing visual changes to semantic units. has seen dyslexia up close in one of his (5) Minimize the number of mirror images and near-mirror children, and he now has more friends who images of symbols used. This helps new learners and those speak English as a second, third, or fourth language, whose English proficiency is with dyslexia avoid having characters reverse or flip in their unfairly sabotaged by the inconsistencies minds. of English spellings. He earned an M.A. in (6) Resemble the Latin writing systems of other languages. linguistics from the University of Texas at ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Arlington, and is fortunate to have been able to help develop two writing systems Notational Conventions. The International Phonetic Alphabet for Dizin, one of Ethiopia's many (IPA) is used when presenting data in phonetic or phonemic languages. The second of those writing form. If data is within brackets, [ ], it is phonetic, and if it is systems is now the accepted standard. He within forward slashes, / /, it is phonemic. Angle brackets or currently resides in Ohio most of the time. chevrons, < >, signify that the text within them are orthographic representations which use the KS alphabet. An asterisk (*) in front of a word marks it as non-standard. The English Spelling Society Contents (TESS) A. Design Priorities The object of the Society is to raise B. Sound and Symbol Correspondence Tables awareness of the problems caused C. Answers to TESS’s Standard Questions by the irregularity of English D. Unconventional Characters spelling; and to promote remedies E. References to improve literacy, including Appendix 1: Sample Texts spelling reform. Appendix 2: TESS Phoneme Word List - 1 - B. Sound and Symbol Correspondence Tables KS proposes starting from the English sounds and sound combinations listed in the tables below. The footnotes contain the contextuals rules when KS uses more than one symbol per sound or sound combination. IPA KS KS IPA KS KS Sounds Symbols Examples 1 Sounds Symbols Examples ks X x fox p P p pet ŋk NK nk bɑnk b B b bɑt ŋg NĠ nġ finġər t T t toy ŋks NX nx jinx d D d dark æ Ɑ ɑ ɑnt t͡ʃ CH ch chart ä/æ A a ask d͡ʒ J j jar ä A a fathər k K k kìnd ɒ/ä O o hotdog g G g gɑs ⱭW ɑw3 lɑw ɔ f F f fɑn ⱭU ɑu ɑuto v V v vɑn ə Ə ə əround θ ṪH ṫh ṫhorn ɨ Ə ə spotəd ð TH th thɑt ɪ I i childrən s S s star i/ɪ Y y4 cloudy z Z z zip ʃ SH sh ship ʒ ZH zh teləvizhən h H h hɑt m M m mɑn n N n numərəl ŋ NG ng bɑng 2 /ʔ/ and /x/ are marginal consonants in l L l lɑmp English, so their orthographic r R r rɑt representations (' and ĊH ċh) will not w W w wɑx j Y y yes normally be included when the KS writing hw WH wh when system is taught. 2 ʔ ' ʊ'o 3 <aw> is used word finally and before x K k/ĊH ċh lok/loċh vowels and before the letter n (e.g. dɑwn), but not when followed by n and another consonant which is part of the same root 1 KS spellings will normally reflect the (e.g. lɑundry, but ɑwsəm). pronunciations shown in the most respected 4 This is always unstressed and always at the English dictionaries, such as Cambridge, end of a word with more than one syllable. Longman, Oxford, and Merriam-Webster. Unlike TS, this <y> never changes to <i> However, credible evidence from other when a suffix follows it. (e.g. gɑudy, sources can also be the basis of decisions. gɑudyər) - 2 - IPA KS KS IPA KS KS Sounds Symbols Examples Sounds Symbols Examples 5 évən thé 11 chíld i É é Í í E e she stereo I i Óhio 6 I ⱭY ɑy dɑy äɪ I eɪ Ɑ́ ɑ́ mɑ́jər Y y my əply Ɑ ɑ arkɑik ɑ Ý ý mɑgnifý E e them ý ɛ 7 OW ow12 how EH eh meh äʊ ɹ̩/ɜ ƱR ʊr mʊrdər OU ou əbout ɹ̩/ə ƏR ər rulər är AR ar barn ʌ Ʊ ʊ rʊgby ɪr/ɪə IR ir ziro ʊ Ʋ ʋ pʋsh ɛr/ɛə ER er very u U u Zulu ɔr OR or for únîtəd ɔr/ɔə OR or fors ju Ú ú YU yu8 yu ʊr/ʊə ƲR Ʋr jʋry OY oy9 boy jʊr/jʊə Ʋ́R ʋ́r pʋ́rəty ɔɪ OI oi boil jə Ə́ ə́ argə́mənt Ó ó10 pólo nó wä WA wa want əʊ/oʊ O shɑdóy hwä WHA wha what O o O koopt əl ƏL əl frugəl əm ƏM əm blosəm ən ƏN ən gardən 5 <é> is used before consonants, and word finally only in the archaic word ‘thee’ (to distinguish it from the partial homophone 11 /äɪ/ is represented by <í> before ‘the’); <e> is used before vowels, and when consonants; by <i> before vowels; by <I> stressed word finally. only for the word ‘I’; by <y> at the end of 6 <ɑy> is used word finally; <ɑ́> is used monosyllabic words that begin with a before consonants; <ɑ> is used before consonant or at the end of multisyllabic vowels, and word finally only for the indefinite words in which the only vowel(s) besides article ‘a’. /äɪ/ are /ə/; and by <ý> at the end of 7 <eh> is only used word finally, where /ɛ/ multisyllabic words in which there is one or rarely occurs. more vowel besides /aɪ/ and /ə/, and for the 8 The word <yu> ‘you’ is the only exception word ‘eye’. This <y> never changes to to the use of <ú> for /ju/. It is made so that <i> when a suffix follows it, as it does in it looks more like <yor> ‘your’ and other TS. (e.g. <try>, <tryd>) (Adapted from related words, as well as more like TS. 9 Linstead 2014:8) <oy> is used word finally and before 12 vowels; <oi> is used before consonants. <ow> is used word finally, before vowels 10 <ó> is used before consonants and the and the letters n or l (e.g. how, powər, vowel <y>, and in the word ‘know’ (to town, gown, owl, growl) but not when distinguish it from ‘no’); and by <O> only for followed by n and another consonant which the word ‘oh/O’; and by <o> before all is part of the same root (e.g. found, but vowels except <y> and word finally. township). (Adapted from Linstead 2014:7) - 3 - C. Answers to TESS's Standard Questions 1. Is this a new original idea or is it adapted from one developed by the writer or someone else? It is a new original idea which draws some of its features from the writing systems of other languages and other English reform notations. 2. Is it an initial scheme for learning literacy, as a step to TS, or is it for permanent adult use? The hope is that when enough English readers and writers become aware of how unnecessarily costly their writing system is, a majority of them will want to replace it, so KS is intended for permanent adult use. In the interim, many could benefit if KS were used to teach initial literacy as a step toward reading and writing TS. 3. Are there any supplementary rules? If so, please detail. Yes. They follow. Alphabetical Order. The upper case and lower case forms of the 29 letters of the Kurrent Spelling alphabet follow in the proposed alphabetical order: Aa Ɑɑ Bb Cc Dd Ee Əə Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Rr Ss Tt Uu Ʋʋ Ʊʊ Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz Capitalization. Upper case forms will normally be used wherever TS uses them: at the beginning of sentences, for the first letters of proper nouns, and for the words ‘I’ and ‘O’, which is a variant TS spelling of ‘oh’. Punctuation. For formal writing, KS encourages the use of punctuation which is consistent with traditional English formal writing, except for illogical conventions like always putting periods and commas inside of quotation marks.