Note: In the below, “x” refers to the word x; [x] refers to the phonetic pronunciation x; ‘x’ refers to the letter (or digraph) x.
The first thing to understand about the English alphabet is that we don’t really have an alphabet. Functionally, English is more like a hybrid between a true alphabet and an abjad. A true alphabet has a character for each phoneme of the language. An abjad only has characters for consonants, and vowels are simply assumed. (Think Hebrew or Arabic.) English has a small number of vowel characters, yes, but they are not only insufficient, they are used highly erratically. Meanwhile, our consonants are broadly phonetic, and the exceptions are often either consistent (the ‘sh’ digraph always represents [ʃ], for example), or are foreign loanwords.
Our alphabet is also not featural, that is, the characters are wholly unrelated to how you’re supposed to say them. (Actually they are often corruptions of the hieroglyphic symbols for common words that started with that letter in Egyptian or Phoenician: ‘A’ was Phoenician “alef”, meaning “ox”, using the Egyptian symbol for “ox”, and wasn’t a vowel at all but a pre-vowel glottal stop that became used as a mater lectionis; ‘B’ was Phoenician “bet”, meaning “house”, using the Egyptian symbol for “house”; etc.) Even if spelling could be standardised, a new featural alphabet would be of use to new learners anyway, and to help prevent dialect drift. Using a wholly new alphabet would also help avoid confusion where current English spelling has slipped too far: for example, “wait” (and “weight”) is pronounced [weit], while [wait] should be pronounced the same as “white” (and “wight”).
So I have created a new system for English that is both phonetic and featural. It has already been very interesting and useful to me in understanding pronunciation and language.
The start point of the system is that all characters are either consonants, with marks off a central strike, or vowels, with marks off a central oval. Immediately then one can see what kind of phoneme one is looking at. I also like the symbolism of a hard strike for consonants and a round oval for vowels.
Consonants
The consonants are quite simple and I fixed their layout almost immediately. The principle is that the tongue sits in different positions in the mouth for each.
| Position | Voicing | Lips | Transition | Front of Mouth | Middle of Mouth | Back of Mouth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | M [m] | N [n] | NG [ŋ] | |||
| Top of Mouth | Unvoiced | P [p] | T [t] | CH [c] | K [k] | |
| Voiced | B [b] | D [d] | J [j] | G [g] | ||
| Lower Middle | Unvoiced | F [f] | FTH [θ] | S [s] | SH [ʃ] | H [h] |
| Voiced | V [v] | DTH [ð] | Z [z] | ZH [ʒ] | KH [x] | |
| Bottom of Mouth | Approximants | L [l] | R [r] | Y [y] | W [w] |
You’ll see that there are some unusual entries. ‘FTH’ and ‘DTH’, as in “thing” and “that”, have their own column, or could have their own row, depending on how you want to view it. The approximants ‘L’ and ‘R’ could be shifted one column right and ‘Y’ could have its own column. ‘NG’, ‘CH’, ‘FTH’, ‘DTH’, ‘SH’, and ‘ZH’ don’t have their own character in unreformed English, but are usually represented by digraphs or just by other letters entirely. There is a semi-detached phoneme that is not properly used in English: ‘KH’, which is how I’ve written the sound at the end of “loch” and “Bach”.
The consonants lend themselves quite neatly to mapping onto a grid. Here is an image of the consonants, using the same mapping as the table above.
Placeholder for image
I think that all makes sense and is mostly dialect-neutral, so I won’t dwell on it any further for now.
Vowels
The vowels presented a greater problem. Firstly, they are different across dialects – very different, especially internationally. Secondly, they are very unclear in English, and even a single speaker might pronounce a word differently on different occasions. Thirdly, whereas for consonants the only intimate connections are between voiced and unvoiced phonemes, a majority of vowel phonemes are made up of diphthongs and even triphthongs. The first two issues I decided were outside my scope to solve: I would create the best approximation of English as I could, and so long as it was reasonably complete it should be able to roughly reflect different dialects. And anyone who really hates it doesn’t have to use it! Note though that it means that, despite my best efforts, you might not follow my vowel notation, as we may have very different accents. The third problem scuppered my first attempt at the vowels, which did not show any connections between diphthongs and their constituent monophthongs, and being familiar with both RP and estuary English I wanted to be able to include those dialects’ triphthongs. So I settled on a system that uses a single mark for the monophthongs, and then two or three marks, in much the same place as the monophthongs, for diphthongs and triphthongs respectively.
I use six pure single-vowel sounds: ‘AH’, ‘EH’, ‘IH’, ‘OH’, ‘UH’, ‘ʊ’ (as in “foot”); and also the schwa ‘ə’, which appears in weak positions inside and at the end of words like “comma”. I treat a few formal “monophthongs” as being diphthongs, because I think it makes more sense to do so. [ii], for example, as in “flee” [flii], seems to me clearly a long vowel composed of two short ‘IH’ [i] vowels. In addition, these vowels can all end words and have a characteristic following consonant, which the six pure monophthongs can’t and don’t. My diphthongs are divided into three groups: trailing [i], trailing [ʊ], and trailing [ə]. These vowels have a characteristic following consonant of [y], [w], and [r] respectively. The four [*i] vowels are: [ii] “keen”; [ei] “cane”; [ai] “kine”; and [oi] “coin”. The three [*ʊ] vowels are: [ʊʊ] “boot”; [aʊ] “boat”; and [oʊ] “bout”. The six [*ə] vowels are: [iə] “fear”; [eə] “fair”; [uə] “fur”; [aə] “far”; [ʊə] “four”; and [oə] “for”. Yes, those latter two are very similar – again, I take the attitude that anyone else who wishes to use this system but doesn’t see them as different can pick one and be unaffected by the hidden existence of the other. Then the triphthongs are the six pure monophthongs and the [*i] and [*ʊ] diphthongs with a trailing ‘ə’.
Here is a table of the vowels.
| Monophthongs | *i Diphthongs | *ʊ Diphthongs | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| * Vowels | i | e | ii | ei | |||||
| u | ə | a | ai | aʊ | |||||
| ʊ | o | oi | ʊʊ | o | |||||
| *ə Vowels | iə | eə | iiə | eiə | |||||
| uə | aə | aiə | aʊə | ||||||
| ʊə | oə | oiə | ʊʊə | oʊə | |||||
And here is an image of the vowels, using the same mapping as the table above. You can see that the monophthongs are blue, the diphthongs are red, and the triphthongs are purple. External markers are initial vowels; internal markers are ending vowels. Since ‘i’ and ‘ʊ’ are used at the start and end of vowels, they have a separate but linked marker for being at the start and the end: top-left and top-centre for ‘i’; bottom-left and bottom-centre for ‘ʊ’. ‘ə’ is only used at the end of a vowel, so it can be added to any other set of vowels as-is without confusion.
Placeholder for image
I hope this is clear. My vowels may not match yours, but I hope that the principle is explicit and you can figure out what is meant. Now we can put words together.
One especially interesting thing to come out of thinking about pronunciation is the observation that “a”/“an” is not the only word that changes ending before a leading vowel. All English vowel-ending words – “Thai” [tai], “you” [yʊʊ], “paw” [poə], etc – are, before leading vowels, followed by the characteristic consonant I mentioned earlier: ‘y’ for ‘i’ to become [*iy]; ‘w’ for ‘ʊ’ to become [*ʊw]; and ‘r’ for ‘ə’ to become [*ər]. (On the rare occasions where it’s relevant, monophthongs seem to be followed by a [h].) So “Thai is my favourite” is [taiy iz mai feivrit], “you are my friend” is [yʊʊw aə mai frend], and “the paw of the bear” is [ðə poər ov ðə beə]. (Notice that I found instances where the word has a trailing letter that does not match its characteristic consonant, to show that the rule is phonetic, not based on the grapheme.) In practice, I now write the trailing form superscripted to indicate its subsidiarity relative to the core word (but many older essays will use the unsuperscripted form).
In addition, at least two other words that I’ve spotted change their pronounced form (but not their unreformed written form) entirely, like “a”/“an”, before a leading vowel. “the cat and the ant” is [ðə kat and ðiiy ant], and “go to India and to China” can be, at least when said quickly, [goʊ tʊʊw indiiyə and tə cainə”]. You can see that the entire vowel changes. My North-West English accent also adds a ‘g’ sound after [ŋ] when it precedes a vowel. Again, this is all using my dialect: yours may vary.
As you’ll’ve spotted, I have also cobbled together a transliteration back into broadly recognisable English characters. I have used the IPA characters for ‘θ’ (“fth”), ‘ð’ (“dth”), ‘ʃ’ (“sh”), ‘ʒ’ (“zh”), ‘ŋ’ (“ng”), ‘ʊ’ (“ouh”), and ‘ə’ (“er”) because there weren’t any better options. I have used ‘c’ for “ch” and ‘x’ for “kh”. I have used ‘y’ for [y] instead of IPA’s ‘j’ because I’m writing English. I write out diphthongs as two graphemes because that is more like English. I will use these symbols in this website for convenience because I can type them rather than having to always draw them, but for avoidance of doubt I’m always thinking of the new characters.
This page is part of a short series. You may also be interested in my thoughts about Numeric Reform and Grammatical Reform.
sum θoətiz abaʊt fənetik rifʊəm
noət: in ðə beloʊ, “x” rifuə tə ðə wuəd x; [x] rifuə tə ðə fənetik prənunsiiyeiʃən x; ‘x’ rifuə tə ðə letə (oə daigraf) x.
ðiiʸ umθ θiŋ tʊʊʷ undəstand abaʊt ðiiʸ iŋgliʃ alfəbet bii ðat wii riəlii hav not an alfəbet. funkʃənəliiʸ, iŋgliʃ bii mʊə laik a haibrid bitwiin a trʊʊʷ alfəbet and an abjad. a trʊʊʷ alfəbet hav a karəktə foəʳ iic foʊniim ov ðə langwij. an abjad oʊnlii hav karəktəriz foə konsənəntiz, and vaʊliz bii simpliiʸ aʃʊʊməð. (kom θink hiibrʊʊʷ oəʳ arəbik.) iŋgliʃ hav a smoəl numbəʳ ov vaʊl karəktəriz, yes, but dii bii not oʊnliiʸ insəfiʃənt, dii bii yʊʊzəð hailiiʸ eratiklii. miinwail, wiis konsənəntiz bii broədlii fənetik, and ðiiʸ eksepʃəniz biiʸ oftən aiðə konsistənt (ðə ‘sh’ daigraf oəlweiz reprizent [ʃ], foər egzampəl), oə bii forin loʊn-wuədiz.
wiis alfəbet biiʸ oəlsoʊ not fiicərəl, ðat bii, ðə karəktəriz bii hoʊlii unrileitəð to haʊ yii bii səpoʊsəð tə sei dii. (akcəlii dii oftən bii kərupʃəniz ov ðə hairəglifik simbəliz foə komən wuədiz ðat did staət wið ðat letəʳ in ijipʃən oə fəniiʃən: ‘A’ did bii fəniiʃən “alef”, miiniŋᵍ “ox”, yʊʊziŋ ðiiʸ ijipʃən simbəl foəʳ “ox”, and bii not a vaʊl at oəl but a prii-vaʊl glotəl stop ðat did bikum yʊʊzəð az a meitə lektiiyoʊnis; ‘B’ did bii fəniiʃən “bet”, miiniŋᵍ “house”, yʊʊziŋ ðiiʸ ijipʃən simbəl foə “house”; ets.) iivən if speliŋ kʊd bii standədaizəð, a nyʊʊ fiicərəl alfəbet wʊd bii ov yʊʊs tə nyʊʊ luənəriz eniiweiʸ, and tə help privent daiyəlekt drift. yʊʊziŋᵍ a hoʊlii nyʊʊ alfəbet wʊd oəlsoʊ help avoid konfyʊʊʒən weə kurənt iŋgliʃ speliŋ av slip tʊʊ faə: foəʳ egzampəl, “wait” (and “weight”) bii prənaʊnsəð [weit], wail [wait] ʃʊd bii prənaʊnsəð ðə seim az “white” (and “wight”).
soʊ mii av kriiyeit a nyʊʊ sistəm foəʳ iŋgliʃ ðat bii boʊθ fənetik and fiicərəl. it oəlredii av bii veriiʸ intərestiŋᵍ and yʊʊsfəl to miiʸ in undəstandiŋ prənunsiiyeiʃən and langwij.
ðə staət point ov ðə sistəm bii ðat oəl karəktəriz bii aiðə konsənəntiz, wið maəkiz of a sentrəl straik, oə vaʊliz, wið maəkiz of a sentrəl oʊvəl. imiidiiyətlii ðen wii kan sii wot kaind ov foʊniim wii bii lʊkiŋᵍ at. mii oəlsoʊ laik ðə simbəlizəm ov a haəd straik foə konsənəntiz and a raʊnd oʊvəl foə vaʊliz.
konsənəntiz
ðə konsənəntiz bii kwait simpəl and mii did fiks diis leiy-aʊt oəlmoʊst imiidiiyətlii. ðə prinsipəl bii ðat ðə toŋ sit in difrənt pəziʃəniz in ðə maʊθ foəʳ iic.
| pəziʃən | voisiŋ | lipiz | tranziʃən | frunt ov maʊθ | midəl ov maʊθ | bak ov maʊθ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| neizəl | M [m] | N [n] | NG [ŋ] | |||
| top ov maʊθ | unvois | P [p] | T [t] | CH [c] | K [k] | |
| vois | B [b] | D [d] | J [j] | G [g] | ||
| midəl ov maʊθ | unvois | F [f] | FTH [θ] | S [s] | SH [ʃ] | H [h] |
| vois | V [v] | DTH [ð] | Z [z] | ZH [ʒ] | KH [x] | |
| botəm ov maʊθ | aproksiməntiz | L [l] | R [r] | Y [y] | W [w] | |
yii wil sii ðat ðeə bii sum unyʊʊʒʊʊwəl entriiyiz. ‘FTH’ and ‘DTH’, az in “thing” and “that”, hav diis oʊn kolum, oə kʊd hav diis oʊn roʊ, dipendiŋᵍ on haʊ yii wont tə vyʊʊ dii. ðiiʸ aproksiməntiz ‘L’ and ‘R’ kʊd bii ʃiftəð um kolum rait and ‘Y’ kʊd hav itiis oʊn kolum. ‘NG’, ‘CH’, ‘FTH’, ‘DTH’, ‘SH’, and ‘ZH’ hav not diis oʊn karəktə in unrifʊəməð iŋgliʃ, but bii yʊʊʒʊʊwəlii reprizentəð bai daigrafiz oə just bai uðə letəriz entaiəlii. ðeə bii um semii-ditacəð foʊniim ðat bii not propəlii yʊʊzəð in iŋgliʃ: ‘KH’, wic bii haʊ mii av rait ðə saʊnd at ðiiʸ end ov “loch” and “Bach”.
ðə konsənəntiz lend diiselfiz kwait niitlii tə mapiŋᵍ ontʊʊʷ a grid. hiə bii an imij ov ðə konsənəntiz, yʊʊziŋ ðə seim mapiŋᵍ az ðə teibəl abuv.
pleis-hoʊldə foəʳ imij
mii θink ðat oəl meik sens and bii moʊstlii daiyəlekt-nyʊʊtrəl, soʊ mii wil dwel not on it enii fuəðə foə naʊ.
vaʊliz
ðə vaʊliz did prizent a greitə probləm. umθlii, dii bii difrənt akros daiəlektiz – verii difrənt, espeʃəlii intənaʃənəlii. tʊʊθlii, dii bii veriiʸ unkliəʳ in iŋgliʃ, and iivən a singəl spiikə mait prənaʊns a wuəd difrəntliiʸ on difrənt əkeiʒəniz. tiiθlii, weəraz foə konsənəntiz ðiiʸ oʊnliiʸ intimət kənekʃəniz bii bitwiin voisəð and unvoisəð foʊniimiz, a majoritiiʸ ov vaʊl foʊniimiz bii meikəð-up ov dipθoŋgiz and iivən tripθoŋgiz. ðiiʸ umθ tʊʊʷ iʃʊʊwiz, mii did disaid, did biiʸ aʊtsaid miis skoʊp tə solv: mii wʊd kriiyeit ðə best aproksimeiʃən ov iŋgliʃ az mii kʊd, and soʊ loŋg az it did bii riizənəblii kəmpliit it ʃʊd biiʸ eibəl tə ruflii riflekt difrənt daiəlektiz. and eniiʸ-um hʊʊ riəlii heit it not haf tə yʊʊz it! pliiz noʊt ðoʊ ðat ðis miin ðat, dispait miis best efətiz, yii mait not foloʊ miis vaʊl noʊteiʃən, az wii mei hav verii difrənt aksəntiz. ðə tiiθ probləm did skupə miis umθ atempt at ðə vaʊliz, wic did not ʃoʊʷ enii kənekʃəniz bitwiin dipθoŋgiz and diis konsticʊʊənt monopθoŋgiz, and biiyiŋ familyə wið boʊθ r.p. and escəriiʸ iŋgliʃ mii did wont tə biiʸ eibəl tʊʊʷ inklʊʊd ðoʊz daiyəlektiz-iis tripθoŋgiz. soʊ mii did setəl on a sistəm ðat yʊʊz a singəl maək foə ðə monopθoŋgiz, and ðen tʊʊʷ oə tii maəkiz, in muc ðə seim pleis az ðə monopθoŋgiz, foə dipθoŋgiz and tripθoŋgiz respektivlii.
mii yʊʊz so pyʊə singəl-vaʊl saʊndiz: ‘AH’, ‘EH’, ‘IH’, ‘OH’, ‘UH’, ‘ʊ’ (az in “foot”); and oəlsoʊ ðə ʃwaəʳ ‘ə’, wic apiəʳ in wiik pəziʃəniz insaid and at ðiiʸ end ov wuədiz laik “comma”. mii triit a fyʊʊ fʊəməl “monopθoŋgiz” az biiyiŋ dipθoŋgiz, bikuz mii θink ðat meik mʊə sens tə dʊʊ soʊʷ. [ii], foəʳ egzampəl, az in “flee” [flii], siim tə mii kliəliiʸ a loŋ vaʊl kompoʊz ov tʊʊ ʃʊət ‘IH’ [i] vaʊliz. in adiʃən, ðiiz vaʊliz kan oəl end wuədiz and hav a kariktəristik foloʊwiŋ konsənənt, wic ðə so pyʊə monopθoŋgiz not kan hav and hav not. miis dipθoŋgiz bii divaidəð intʊʊ tii grʊʊpiz: treiliŋᵍ [i], treiliŋᵍ [ʊ], and treiliŋᵍ [ə]. ðiiz vaʊliz hav a karəktəristik foloʊwiŋ konsənənt ov [y], [w], and [r] respektivlii. ðə fʊh [*i] vaʊliz bii: [ii] “keen”; [ei] “cane”; [ai] “kine”; and [oi] “coin”. ðə tiiʸ [*ʊ] vaʊliz bii: [ʊʊ] “boot”; [aʊ] “bout”; and [oʊ] “boat”. ðə soh [*ə] vaʊliz bii: [iə] “fear”; [eə] “fair”; [uə] “fur”; [aə] “far”; [ʊə] “four”; and [oə] “for”. yes, ðoʊz latə tʊʊ bii verii similə – agen, mii teik ðiiʸ aticʊʊd ðat eniiʸ-um els hʊʊ wiʃ tə yʊʊz ðis sistəm but not sii dii az difrənt kan pik um and biiʸ unafektəð bai ðə haidəð egzistens ov ðiiʸ uðə. ðen ðə tripθoŋgiz bii ðə so pyʊə monopθoŋgiz and ðiiʸ [*i] and [*ʊ] dipθoŋgiz wið a treiliŋᵍ ‘ə’.
hiə biiʸ a teibəl ov ðə vaʊliz.
| monooθoŋgiz | *i dipθoŋgiz | *ʊ dipθoŋgiz | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| * vaʊliz | i | e | ii | ei | |||||
| u | ə | a | ai | aʊ | |||||
| ʊ | o | oi | ʊʊ | o | |||||
| *ə vaʊliz | iə | eə | iiə | eiə | |||||
| uə | aə | aiə | aʊə | ||||||
| ʊə | oə | oiə | ʊʊə | oʊə | |||||
and hiə biiʸ an imij ov ðə vaʊliz, yʊʊziŋ ðə seim mapiŋᵍ az ðə teibəl abuv. yii kan sii ðat ðə monopθoŋgiz bii blʊʊ, ðə dipθoŋgiz bii red, and ðə tripθoŋgiz bii puəpəl. ekstuənəl maəkəriz biiʸ iniʃəl vaʊliz; intuənəl maəkəriz bii endiŋ vaʊliz. sins ‘i’ and ‘ʊ’ bii yʊʊzəð at ðə staət and end ov vaʊliz, dii hav a seprət bət linkəð maəkə foə biiyin at ðə staət and ðiiʸ end: top-left and top-sentə foəʳ ‘i’; botəm-left and botəm-sentə foəʳ ‘ʊ’. ‘ə’ biiʸ oʊnlii yʊʊzəð at ðiiʸ end ov a vaʊl, soʊ it kan biiʸ adəð tʊʊʷ eniiʸ uðə set ov vaʊliz az-bii wiðaʊt kənfyʊʊʒən.
pleis-hoʊldə foəʳ imij
mii hoʊp ðis bii kliə. miis vaʊliz mei not mac yiis, but mii hoʊp ðat ðə prinsipəl biiʸ eksplisit and yii kan figəʳ aʊt wot bii miinəð. naʊ wii kan pʊt wuədiz təgeðə.
um espeʃəliiʸ intərestiŋ θiŋ tə kum aʊt ov θinkiŋᵍ abaʊt prənunsiiyeiʃən bii ðiiʸ obzəveiʃən ðat “a”/“an” bii not ðiiʸ oʊnlii wuəd ðat ceinj endiŋ bifʊəʳ a liidiŋ vaʊl. oəl iŋgliʃ vaʊl-endiŋ wuədiz – “Thai” [tai], “you” [yʊʊ], “paw” [pʊə], ets. – bii, bifʊə liidiŋ vaʊliz, foloʊwəð bai ðə karəktəristik konsənənt mii did menʃən uəliiyə: ‘y’ foəʳ ‘i’ tə bikəm [*iy]; ‘w’ foəʳ ‘ʊ’ tə bikəm [*ʊw]; and ‘r’ foəʳ ‘ə’ tə bikəm [*ər]. (on ðə reəʳ əkeiʒəniz weəʳ it bii reləvənt, monopθoŋgiz siim tə bii foloʊwəð baiʸ a [h].) soʊ “Thai is my favourite” bii [taiy iz mai feivrit], “you are my friend” bii [yʊʊw aə mai frend], and “the paw of the bear” bii [ðə pʊər ov ðə beə]. (pliiz noʊtis ðat mii did faind instənsiz weə ðə wuəd hav a treiliŋᵍ letə ðat not mac itiis karəktəristik konsənənt, tə ʃoʊ ðat ðə rʊʊl bii fənetik, beisəð not on ðə grafiim.) in praktis, mii naʊ rait ðə treiliŋ fʊəm sʊʊpə-skriptəð tʊʊʷ indikeit itiis subsidiiyaritii relətiv tə ðə kʊə wuəd (but meniiʸ oʊldəʳ eseiyiz wil yʊʊz ðiiʸ un-sʊʊpə-skriptəð fʊəm).
in adiʃən, at liist tʊʊʷ uðə wuədiz ðat miiʸ av spot ceinj diis prənaʊnsəð fʊəm (but not diis unrifʊəməð raitəð fʊəm) entaiəlii, laik “a”/“an”, bifʊəʳ a liidiŋ vaʊl. “the cat and the ant” bii [ðə kat and ðiiy ant], and “go to India and to China” kan bii, at liist wen seiyəð kwiklii, [goʊ tʊʊw indiiyə and tə cainə]. yii kan sii ðat ðiiʸ entaiə vaʊl ceinj. miis noəθ-west iŋgliʃ aksənt oəlsoʊw ad a ‘g’ saʊnd aftə [ŋ] wen it prisiid a vaʊl. agen, ðis biiʸ oəl yʊʊziŋ miis daiəlekt: yiis mei veərii.
az yii wil av spot, miiʸ oəlsoʊʷ av kobəl təgeðəʳ a tranzlitəreiʃən bak intʊʊ broədlii rekəgnaizəbəl iŋgliʃ karəktəriz. miiʸ av yʊʊz ðiiʸ i.f.a. karəktəriz foə ‘θ’ (“fth”), ‘ð’ (“dth”), ‘ʃ’ (“sh”), ‘ʒ’ (“zh”), ‘ŋ’ (“ng”), ‘ʊ’ (“ouh”), and ‘ə’ (“er”) bikuz ðeə bii not enii betəʳ opʃəniz. miiʸ av yʊʊz ‘c’ foə “ch” and ‘x’ foə “kh”. miiʸ av yʊʊz ‘y’ foə [y] insted ov i.f.a.-iis ‘j’ bikuz mii bii raitiŋᵍ iŋgliʃ. mii rait aʊt dipθoŋgiz az tʊʊ grafiimiz bikuz ðat bii mʊə laik iŋgliʃ. mii wil yʊʊz ðiiz simbəliz in ðis websait foə konviiniiəns bikuz mii kan taip dii raəðə ðan haf tə oəlweiz droə dii, but foəʳ avoidəns ov daʊt mii biiʸ oəlweiz θinkiŋᵍ ov ðə nyʊʊ karəktəriz.
ðis peij bii paət ov a ʃʊət siəriiz. yii meiʸ oəlsoʊ bii intərestəð in miis θoətiz abaʊt nyʊʊmerik rifʊəm and gramatikəl rifʊəm.