Long 'a' is traditionally spelt in various ways, for example: mate, wait, weight, fete.
e-speec just uses an 'e' at the end to show that the 'a' is long - for example: mate, wate (wait, weight), fate (fete, fate).
In the middle of a word, e-speec indicates a short, stressed 'a' by doubling the following consonant, as in carry, hammer. But the doubling is not done if the 'a' is unstressed, or if it is only lightly stressed, as in 'academic'. The reason for this is that an unstressed vowel is not so important in understanding the meaning of a word.
'ar' as in 'far' is always spelt 'ar'. So we get: larst (last), carst (caste).
Short, unstressed 'a', pronounced 'u', is spelt with an 'a' as is traditional: ahed (ahead), banarna (banana).
Short 'e' is spelt in many ways in traditional English, for example: get, many, again, head. e-speec is consistent: get, menny (many), agen (again), hed (head).
Long 'e' when it is stressed is spelt 'ee' in e-speec, for example: feet, reed (read (verb)), eeven (even), releev (relieve).
Long and short 'i' follow similar rules to 'a', for example: bit, nite (night), hite (height).
Long and short 'o' are again similar, so we get: cot, note, cote (coat).
Long and short 'u' are similar also. But note that long 'u' has represented either the simple sound as in rule
or the more complex 'yu' sound as in tyube (tube) or cyute (cute). So we get: cut, dubl (double), dun (done),
duz (does), du (do), dyu (due or dew), fude (food), fyude (feud), mune (moon), buty (booty), byuty (beauty).
It would be feasible to continue to spell the 'yu' sound just with the letter 'u', but this would needlessly carry on
the present confusion with long ‘u’ representing the two quite different sounds.
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