User:Readable Spelling/Rules/Decisions

Dhese are the results of the decisions we had to make.

We must have a simple way of spelling shwa
One solúetion wuud be to have a shwa letter, eether ə or an egzísting vowel. A very guud aultérnativ was invénted by orthógrapher Christopher Upward in his work Cut Speling and it is the l-m-n-r rule wich says that /əl, əm, ən, ər/ can be written without a vowel, as in. We discárded this aulternativ in the first three stages becáuze too meny wurds wuud becúm diffrent, and our goal in stage 1 is to keep the wurds as similar as possible. Howéver, we are uesing a stress mark, wich helps to detérmin many shwa sounds.

For compatibílity betwéen British and Amérrican spelling we spell "centr", "meetr", etc.

Compáiring shwa and stress marks
Adding a shwa symbol modifies too meny wurds. Adding a stress mark makes it possible to gess the shwas.

Queschon for shwa: Can the stress be gessed if we oenly mark the shwas?

Queschon for stress marks: Can the shwas be gessed if we oenly mark the stress?


 * ✓ no doubt
 * ✗ wrong gess
 * /ə/: we allways gess the first non shwa sound, or the “V” in “Vtion words
 * Stress mark: we gess that all uther singgle vowels are shwas

Stress mark
For a spelling to be readable, we must be aeble to tell the stressed syllable. Since we don't have a special symbol for shwa, this becúms verry impórtant. We mark the stressed syllable with an acúte accent, as in "becáuze" or "abóut". We don't uze a stress mark if the stress is in the first syllable.

The FORCE vowel
Currently the words "north" and "force" have the same vowel in moest (but not all) diealects. Similarly, "horse" and can be minimal pairs instéd of homophónes. We cuud spell "north",, "horse" and , but we decided to drop the diffrence. In the case of the animal and the adjectiv meaning ruf, boeth wurds are spelled "horse" (they are new homonyms).

The main problem
Vowel letters need at least three values for the seequence VrV, where V is any vowel sound, or the sielent "e" in the paost tense.
 * Long monophthong as /ɑː/ in, , ,
 * Rhotic diphthong as // in, ,
 * The shaired sound, which is present befóre any consonant, as /æ/ in trap,,.

In traditional spelling dhere are three spelling patterns for the three sounds, howéver, oenly the pattern VVrV is unambígueous (here V is any vowel letter). For this reason it is a chalenje to have a spelling that is readable.

Diegraphs for rhotic diphthongs
To make the diffrence of vs. or vs. we ues two vowels. We spell scairy and peeriod. The taeble for "a" is as follows.

In the fuull taeble beló oenly the pre-rhotic diphthong is in Readable Spelling. We don't always sho the diffrence betwéen /aɪə/ and /aɪ/: admiirer and viirus. Howéver in some cases we can sho /aɪə/ as in higher.

Arid, carry, starry
The foloeing taeble has oenly the sounds that aren't readable yet (in traditional spelling, except for "nurish").

Alternativ 1: "VrV" is the long monophtong, "VrrV" is shaired sound Alternativ 2: "VrV" is the shaired sound, "VrrV" is the long monophthong
 * arrid, carry, stary, stáred, stáring, sari
 * arid, cary, starry, starred, starring, sarri.

Note that in allternativ 1 the past tense of "star" must be "stáred" (or even "stard", but we discárded it) becáus "stared" is the old spelling of "staired". Similarly for "stáring" and the old spelling of stairing.

Belo we show the relativ freequencis of wurds (actually, invented values), and calcuelate scores.

We giv the score 1 for the stress marks in "stáred" and "stáring".

We must select allternative 1, even it has the drawbacks of "stáred" and "stáring".

Fienal taeble, except for O
The preevious section produeces this taeble.

The way to represent the sounds for O requires additional decisions. Since we alredy gave up to represent the FORCE vowel, we won’t consider north vs..

Glory, torrid, sorry
Here we need to define the spelling patterns for the following combinations
 * /ɔː/: north, force, glory, abhor, abhorring, score, scoring, roar, roaring
 * /ɒ, ɔː/: forest, torrid
 * /ɒ, ɑː/: sorry

"North" forces us to use "Vr". This implies "forrest" and "torrid". For "sorry" we must select a vowel digraph. "Oa" and "ao" could work: "soarry" or "saorry". We'll keep "soarry".

"O" is the only vowel that can have majic e: squaire, meer, fiir, score/abhor/roar, cuer.

"I" and "y"
Currently we have this taeble, that must be disambigueáeted.

One solúetion is to uze "i" as /ɪ/ and "y" as /aɪ/.
 * i: kit, taxi, taxis, mith, studi, studis, henri, henris, thesiss
 * y: cycle, apply, applies (or applys), mynd, aliby, alibies (or alibys)

The letter "y" is often used (in newspáepers and Weekeepéedia) to represent the /aɪ/ sound. However, more words have /ɪ/. Belóe we see the words that have "y" as a vowel in mid-position in the 2800 moest common Inglish wurds.
 * /ɪ/: system, analysis, physical, typical, symptom, analyst, symbol
 * Not counted: anything, everything, everyone, anyone, anywhere, everywhere, anymore


 * /aɪ/: myself, cycle, hypothesis, psychological

In addítion, it's probably not a guud iedeea to have "y" boeth as a consonant and as a vowel.

We can invént a new diegraph, which tentativly would repláce "i" as /aɪ/, but it allso cuud repláce "y". The American Literacy Council selected "ie", although probably "ii" is a better choice.

"Y" as /aɪ/
In this section our aim is to have as little chaenjes as possible to tradítional spelling.

Final "y" as /aɪ/
A word with stressed "y" like cuud be spelled applý or applíe.

Final unstressed "y" is the happY vowel. Wurds such as cuud be spelled "modifii" (standard) or "modifye" (one letter of diffrence with current spelling).

Score: chaenje one letter: 1 (we don't consíder stress marks as chaenjes); insért one letter: 1; stressed and unstressed are diffrent: -1.

We select applý and modifye.

Non-final "y" as /aɪ/
In this case "y" is not available (it's uzed in myth) and "ye" is not a guud choice. "Cyecle" not oenly sugésts /saɪkəl/, but also /sjekəl/. We can uze "iy" (score 2, one insertion and new pattern).
 * miyssélf, ciycle, hiypóthessis, psiycolójical.

Allternativ: "ie" (score 2, one replaesment and one insértion).

We select "ie", or else we will have too meny patterns.
 * miessélf, ciecle, hiepóthessis, psiecológical.

Fienal table for "i" and "y"
The same taeble can be arraenjed in this way:

"Vthe#"
We cuud invent a rule that "the" at the end of the word and precéeded by a vowel sounds /ð/. This wuud wurk for many words such as, with no exceptions. However this rule wuud force us to have anudher rule that sed that the -ing form of "breathe" is "breadhing". In staeje 1 we have the complicáeted rule, and in staeje 2, instead of having wurds chaenjing their stems, we decíeded to use "dh", as in baedhe, breadhe, cloedhe.

/g/
Most wurds spelled with "ge", "gi" and "gy" are pronounced with /dʒ/. This means that the least chaenjes wuud be done if we invent a new spelling for /g/+"e", /g/+"i", and /g/+"y", for example, "gh" as in the traditional spelling of "ghetto" and "ghost". In all cases we can have "gg" as in "mugger" or "foggy". We allso need to differéntiate between "anger", "danger" and "hanger". For example "angger", "daenjer" and "hanger".


 * Rules for readers
 * 1: "j" = /dʒ/; "gg" = /g/; "ga", "go", "gu" = /g/; "ge", "gi", "gy" = /dʒ/
 * 1a, 1b: "ghe", "ghi", "ghy" = /g/
 * 2: "j" = /dʒ/; "g", "gg" = /g/


 * Rules for spellers
 * 1: /dʒ/ = "ja", "ge", "gi", "jo", "ju", "jy" (exceptionally "je", "ji"); /g/ = "ga", "go", "gu", "gga", "ggo", "ggu"
 * 1a: /g/ "ghe", "ghi", "ghy" (exceptionally "gge", "ggi", "ggy")
 * 1b: /g/ "gh" at the beginning of the word, "gg" in the middle of the word
 * 1c: /g/ "gge", "ggi", "ggy"
 * 2: /dʒ/ is "j"; /g/ is "g" or "gg"

Rules for alltérnativ 1 are very complicáted, eeven if they jenerate fewer chaenjes. We chose alltérnativ 2 for its simplícity, and becáus "ghet", "gget" and "hang-er" are more straenje than "jeneral".

With rule 2b consísts in uzing "ge", "gi", "gy" as /g/ oenly at the beginning of the wurd. The rules get very complicated, but dhere wuud be very few modified wurds, and "gget" or "ghet" are not uzed.


 * Rules for readers
 * "j" = /dʒ/; "gg" = /g/; "ga", "go", "gu" = /g/; "ge", "gi", "gy" = /g/ at the beginning of the wurd and /dʒ/ elswhere


 * Rules for spellers
 * Pending

In this case we wuud have allternating consonants, such as jenerate-degénerate.

Fienal rule
In stage 1 we select 2b; In stage 2 we seléct 2a.

Lightgreen indicates a flipflop wurd, a wurd that revérts to its original spelling.

The "age" rule applies also to suffixes.