PHONICS:

A Simplified American English System Based on Spanish to Sound Words.

22 August 2003

Pick any word. Knowing each syllable has only one emission of vowel voice, separate the syllables. Say them one by one until you hear which one carries the stress accent. If the vowel be a diphthong, and is followed by an R, it is okay to make two syllables at the diphthong to hear the secret vowel of English. It can go before R in a syllable. The word “here” is an example <HI-r>. This essay presents a system called Igwise <igwxyz> to hear and record the spoken sounds of General American English on paper, a supplementary system as in a dictionary, but simple. Regular-typewriter letters can be used. Remember, two A letters, one upside down, on the top of the other, with horizontals removed, is an X. Ig uses X as the sound of Spanish A. C is almost an O for the sound of awe. Presently, the letter R is both a consonant without voice and a vowel. Later, we will separate the two giving Q the voice of the R vowel. Without voice, the duck has no Quack. Without voice, the R is a consonant. The vowel sound of –ing is <IY> <-iyng>. The consonant glide of YES is also IY <IYES>. The two types of IY, one with voice and other without, are easily separated: the consonant glide comes before the vowel of the syllable, the IY with voice is the vowel of the syllable. The vowel with less voice is also used as a onset to the vowel <W>. Note that stressed syllables are capitalized at times in this essay to separate.

KEYWORDS: Igwize, Igwxyz, phonics, English, Spanish, spelling tests, mind’s eye, Saundspel, secret vowel, hidden vowel, Gregg shorthand, Nebrija, r-vowel, Handywrite.

Dear Student,

<DI-r> <STW-dunt>,

They say the best teachers write.

<THEY> <SEY> <THU> <BEST> <TIY-chrz> <RXYT>.

I want to be a good teacher.

<XY> <WXUNT> <TIW> <BIY> <GOOD> <TIY-chr>.

Hundreds of years ago the people of

<HUN-dredz> <UV> <IYI-rz> <u-GO> <THU> <PIY-pul> <UV>

Spain knew that they would be

educators of Indians in the New

<EJ-u+keyt-rz> <UV> <IN-diy-unz> <IN> <THU> <NIW>

World, and made their language

<w-R-uld>, <AND> <MEYD> <THE-r> <LA-iyng-gwij>

very faithful to the sounds of

<VE-r-y> <FEYTHH-ful> <TIW> <THU> <SXWNDZ> <UV>

its letters, so that it would be

easy to teach.

<IY-ziy> <TIW> <TIYCH>.

When the sounds and letters are the same, one has a mind’s eye as well as a mind’s ear. Without the mind’s eye, one only has the mind’s ear for memory. One’s ability to learn is cut in half. Some of our minds are more capable of doing the other things beyond memory – more of our given brain space can be used to invent, so we have less of a mind to memorize. Moreover, after childhood, most of us cannot easily memorize the jumbled sounds of each and every new word. We could learn a supplementary system to separate sounds to study spelling and know in a profound way that English letters are not faithful to their sounds. Most minds can deal with the facts and learn to separate sounds.

All of the Spanish sounds are in English except one, the double R called erre in Spanish. Just think, if we could separate the sounds of English, we could almost speak perfect Spanish. Our English would improve as well. Those who learn to separate sounds learn to read and write their language well.

In the words that follow, I will bring together English and Spanish to build the sounds of both using only normal letters that can be typed by a regular typewriter. You will never confuse these sounds with the spelling of a word, English or Spanish, because this new system is called sounds, NOT spelling. It always has syllables separated as we speak them, and it is enclosed in some sort of brackets. For example, the word “learner” has sounds <LRN-r>. The printed sounds will become a wonderful sound recorder without the tape and a tape recorder. These pages already talk without the need of many years of hard work and great ability to memorize.

The sounds of Ig will differ from individual to individual, because the sounds themselves are in the person sounding the words. The letters used by Ig only bring forth the sounds the person uses to communicate English. Ig sets a lower limit for the sound elements of English at 33, 11 vowel elements, 22 consonants.

How can one justify using an X for the sound very close to Spanish A when we sound English? First, let me say that there is a reason to reserve the letter A for the short sound of the letter A in the words “pat or sat” <pat or sat>. We are sounding English, not Spanish, and the name of our letter A is sounded <ey> as in they. We really have no name for the Ig X sound other than Spanish A or Latin A, but it is most important to English. Moreover, each time we use X for the sound of Spanish A, we say to ourselves: I can do this because both Spanish and English have K and S to take the place of X. The spelling sounds of the letter X in both languages are <KS>. English uses X for <GZ> in addition to <KS>.

Our English dictionaries place the spelling of a word first; then they follow it with its sounds using the correct separation of syllables. A regular typewriter cannot type all of these symbols for English sounds, and these symbols are different from dictionary to dictionary. We want a system for sounds using regular letters that is so simple that it cannot be improved upon.

We have three sounds for the letter A: <A> is the short English A sound, <X> is the Spanish A sound, and the diphthong <EY> are the long English A sounds. Only <Y> is used for the sound of “ee” in Lee <LY>. In Spanish, the word “lima” has the sounds <LY-ma>. In other words, Spanish has two letters for the <Y> sound; the letter I is called the Latin <Y>, and the letter Y is called the Greek <Y>. We will not have any duplicate sound symbols even though the spelling of words uses many letters (i, y, e, ee, ea, etc) for the same sound. Thus, the letter I is free to be used for the sound of the short I of English. The sounds of “It is” are <IT> <IZ>. However, now that we have separated from <Y>, note that the sounds of the word Lima are <LIYMA>, and the sounds of Lee are <LIY>.

A simple way to justify using the symbol X for the short A of English, is to take two A’s; turn one up side down, and place it on the tip of the other. When you erase the horizontal lines you have the symbol X. Likewise, the letter C is almost an O, and its sounds are <K> or <S> in both Spanish and English. So the letter C is free like the letter X is free. Thus, we use <C> for the short sound of the letter O in English. The sound of the word “awe” is <C>. English has two sounds for the letter O: <O> and <C>. Spanish has only one sound for the letter O: <O>. English tries to switch the short letter O to a long letter O by adding a silent letter E to the word: the sounds of the word “note” are <NOT>. In England, the sounds of the word “not” are <NCT> if the <C> were shorter. In America, we say <NXT>. We have covered the hardest part; the rest is down hill.

The vowel letters in English and Spanish are the same: A, E, I, O, U. Let us make a list of these letters. Now we can correlate the vowel elements of English with the Spanish vowel sounds. It is important to observe the following when we spell: WE USE THE LETTERS OF OUR VOWELS FOR THE SOUNDS OF THEIR NAMES. This increases the number of different sounds beyond 11 for the vowels of traditional spelling.

THE TRADITIONAL VOWEL LETTERS: a, e, i, o, u.

SOUNDS OF ENGLISH VOWEL NAMES: <ey>,<iy>,<xy>,<o>,<iyw>.

FIRST SIX ENGLISH VOWELS: <a>,,<c>,<oo>,,<q>.

THE FIVE ENGLISH VOWELS THAT ARE SPANISH: <x>,<e>,<iy>,<o>,<w>.

MNEMONIC TO REMEMBER ALL 11 ENGLISH VOWEL ELEMENTS: Fat is all good; but sir, not yet, eat no food = <Fat iz cl good (g%d); but sq, nxt iyet, iyt no fwd>.

SAMPA for USA English: {,I,O,U,V,3`,A,E,i,o,u.

SAMPA for common American Spanish: a (and A), E (and e), i, o, u.

SAMPA for common British English: {, I, O (and Q), U, V, 3, A, E, i, o, u.

There are 3 sounds that can be grouped into sounds associated with the letter U. I like the phrase, “Luke looks lucky” to remember them: <LWK LOOKS LUK-iy>. The sounds for the word “food” are <FWD>. The sounds and may be the most common vowels in English.

When the sound is in an unaccented syllable, it is called a schwa . Any unaccented vowel letter can be a schwa <SHWA> in traditional orthography (TO). Sometimes we do not have to write schwas before consonant sounds. They are schwa by default. For example the sounds of “little” are <LIT-tul> or <LIT-tl> or <LIT- ul>. Or better: oil and royal, <oy-ul> and <roy-ul>. Note that the L letter is syllabic because it has a hidden schwa in traditional orthography. The schwa makes English fast, soft, and beautiful. When in question, make English sound good.

There is a secret vowel of English. We do not have to write it because it almost always goes before the letter R. For example, the sounds of the word “hard” are <HX-rd>. We cannot say consonants without a vowel. We need a vowel to carry the consonant out of our mouth. Consider the word “here” <HI-r>. If you listen well, the word “here” could have two syllables; the vowel of the first syllable is , the second is the secret vowel before the letter R. The vowel that usually precedes R in a syllable can be a default secret vowel because a syllable has only one emission of the vowel voice. The spelling letter of the secret vowel can be any or no vowel letter, but we do not have to write it when we write sounds. That is, we do not have to write it if it is the only vowel of the syllable. If it is not the only vowel, then we must separate the diphthong to make R stand alone, or use the offensive letter Q for the vowel of the words her and sir. Think of R as something that looks like a duck. When we place Q before R we know the duck talks with the secret vowel: <w-R-uld, WQR-uld, W_R-uld, WQ-uld, WQ-ld> for world. The letter Q as the r-vowel becomes especially important to distinguish a word pair: throw and thorough, <thhro> and <thhqo> or <thhq-o>. The identity <Q> = <QR> is true because <R> is the short consonant of the long vowel <Q>. The use of Q as the R vowel would help separate syllables because each syllable has only one vowel voice.

When people who speak only Spanish are taught, they can be told up front that they have to learn only 12 new sounds to speak English. Let us list the sounds we have covered so far that are not Spanish; then we can fill in the rest: <A>, <C>, , <OO>, , and the secret vowel <Q>. We have covered six of these sounds. We have only six to go.

In Spanish, the letter Z is <S>. Spanish does not have the sound of honeybees <Z>. In Spanish, the letter H has no sound; it is used to separate syllables. The sound of the English letter H is the sound of the Spanish J, so we can use <J> for the sound in “judge” <JUDJ>. Now the sound of J in the Spanish word “Jose” is <H>, <ho SE>. The word “the” has sounds <THU>. The word “thin” has the sounds <THHIN>, from Truespel. The word “measure” has the French sound <ZH>, thus <ME-zhr>. Note that the last syllable uses the secret vowel. The word “show” is <SHOW>; the sound <SH> is not in Spanish. The final six are: <Z>, <J>, <TH>, <THH>, <ZH>, and <SH>. The sound <NG> is in both languages: working is <WQK-iyng>, tengo is <TENG-go>. The CH of church is also in both English and Spanish. The sound <NK> of “think” is like <NG> of “-ing”.

In Spanish and English, <Y> and <W> are the weak vowel sounds to be added to a strong or weak vowel sound to form diphthongs and triphthongs. Examples in English are “you” <IYW>, “we” <WY>, and “wow” <WXW>. The sounds <X>, <E>, and <O> are strong vowels. The Spanish double letter “LL” is used to add the weak vowel sound <IY> to the vowel that follows: llamo is <IYX-mo>. The letter N with a tilde over its top does the same thing: senor is <sen-IYOR>. Note that there is no secret vowel in the last syllable. The vowel we write takes its place when we sound in Spanish. There is no secret vowel in Spanish.

Spanish uses the letters QU for <K> when the vowel is the sound <IY> or <E>. Que is <KE>. Quito is <KIY-to>. The U is always silent. The letters after Q must be UE or UI or the word is not Spanish. Spanish syllables with letters A, O, or U also use the letter C for the sound of <K>. The letter C has the sound of <S> before letters I or E in Spanish. The letter G has its normal sound before letters A, O, or U, or a consonant. Before the letters I or E, G has the sound <H>: gente is <Hen-te>. If we want to make this sound normal, we must add U: Guerra is <GE-rrx>. Verguensa is <ver-GWEN-sx>. Note that verguensa should have a dieresis over the U. This is the hard part of Spanish spelling.

In Spanish, if the accent is not written, it is on the last syllable when it ends in a consonant other than N or S. Otherwise, it is on the second to last syllable when the word is unaccented. English does not have a faithful system.

Practice listening to English and Spanish. See if you can separate these sounds and record the Ig letters for their sounds on paper. Practice translating sounds into spelling. If you can do this, your family can be a team to master the English language, and it can be so much fun!

This faithful system is also available in modified Gregg shorthand. The shorthand image seems to record better in the mind’s eye, and causes no confusion with the letters of spelling. It has the disadvantage that it cannot be typed, and it cannot as easily be compared to Spanish to see if the sounds belong to Spanish. Moreover, we already have letters. Let us begin with them. Shorthand is another new learning task. This system is something like a Saundspel system, but it has the advantage that it is not for spelling and only sounds by syllables. It is an easy way to give spelling tests that talk off the page, and forces us to separate the sounds of English. We can start with sounds and build a path to traditional orthography – walking through the sounds of a word with uppercase, and describing the fuzzy logic of spelling with its reason and the necessary parallel words for each step.

Ig is a subset of traditional orthography. Sampa /{IOUV3`AEiou/ = <aic%uqxeyow> = <AIC8UQXEYOW>. Fat is all good, but sir; not yet, eat no food. Fat iz cl good, but sq; nxt iyet, iyt no fwd. Ye = <iyiy>. You = <iyw>. Woo = <w%w>. Measure = <mezhq>. Thin = <thhin>. Igwxyz has schwa coloring, stress always known, penultimate default, tween scheme, <!ej-u+keyt-qz> = <"ej-u-'keyt-qz>. In Spanish <x> = /a/, and <e> is sometimes /e/ instead of /E/. The sound of R depends on the dialect or language, but Q has more voice than R in USA English: Secure, securer, throw, thrower, thorough = <su+kiywq, su+kiywq-q, thhro, thhroq, thhqo>. Note that a separate symbol for the R vowel <Q> helps separate syllables. Igwize is a sounding system for the mind’s eye - not for spelling necessarily, <but el-egunt thhcts, gramq, AND SXWNDZ xq thu riy-ul thhiyng tiw biy dizxyqd bxy cl.>

This essay has taken the position that everyone, not just the elite, should have the simplest of systems to faithfully sound their words. This would give us all the ability to completely separate and identify our sounds. We could know in full how, why, and where, traditional orthography can fail. Our orthography will remain difficult until we all can understand the need for change. Until then, not only can we hear our sound elements, we can see them in their simplicity when we sound with our alphabet.

Related essays: The Secret Vowel and Ig to Sound English, www.lafn.org/~bj957/ig.htm; Finding the Answer, www.lafn.org/~bj957/new.htm; The Elements: their timing and blend in language, www.lafn.org/~bj957/elements.htm; Rules for the Igwxyz Sounding System, www.lafn.org/~bj957/rules.htm; Help from Dr. Bett and others, www.lafn.org/~bj957/help.htm; English poem of Watt & Ascott, www.lafn.org/~bj957/poem.htm; Purpose: the Igwxyz sounding system, www.lafn.org/~bj957/purpose.htm; SAMPA: and the Igwxyz system to sound words, www.lafn.org/~bj957/sampa.htm; Henry Sweet’s IPA, www.lafn.org/~bj957/sweet.htm; IgHand: the Igwxyz-based, modified, Gregg shorthand, www.lafn.org/~bj957/ighand.htm; Phonemes, www.lafn.org/~bj957/phonemes.htm, Names of Alphabet Letters, http://www.lafn.org/~bj957/names.htm, The Path into Traditional Orthography, http://www.lafn.org/~bj957/path.htm. Igwxyzq, http://www.lafn.org/~bj957/igwxyzq.txt.

Sincerely,

Dennis B. Smith, 818-767-2714

12016 Rialto St., Sun Valley, CA 91352-3041, USA

bj957@lafn.org (lafn = Los Angeles Free Net)

These essays are free to be used without restrictions. They are part of a larger experiment called LBME, Learn By Modular Essay.

Updated 22 December 2008: http://www.lafn.org/~bj957/phonics.txt.