Draft Alphabet

I based this one off of my old work and the American Heritage Dictionary pronunciation key.

The diacritics used are the macron (to indicate length in terms of quality), the circumflex (usually for rhotic assimilation), the diaeresis (for misc. sounds), and the acute (for primary stress). There are 26 letters of the alphabet. They are ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ (though, X and Q(U) may be omitted in lieu of KS and GZ, and KW and K).

A is short A: the vowel [æ] as in "pat" (PA: "pat"). Ā is long A: the diphthong [eɪ] as in "pay" (PA: "pā").  is the rhoticized A: the triphthong [eɪə] as in "care" (PA: "kar" or "kâr"). Note that the circumflex can be omitted if the vowel is immediately followed by an R in the same syllable. That being said, one will not typically find the written  at all. Ä is the open A: the vowel [ɑ] (or sometimes [a]) as in "father" (PA: "fä́dher" or "fä́dhêr").

B is simply [b] as in "bib" (PA: "bib").

C is used only in the digraph CH as [tʃ] as in "church" (PA: "church").

D is [d] though it may devoice to [t], especially as the preterite marker after an unvoiced consonant. It is as "deed" (PA: "dēd"). When with H in the digraph DH, it is [ð] as in "this" (PA: "dhiss").

E is short E: the vowel [ɛ] as in "pet" (PA: "pet"). Ē is long E: the vowel [i] as in "bee" (PA: "bē"). Ê is the schwa and rhoticized E. If it appears before R, the circumflex can be dropped. It is [ə] (schwa) or [ɚ] (rhoticized) as in "center" (PA: "sénter" or "séntêr").

F is [f], though it may voice to [v] if it is intervocalic or word-final or adjacent to a voiced consonant. In those cases, if [f] is required, double it to FF. The F is as "fife" (PA: "fīff"). This particular rule was borrowed from S and is not necessarily consistent...it requires more research.

G is [g] as in "gag" (PA: "gag"). When preceded by N, both will assimilate as [ŋ] as in "-ing" (PA: "-ing").

H is [h] as in "hat" (PA: "hat"). Following a D as in DH will make it [ð] as in "this" (PA: "dhiss"). S is used with H in SH to be [ʃ] as in "ship" (PA: "ship"). Following a T as in TH will be [θ] as in "thin" (PA: "thin"). Preceding W in HW, it distinguishes [ʍ] from the W [w] as in "which" (PA: "wich" or "hwich").

I is short I: the vowel [ɪ] as in "pit" (PA: "pit"). Ī is long I: the diphthong [aɪ] as in "I" (PA: "Ī"). Î is the rhoticized I: the triphthong [aɪə] as in "liar" (PA: "lir" or "lîr"). The circumflex may be omitted if followed by an R in the same syllable.

J is [dʒ] as in "judge" (PA: "juj").

K is [k] or [kʰ] as in "cat" (PA: "kat").

L is [l] as in "lid" (PA: "lid"). If syllable final, it is often [ɫ] as in "full" (PA: "fül").

M is [m] as in "mum" (PA: "mum"). It may assimilate to [ɱ] as in "symphony" (PA: "símffenē").

N is [n] as in "no" (PA: "nō") though it is obligated to assimilate next to G (or other velar consonants such as K, Q, W, and X) as [ŋ] as in "-ing" (PA: "-ing").

O is short O: the vowel [ɒ] as in "pot" (PA: "pot"). Ō is long O: the diphthong [oʊ] as in "toe" (PA: "tō"). Ô is rhoticized R: the vowel [ɔ] as in "four" (PA: "for" or "fôr"). Depending on the person, Ô may occur outside of a rhotic environment and so it may be necessary to write all the time.

P is [p] or [pʰ] as in "pop" (PA: "pop").

Q is always used in the digraph QU as the cluster [kw] as in "queen" (PA: "quēn").

R is [ɹ] as in "roar" (PA: "ror" or "rôr").

S is [s] though it may voice to [z] if intervocalic, word-final, or adjacent to a voiced consonant. If it is required to be [s] in these positions, it must be doubled to SS. It is as the S in "sauce" (PA: "soss"). S is used with H in SH to be [ʃ] as in "ship" (PA: "ship")

T is [t] or [tʰ] as in "tight" (PA: "tīt"). When with H as in TH, it is [θ] as in "thin" (PA: "thin").

U is short U: the vowel [ʌ] as in "cut" (PA: "kut"). Ū is long U: the vowel [u] as in "you" (PA: "yū"). Ü is the misc. Ü the vowel [ʊ] as in "look" (PA: "lük"). Û is the rhotacized U, [ɜ] or [ɝ] or even [ʌɹ] as in "girl" (PA: "gurl" or "gûrl").

V is [v] as in "vain" (PA: "vān").

W is [w] or [ʍ] (if a distinction must be made, HW is used) as in "wine" (PA: "wīn") though the HW and W distinction is dying, it may fall out of disuse.

X is [ks] or [gz] if intervocalic or in a voiced environment. It must be doubled if it is unvoiced in such positions. It is as "exit" (PA: "éxit") or "ex-" (PA: "ex-"). One can argue to voice it in the word-final position rendering "egg" and "eggs" as "eg" and "ex" instead of "eg" and "egs". But this would cause great confusion so the plural forms undergo assimilation without graphic change, as "Greek" and "Greeks" would be "Grēk" and "Grēx" which is confusing. So, it will be "Grēk" and "Grēks" or not. Again, up to discussion.

Y is [j], the consonant as in "yes" (PA: "yess").

Z is [z] as in "zebra" (PA: "zḗbre").

Of course, some rules need to be appended to...and fixed, but this will suffice.

Uf corss, sum rūls nēd tū bē epénded tū...and fixd, but dhiss wil seffī́ss.

Radical Way

I was listening to the news (watching it rather) and I heard about another problem with the Qantas airlines. Qantas, was pronounced "kwantas" and which would lead you to believe that it had a U in it...perhaps the Q should be used alone for the sound QU and the C for CH...



We could try to reduce the amount of digraphs...like introduce old letters like eth, and thorn from Old English and get rid of my DH and TH... Introduce ezh and esh for ZH and SH...



Meh...Je ne sais pas...



You could make it based on Romance phonetics since a good chunk of the English lexicon is Romance/Greek...or maybe German. English...is a conglomerate of all of these influences...it's that unique...and it needs its own orthography.

Q

The letter Q.



The letter Q is a consonant. It is only used in the digraph QU representing [kw] as the QU in "queen"; quēn.



The name of Q is its old name, [kju], kyū.

P

The letter P



The letter P is a consonant. It is [p] as the P in "pot"; "pot". There is no PH digraph representing [f] anymore.



The name is [pi], pē.

O

The letter O.



The letter O is a vowel. It has a long value [o] (or [oʊ]) as in "boat" written as ō; bōt. The short value is [ɒ] as in "pot"; pot. There is an assimilated one (often there is a distinction in certain dialects but I'll leave it alone for now). It is [ɔ] as in "for". A diacritic...has not yet been assigned.



The name of O is its long value, [oʊ], ō.

N

The letter N.



The letter N is a consonant with value [n] or the N in "pin"; "pin". It assimilates before G as [ŋ] as in "going". It may also assimilate to F or V as the M does as [ɱ].



Its name is en, [ɛn].

M

The letter M.



The letter M is a consonant as the M [m] in "mat"; "mat". It sometimes assimilates next to [f] as [ɱ] in symphony.



The name is "em" [ɛm].

L

The letter L.



The letter L is a consonant. It is typically the L [l] in "leg"; "leg". Sometimes it is [ɫ] at the final position of a syllable.



The name of L is el, [ɛɫ] or [ɛl].

K

The letter K



The letter K is a consonant. Its value is [k] or [kʰ], as the K in "kin", kin.



The name is [keɪ] or [kʰeɪ], kā.

J

The letter J.



The letter J is a consonant. It's value is [dʒ] as the J in "Jake"; Jāk.



It's name is [dʒeɪ], jā.

I

The letter I



The letter I is a vowel. It has a long and a short value. The long value is [aɪ] or the I in the pronoun "I"; Ī. It is written with a macron. The short value is [ɪ] or the I in "pit"; pit.



The name of I is its long value, [aɪ]; ī.

H

The letter H.



The letter H is a consonant. It is [h] or the H as in "hat".



The name of H is [eɪtʃ] or āch.

G

The letter G.



The letter G is a consonant. It only has one sound, [g] as in "gig". There is no soft sound as in English J.



The name of G is, unfortunately, it's historical soft G sound, jē, [dʒi]. This is because the name of a letter has little to do with its actual sound sometimes...like American English H is "eych" instead of Australian H "heych". That, and the point of PAO is not to change how we pronounce stuff, but how we write and read American English.

F

The letter F.



The letter F is a consonant and only one pronunciation [f] as in "fin". It's that simple. In English, final F is doubled to prevent voicing (off, stuff). This is not the case in PAO. F is always unvoiced in PAO.



The name of F is [ɛf] "ef".

E

The letter E.



The letter E is a vowel. It has a long and a short pronunciation. The long value is [i] as in "beet", "bēt" and is written as Ē (E with a macron). The short value is written as E and is [ɛ] as in "bet", "bet".



The schwa [ə] as in "center" does not belong solely to E and neither does [ɜ]. These are just assimilations and ... This still needs some work...



The name of E is its long value, [i], ē.

D

The letter D.



The letter D is a consonant. It has two pronunciations, typically [d] as in "dinner", though in certain places, it devoices to [t]: "asked" is really [æskt].



When combined with H, it is the sound [ð] as the "th" in "the"; e.g. "dhē". The choice of DH was chosen because TH is typically [θ], which is unvoiced like T is. So to voice it to [ð], the T becomes a D; TH -> DH.



The name of the letter D is [di], dē.

C

The letter C



The letter C is only used in the CH digraph representing [tʃ] as in "chin"; e.g. "chin".



The name of the letter C itself is [si], sē.

Myself

I am a prefrosh, going to attend college this fall. I am an American-born Chinese/Vietnamese-American though I can't speak fluently in either (Cantonese, Vietnamese, or Mandarin). Of those three, Cantonese is my best, then Mandarin, and Vietnamese. In high school, I took 4 years of Classical Latin. I have had middle school exposure to Spanish and am currently taking on French alongside Classical Latin by myself. I am somewhat knowledgeable in IPA, fair in General American, superb for Classical (and Ecclesiastical) Latin, and fair for French transcriptions.



My languages are in order from best to worst: American English, Latin, French, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Vietnamese.



I strongly dislike English orthography and though I am putting my own system up here, it doesn't mean it'll be used. I am leaving my system up here for reference, in the off chance that someone will come by and spread it. Or, the English speaking nations will finally get brains and regulate and reform the English language.



My approach is not very humanistic but is based upon the same things children were taught in school. The vowels are the same, the letters are the same, and so on. The only differences are that some rules no longer apply 'cause the situation no longer exists. Some rules are added to clarify things. This is completely phonetic (not phonemic), but maybe...33-50% humanistic.



For Americans, diacritics suck (we are very accustomed to having our letters undecorated), but they are necessary in this system. The only diacritics (hopefully, though I am starting to see the need for more) are the acute and the macron used to indicate stress and American vowel length (read "American vowel quality"). The diaeresis might be used to indicate that two vowels are to be kept apart (no diphthong). I doubt I'll find a need for the diaeresis...there are no entirely vowel-based polygraphs planned. I had another way of indicating long vowels involving open and closed syllables (and the dreaded silent E), but to teach that is to break the way English is taught today. Plus, it would require more letters and waste more ink and time and space when a simple diacritic would do.



The main problem of anyone trying to fix English is the vowel system. The consonants are for the most part regular (or regular to a greater degree than vowels...at least...that's how they seem to be).

B

The letter B



The letter B is the first consonant. It only has one pronunciation [b] as in "big"; e.g. "big".



The name of the letter B itself is [bi] or (a preview to the letter E), bē.

A

The letter A.



The letter A is the first vowel. It has three pronunciations, a long, a short, and an assimilated one (though it often appears in the word final position). We'll call the assimilated one "semi-long".



Ā is long A. It is [eɪ] or the A in "make"; e.g. "māk".



A is short A. It is [æ] or the A in "an"; e.g. "an".



An assimilated ("semi-long") A is written as AH. It is [ɑ] (often [a]) or the A in "far" or "lala"; e.g. "fahr" or "lahlah". Needs some work...



The name of the letter A itself is its long value, [eɪ].

How American English Is Taught

There are the 26 letters. A-Z.



There are consonants and vowels. Consonants are like B. Vowels are like A, sometimes Y. The usual rule is that Y at the beginning of a word is a consonant [j].



Vowels are taught to be either long or short (not phonetic length, but actually phonetic quality). All other sounds are just assimilations of the vowel to the consonant or stress pattern.



Okay. We can keep all of the 26 letters. Each is required. All vowels are needed. All consonants are needed, yes, even C and K and S and X. C is used for CH [tʃ] (the point is to make as few teaching changes as possible...this does not include spelling changes). We're taught CH is [tʃ] and that won't change. Other than in that digraph, C is never used. K is its replacement. S remains. X does 'cause it is a short alternative to writing KS or CS. Y is only to be used for its consonant value (difference in teaching method). Any assimilation is not to be given a different representation; e.g. S is typically voiced between vowels but will remain an S, not a Z. There are no additions, like eth, or thorn, or esh, or ezh, we need the same alphabet and will keep those sounds via the digraphs TH, DH (new digraph for voiced TH), SH, and ZH (new digraph for voiced SH). Anytime there is a [kw] sound, the representation is QU.



One could argue to use C for CH and Q for QU but that's a difference from modern teaching that I'd like to avoid. It is longer to write, however. Cin vs. chin for chin, and qēn vs. quēn for queen.



When teaching a language, you want to keep the learner as far away as possible from phonetics and grammar. All of that is clutter and jargon.