7. Rules for e-speec

Past attempts at reforming English spelling have been based on various different strategies.

There are about 43 different sounds that make up English words, and only 26 letters in the alphabet. So one way to spell English would be to have a different symbol to represent each sound - for example, ‘mat’ could be spelt as it is now, but ‘mate’ could be spelt using a different symbol for the long “a” sound - for example, 'm*t'. Such systems have been successful in making spelling more logical, but they suffer from the need to have a lot more letters in the alphabet.

Other new spelling systems have used different combinations of letters to represent different sounds - for example, in some systems ‘mate’ is spelt 'maet' - where the letter combination 'ae' is used to represent the long 'a' sound. Such systems suffer because they are very different from our present method of spelling.

In fact, the spelling 'mate' demonstrates an effective, logical way of representing long vowels - the final 'e' being used to indicate that the 'a' is pronounced long (mate instead of mat).

So this book proposes to develop our spelling system to create one that is MOST CONSISTENT, but which has MINIMUM CHANGES from the present spelling system. So we call this strategy the MCMC strategy, or "MC squared". We call the system of spelling based on this strategy "e-speec".

Rules for e-speec.

1. The vowels (a, e, i, o and u) in the words mat, get, bit, cot and run are said to be "short" vowels. The main vowels in mate, feet, bite, home and rule are said to be "long" vowels. For a, i, o and u the short sound is turned into a long sound by adding 'e' on the end of the word. But long 'e' is not indicated by another 'e' on the end - long 'e' is spelt 'ee', as in 'feet'.
2. The vowels i, o and u at the end of a word represent the long sounds - for example: mi (my), thro (throw) and thru (through). Long 'e' at the end of a word is spelt 'ee' - for example: tree, mee (me). The letter 'a' at the end of a word represents the short sound - for example: cola. Long 'a' at the end of a word is spelt 'ay' - for example: day. Short 'i' at the end of a word is spelt 'y' - for example: curry.
3. In general, each sound is to be represented consistently by the spelling that is most commonly used traditionally to represent that sound. For example:
   • - b, d, f, g, h, j, l, m, n, p, r, t, v, w and y retain their traditional uses.
   • - the sound traditionally spelt 'c', 'k' or 'ck' is consistently spelt with a 'c' - for example: cat, cite (kite), roc (rock).
   • - the 's' sound is consistently spelt with an 's' - for example: sat, reseev (receive), acsept (accept).
   • - the 'x' sound is spelt consistently 'cs' for example: acsept (accept), ecsept (except), tacs (tax).
   • - the 'z' sound is spelt consistently with a 'z' - for example: daze, abuze (abuse). This rule also applies to plurals and other places where 's' was traditionally added to a word - for example: treez (trees), fadez (fades), the horse'z hair (the horse's hair). You can tell which words add an 's' sound and which add a 'z' sound by looking at the sound at the end of the word before you add on the 's' or 'z'. If the last sound is voiced (the vocal chords are vibrating), then you add 'z' - for example: canz (cans), cabz (cabs), buthez (booths). If the last sound is unvoiced (that is, it is p, t, c, f or soft 'th' as in 'froth') then you add 's' - for example: caps, cats, froths. When the last sound is a long vowel, the plural is formed following the normal rules outlined above - for example: throze (throws), bluze (blues). Words ending in 'y' just add 'z' - for example: dittyz (ditties), ponyz (ponies), dayz (days).
   • - the past tense of verbs is indicated by -d, -ed, or -t, depending on the sound (in traditional spelling, -ed is usually used). The ending -t is used when the preceding sound is unvoiced - that is, it is p, t, c, f, s or soft 'th'. So we get: shouted, hated, cand (canned), caned, senst (sensed), slept, jumpt (jumped), looct (looked).
   • - the sound 'ar' as in 'far' is consistently spelt 'ar' - for example: star, farther (father).
   • - the sound 'er' as in 'her' is consistently spelt 'er' - for example: perl (pearl), werk (work), ster (stir), fer (fur).
   • - the sound 'or' as in 'for' is consistently spelt 'or' - for example: mor (more), cort (caught).
   • - the sound 'air' as in 'fair' is consistently spelt 'air' - for example: air, shair (share), thair (there, their), bair (bear, bare).
   • - the sound 'ou' as in 'out' is consistently spelt 'ou' - for example: shout, cou (cow), bou (bough).
   • - the sound 'eer' as in 'beer' is consistently spelt 'eer' - for example: jeer, heer (hear, here).
   • - the sound 'oi' as in 'boil' is consistently spelt 'oi' - for example: oil, boi (boy, buoy).
   • - the short sound 'oo' as in 'foot' is consistently spelt 'oo'. But as stated above, long 'u' as in 'rule' is spelt with a ‘u’. But where the letter ‘u’ has traditionally represented the combined sound ‘yu’ then the ‘y’ must be included, to avoid confusion - for example: cyute (cute), tyune (tune).
   • - the sound 'j' as in 'jug' is consistently spelt 'j' - for example: jest, buj (budge), mannij (manage), sinj (singe).
   • - the sounds 'w' and 'wh' are both spelt 'w' - for example: sandwich, wich (which).
   • - the sound 'qu' is consistently spelt 'cw' - for example: cween (queen), recwite (requite), cwier (choir, quire), orcwood (awkward).
   • - the sound 'ng' as in 'song' is spelt 'ng' - but when followed by 'c' it is just spelt 'n' - for example: minc (mink), juncet (junket), incwiry (inquiry).
   • - the sound 'sh' as in 'shed' is consistently spelt 'sh'. And the sound 'shun' is consistently spelt 'shn' or 'shen'. The 'e' is added when needed to indicate that the preceding vowel is long - for example: rashn (ration), seshn (session), acshn (action), poshen (potion), nashen (nation).
   • - the sound 'zh' as in 'fusion' is consistently spelt 'zh'. This sound is traditionally spelt in many different ways - often 'si'. And the sound 'zhun' is consistently spelt 'zhn' or 'zhen'. The 'e' is added when needed to indicate that the preceding vowel is long - so we get: divizhn (division), fuzhen (fusion), ocazhen (occasion), cazhuel (casual).
4. Letters that are not pronounced are not spelt - for example, thum (thumb), iland (island), giv (give), sine (sign), our (hour).
5. A consonant (a letter that is not a vowel) is sometimes doubled - for example, the 'rr' in 'curry'. But the doubling is only done when necessary to indicate that the vowel coming before is short (not long), and only when the syllable is stressed. For example: wel (well), disapeer (disappear - note that the first 'a' is not stressed), running, fatty, hatter (not to be confused with hater, with a long 'a').
6. Short, unstressed vowels are omitted in the following cases:- - when the next letter is 'l' - for example: revl (revel), litl (little). But an 'e' is needed before the 'l' when the preceding vowel is long - for example: bibel (bible), tabel (table). - in the syllables 'shun', 'zhun' and 'chun' - for example: rashn (ration), seshn (session), combuschn (combustion). But an 'e' is needed before the 'n' when the preceding vowel is long (except for ee) - for example: nashen (nation), dictashen (dictation), fyuzhen (fusion), aluzhen (allusion), but seezn (season). - in the syllable 'ful' added to a word - for example: lustfl (lustful), butifl (beautiful). - in the past tense of verbs when the last syllable (traditionally written 'ed') is pronounced 'd' or ‘t’ - for example: jumpt (jumped), looct (looked), prayd (prayed). But we still have: shouted, hated, where the 'e' is pronounced. Note also that the syllable traditionally spelt 'ous' is consistently spelt 'us' - for example: deevius (devious), delishus (delicious).
7. When a short 'u' is unstressed it is consistently spelt 'a'. So we get: banarna (banana), ahed (ahead). But when there is some stress, it is spelt 'u' - for example: suspishn (suspicion), sustane (sustain).
8. The sound as in the second vowel of 'carrot' is spelt 'e'. This sound is common in English, mainly because a lot of old words are pronounced in a simpler way than they used to be. So we get: carret (carrot), acter (actor).