New AngloSaxon Spelling

Author
BPJ  | Talk
Status
abandoned (2007, because it got too messy and I could go on fiddling with it forever without being satisfied. I'd now prefer a system with only diacritics and þ like ċurċ, ṡip, ġuġ, róṣṣ, meṩr, yard(!), strut(!), kút, ċẙs, since it is my contention that diacritics are more readable than new letters. But how distinguish mouth and foot/goose? mẘþ, fůt or můþ, fo̊t; which is worse indeed!?)

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Vowels

Letter	Value	Example	TO	IPA	Name
i	ɪ	kit		kɪt	ɪt
e	ɛ	dres	dress	drɛs	ɛt
a	æ	trap		træp	æt
o	ɒ	lot		lɒt/lɑt	ɒt/ɑt
y	ʌ	stryt	strut	strʌt	ʌt
u	ʊ	fut	foot	fʊt	ʊt
é	iː	flés	fleece	fliːs	iː
á	eɪ	fás	face	feɪs	eɪ
í	aɪ	prís	price	praɪs	aɪ
œ	ɔɪ	cœs	choice	tʃɔɪs	ɔɪ
ů (u)	uː	gůs	goose	ɡuːs	uː
ó	əʊ/oʊ	gót	goat	ɡəʊt/ɡoʊt	əʊ/oʊ
ú	aʊ	múþ	mouth	maʊθ	aʊ
ý	juː	kýt	cute	kjuːt	juː
ér	ɪə/ɪɹ	nér	near	nɪə/nɪɹ
ár	ɛə/ɛː/ɛɹ	skwár/squár	square	skwɛə/skwɛː/skwɛɹ
ór	oː/oɹ	fórs	force	foːs/foɹs
ýr	jʊə/jʊɹ	kýr	cure	kjʊə/kjʊɹ
ar	ɑː/ɑɹ	start	start	stɑːt/stɑɹt
or	ɔː/ɔɹ	norþ	north	nɔːθ/nɔɹθ
ur	ʊə/ʊɹ	pur	poor	pʊə/pʊɹ
yr	ɜː/ɜɹ	nyrs	nurse	nɜːs/nɜɹs
å	ɔː	þåt	thought	θɔːt	ɔːs
(a)	ɑː	faþer	father	fɑːðə/fɑːðɹ	ɑːk

Consonants

Letter	Value	Example	TO	Name
C c	tʃ	cyrc	church	tʃiː
Ç ç (S s)	s	çíkl, ráç	cycle, race	siː
Ʒ ʒ	dʒ	ʒyʒ	judge	dʒiː
J j	j	jard	yard	jeɪ
ɾ ʃ	ʃ	ʃip, fiʃ, ɾå	ship, fish, Shaw	ɪʃ
Ƨ ƨ/Z z	z	róƨeƨ, zéró	roses, zero	Ƨƨ [ziː], Zz [zɛd]
Þ þ		þéƨ klóþƨ	these clothes

}

^  Çç is used only for etymological c in foreign words, else Ss is used: sé see, mís mice.

^  Where /dʒ/ represents etymologic j a dotted ʒ̇ may be used.

^  NB ɾ is only a place-holder until Unicode includes a capital ʃ looking like ɾ, since the sigma-like symbol feels quite wrong. U+A784 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER INSULAR S Ꞅ can also be used if available, but U+A785 LATIN SMALL LETTER INSULAR S ꞅ looks too much like an r in most fonts.

^  Zz is used only in foreign words. Ƨƨ is used in both native and foreign words for etymologic s.

The sound /ʒ/ is spelled differently depending on etymology: Áƨja Asia, mèƨýr measure, azýr azure, Ƹƹ: garàƹ.

(Perhaps Zz should be used for all instances of /z/ and Ƹƹ for all instances of /ʒ/?)

The plural and possessive ending is always spelled 'ƨ (bœ'ƨ boy's, boys, boys'‌), and the past tense ending is always spelled 'd (kep'd, skor's, fád'd).

The Ʒ ʒ character

The preferred shape of the letter Ʒ ʒ is not like the IPA ezh, but like the Insular G, ᵹ (\u1D79), the capital version of which however is not adopted in Unicode yet. I use Ʒ ʒ (ezh) provisionally since the capital version of Insular G is not adopted in Unicode yet, and the small letter also is missing from most Unicode fonts. The preferred shape is shown in this image:

It should be noted that in NAS this letter denotes the phoneme /dʒ/ and not the phoneme /ʒ/ which is written as if it were /zj/ or with Ƹƹ.

The ʃ character

In place of SC sc one may use the ʃ character with its IPA value. Note that it should have a descender, unlike the Latin letter Long s ſ, in order to be maximally distinct from f. The preferred capital form is ɾ, like a J turned 180 degrees or an Armenian Ր, in order to distinguish it from the lower-case form, and from capital S. Since this capital form is unavailable in standard fonts the forms  (the Insular capital S) or Ʃ (the 'African' capital ʃ ) may be used, though care should be taken to distinguish  from /Ʒ.

Alternative graphies

Letters with acute diacritics may be replaced with digraphs as follows á > aa, é > ee, í > ij, ó > eo, ú > ou, ý > yy, œ > oe, ů > uo, å > oa.

Þ, þ may be replaced with Th th, ɾ ʃ may be replaced with Sh sh or Sj sj and Ʒ ʒ may be replaced with Cg cg or Gj gj.

BPJ 02:04, 25 February 2006 (PST) BPJ 05:14, 3 August 2006 (PDT)

Alternative vowel glyphs — NASS₂

Due to font problems the alternative vowel glyphs have to be shown as an image

The ɑ a ɛɩ glyphs

My preference would be to use ɑ ɑ for trap and father but ordinary A, a for face (with ƐƖ, ɛɩ as cursive form). In the meantime ɑ ɑ A, a

as free variants for trap and father and ƐƖ, ɛɩ for face is preferable, since even unligatured ƐƖ ɛɩ is preferable to losing the distinction! Thus although I'd prefer example (1) below (2) is clearer.

Due to font problems the examples must be shown as an image

It's all a service to the Anglo terror diacriticorum anyway: if nearly all other languages uses diacritics, then why not English?

Last changed by BPJ 06:26, 2 August 2006 (PDT)

A forerunner

None less than Alexander Melville Bell has been down the same road as I with his World English Spelling]. But why on Earth not ī for [aɪ] when he otherwise used the macron for the 'long' values? Funny how his [ʍ] is as close as can be to my [ju] ꝡ! BPJ 13:50, 15 June 2009 (UTC)