Regûlarîzed Ânglish Orthogrəfy
If you can speak English to any capacity, you know that the spelling is a terrible mess. Furthermore, many people have created their own spelling reforms, that are often quite bad due to various reasons.¹ I’ve made a few myself, but I always end up disliking them due to them falling within the uncanny valley. So I wondered what a spelling reform would look like if I made the main premise “current English spelling, but more regular.” Which means no “Here are some general guidelines; now start memorizing.”
I ended up liking the result, so I’ve shared it on this webpage. (And I likely will make a YouTube video in the future.)
I’ll start by showing a summary table. The coloumns are: the sound represented by the International Phonetic Alphabet; example word the the sound highlighted; the letter(s) used to spell that sound; and some notes.
| IPA | Example | Letter(s) | Additional notes | IPA | Example | Letter(s) | Additional notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| æ | trap | a | [ə] word finally. | eɪ̯ | face | â, a_e | Note #1 | |
| b | boat | b | k, s | cat, cell | c | Pronounced ‘s’ before e, ê, i, î, y. ‘k’ otherwise. | ||
| t͡ʃ | church | ch | d | duck | d | |||
| ɛ | dress | e | i | fleece | ê, e_e, ee | ‘ee’ form is used in single syllable words. Note #1 | ||
| f | fax | f | g | ɢood | g | |||
| h | hat | h | ɪ | kit | i | |||
| aɪ̯ | price | î, i_e | Note #1 | d͡ʒ | ᴊust | j | Word final [d͡ʒ, ʒ] are spelled ‘ge’. | |
| k | kit | k | Spelled ‘c’ before a, â, o, ô, ō, u, û, ü. | l | lace | l | ||
| m | mop | m | n | no | n | |||
| ŋ | banɢ | ng | [ŋg] is also spelled ‘ng’ | ɔ | thought, saw | aw | ||
| ɒ | lot | o | u | goose | ô, ô_o, oo | ‘oo’ form used in single syllable words. Note #1 | ||
| oʊ̯ | goat | ō, ō_e | Note #1 | aʊ̯ | mouth | ou | ||
| p | pot | p | kw | quest | qu | |||
| ɹ | rock | r | s | sea | s, c | Spelled in two ways to differentiate homophones (sell, cell) | ||
| ʃ | shovel | sh | t | tap | t | |||
| θ, ð | that | th | ʌ | strut | u | |||
| ju | confuse | û, u_e | Note #1 | ʊ | foot | ü | ||
| v | volcano | v | w | water | w | |||
| ʍ | what | wh | ks | box | x | |||
| j, i, aɪ̯ | yes, starry, my | y | Pronounced [ai̯] in single syllable words, pronounced [i] word finally, [j] otherwise. | IPA | Example | Letter(s) | Additional notes |