The chart illustrates 18 of the 36 different ways that the /ei/ sound is spelled in the dictionary.
Cut Spelling reduces the number from 18 to 10: [ a, a-e, ai, ay, ei, e, ey, et, ete, ait ]. Although still highly irregular, CS does improve regularity by 50%.  Systematic notational systems such as RES , OGD, and Spanglish reduce the number of spellings to 2.  Phonemic systems such as WES, New Spelling, Chekt Speling, and New Follick reduce the number of different ways to spell a sound to 1. See Dewey, 1971, for a complete list of the different possible TO spellings for every sound.

Systematic spelling solutions such as RES can have up to four ways to spell a particular sound.  In the case of /ei/ there are only 2  [ai & ay].   /ei/ RES haylo, baik, pay, prais, ait, rain, cafay, vails, ...  Spanglish [ei, ey, e']  heilo, baik, pey, prey, preiz, eit, rein, cafey/cafe', veils.

RES does away with a number of TO spelling conventions that are not consistently applied such as double consonants after short (checked) vowels and the "magic" or silent e sometimes said to mark a long vowel sound.  By universalizing two spelling patterns ai and ay, it will correctly spell only about 16% of the words in English.  It is slightly better than this because RES also approves of [a] for the spelling of the unstressed [aa] or schwa sound as in "a book".

RHYMING DICTIONARY  http://www.link.cs.cmu.edu/dougb/rhyme-doc.html

Rhymes of WAY:    halo, ace, pail, day, praise, eight, cafe, veil, break, rey, they

 2 syllables: abbe, aday, aggrey, aigner, aka, allais, allay, alms tray, and they, anway, array, asay, ash gray, ash grey,
     astray, at bay, away, b'nai, b-j, ballet, banpais, beauvais, bernay, betray, blue jay, bombay, boulais, boulay, bouquet,
     bouygues, bua, buffet, buga, bull bay, cafe, calais, callais, calvey, cathay, ceta, chalet, cheese tray, child's play, ciskei,
     cliche, coday, convey, crochet, croquet, d'orsay, decay, defray, dekay, delay, delray, devey, dismay, display, dk, dog
     sleigh, donais, dorais, dossier, dovey, draw play, dumais, dupay, each day, essay, faberge, fast day, feast day, fete day,
     field day, filet, fillet, fine spray, flag day, foia, foul play, francais, gerais, gervais, good day, gray jay, green bay, hair
     spray, halfway, hefei, hervey, hevey, hold sway, hongwei, hooray, hurray, ilhae, imlay, ira, ita, jaquay, jose, jouret,
     kamei, langlais, last day, leap day, levey, lord's day, lurvey, mackay, macknay, maclay, macrae, maltais, manet, marais,
     marquai, match play, may day, mcbay, mccay, mcclay, mccrae, mccray, mccrea, mcgray, mckay, mclay, mcnay,
     mcquay, mcrae, mcray, mcshea, mcstay, mcvay, mcveigh, mcvey, milk whey, millay, mobay, monet, morais, moray,
     moutray, mulvey, name day, nihei, nikkei, nisei, nissei, noaa, o'dea, o'shea, o. k., obey, oj, ok, okay, olay, orsay, palais,
     parquet, passe, per-se, pevey, porcher, portray, prepay, puree, purvey, rag day, red bay, red clay, rene, renee, repay,
     replay, resnais, rest day, risque, rose bay, saint's day, saute, school day, se, sea spray, sergei, servais, sevey, shinsei,
     sick pay, sinay, sochet, soiree, sorbet, souffle, speech day, squeeze play, steel gray, strike pay, stroke play, stupay,
     survey, swamp bay, sweet bay, tea tray, today, toray, toupee, to say, trap play, turvey, twelfth day, uva, vadnais, valet,
     voisey, waga, wah-pei, word play, work day, x ray, zalay, zepa 

Rhymes of EYE:   eye, ai, alai, dai, bonsai, high, hai, wise, guy, by, bye, rye, buy,
                             fly, hi-fi, keye, my, mei, phi, pie, tie, tye

 2 syllables: akai, alai, ally, altai, and i, apply, awry, bad guy, bandai, barkai, bee fly, belie, bely, black fly, black tai, black
     tie, blow fly, blue sky, bone dry, bonsai, bow tie, brunei, but i, bye-bye, chiengmai, chubais, chugai, comply,
     decry, defy, deny, dongmei, dubai, dupuy, good-bye, hi-fi, imai, imply, iwai, kanai, kansai, lac dye,
     rely, reply, retry,  shanghai, sundai, supply, versailles, xuemei, zhuhai

 

/ei/  way, weight, wait, pale, rey, rae, ole, paye			/ai:/  I fly, flight, wise, guy, hai, high, rye, pie
OGD / RES	NuFolik/Saxon	Unigraf	OGD | RES	NuFokik/Saxon	Unigraf
pay day, vail, frait	pei dei,  veil  freit beri:	pA, dA, vAl,	I fly ftyt, wys gy, py	ai flai, waiz, gai, hai, pai	I flI wIz gI hI
pay day, vail, frait	pey dey,  veil  freit bery	frAt, berI, rA	I fly ftyt, wys gy, py	ai flai, waiz, gai, hai pai	hI, rI, pI

So how many ways can you spell today?  toda, today, todae, todai, ..... See the other table for the number of ways to spell /tu:/.  A conservative number would be 18x18 (the number of ways shown above and in another similar table for /u:/).  A more accurate number would be 29x36 reflecting the number of ways the sound is spelled in an abridged dictionary.  RES would spell it two ways, tooday or tuday.  The second choice would be more correct since the [u] signifies the end of a syllable as in tuber. rather than a free vowel before a consonant as in tool.  Note the [e] has nothing to do with lengthening the sound of the u as it does in the word tube.  But there is some ambiguity as in tu-by, tub-y [toobi, tubby].

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spelling links     Ways to spell /u:/ - to vowel in guru  Ways to spell /i:/ - the vowel in eel    Ways to spell /e/

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To spell phonetically (fonetikli) you need to spell a vowel one of the top four ways and spell a consonant one of the top two ways to avoid missing an answer.  As shown here, the vowel sound in GURU would have to be spelled U, OO, UE, or U...E.  As shown above the vowel sound in DAY would have to be spelled A, A-E, AI, AY,  or EI.  He ayt ayt grayt playtz of pahstuh.  Hi eit eit greit pleitz ov grey pasta.  Hee ate ate grate plates ov grae paasta.

Parthenon would have to have a spelling for each sound in the word, "Parthe" wouldn't count as a correct answer. parthanan would be close enough to have only a half point knocked off. 

In Unigraf Parthenon would be spelled pqrT@nqn.  In IPA it would be spelled pa:rq'na:n 
These consistent alphabetic notations have one and only one grapheme (symbol) for each phoneme (speech sound). In Spanglish endorses two spellings (no change) parth'enon

Parachute could be spelled parashoot (half point deduction).  par@SUt (Uni),  paer'Su:t (IPA)

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Mark Twain on English spelling and alphabet reform:

"There is but one way to scientifically and adequately reform the [traditional English] orthography, and that is by reforming the alphabet;  then the orthography will reform itself.  What is needed is that each letter of the alphabet shall have a perfectly definite sound, and that this sound shall never be changed or modified without the addition of an accent, or other visible sign, to indicate precisely and exactly the nature of the modification."

"The Germans have this kind of alphabet.  Every letter of it has a perfectly definite sound, and when that sound is modified an umlaut or other sign is added to indicate the precise shade of the modification.  The several values of the German letters can be learned by the ordinary child in a few days, and after that, for 90 years,  the child can always correctly spell any German word it hears, without ever having been taught to do it by another person, or be obliged to apply to a spelling book for help."

"But the English alphabet is a pure insanity.  In it can hardly spell any word in the language with any large degree of certainty.  When you see the word chauldron in an English book no foreigner can guess how to pronounce it; neither can any native.  The reader knows that is pronounce chauldron -- or kaldron, or kawldron -- but neither he nor his grandmother can tell which is the right way without looking in the dictionary; and when he looks in the dictionary the chances are hundred to one that the dictionary itself doesn't know which is the right way but will furnish them all three and let him take his choice."

"When you find the word bow in English book standing by itself and without any informing text built around it, there is no American or Englishman alive, nor any dictionary, that can tell you how to pronounce that word.  It may mean a gesture of salutation and rhyme with cow; and it may mean an obsolete military weapon and rhyme with blow.  But let us not enlarge upon this.  The sillinesses of the English alphabet are quite beyond enumeration.  That alphabet consists of nothing whatever except sillinesses. I venture to repeat that whereas the English orthography needs reforming and simplifying, the English alphabet needs it two or three million times more."

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Twain preferred a phonemic solution to the  alphabet problem.  This can be done by extending the alphabet (i.e., adding new characters) or by using two letter sound signs.  One way to extend the alphabet is to use the upper case letters for new sounds, e.g., T for the TH in thin, A for the AY in play.  (see Unigraf).  English has adopted a digraphic solution but the tradtional system lacks consistency.  Sound spell uses existing English spelling patterns consistently.  Here are some stories that have been converted to sound spell.

Books in Sound Spell

ALC's 'Soundspel' alphabet is shown below. Children, adults, and foreign pupils who learn this one-page system will be able to write-- "as it sounds"-anything they can say in English. The inherent phonetic principle is the well-established one normally followed by languages that use an alphabet. 

It is for English, an equivalent of the phonetic spelling used daily by all who write in Spanish, German, Hungarian, Swedish, Finnish, Italian, Turkish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Serbo-Croatian, Swahili, Dutch, Korean, Hindu and scores of other languages. Today we have the expertise, the system, and the great social and economic need for an orthography that frees us from the ordeal of memorizing thousands of spelling irregularities.  (check it out)

1. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Frank Baum, HTMLSoundspel   Cut Spelling

2. The Red Badge of Courage, Steven Crane, HTML Soundspel   Cut Spelling
   (Civil War action)
3. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame, HTML Soundspel   Cut Spelling
      (Whimsical adventures of Mole and Toad by an English river in 1908.)
4. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells, HTMLSoundspel   Cut Spelling
   (The original time travel novel)
5. The Secret Garden, Francis Hodgson Burnett, text Soundspel   Cut Spelling
      (A young girl looks for the secrets of a bleak mansion.)
6. Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad, HTML  Soundspel   Cut Spelling
  (Adventure in the South Seas)
8. The Red Headed League, Connan Doyle, HTML Soundspel   Cut Spelling
    (Sherlock Holmes mystery) 
9. The Circular Staircase, Mary Roberts Rineheart, HTML  Soundspel   Cut Spelling
    (Famous mystery novel)
10. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens, HTML Soundspel   Cut Spelling
     (The classic novel of the French RevolutSion)
11. Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery, text  Soundspel   Cut Spelling
    (A strong minded young girl in rural Canada
12. The Invisible Man, H.G. Wells, text Soundspel   Cut Spelling
     (How would you catch a criminal who had made himself invisible?)

FOWLER ON THE KING'S ENGLISH 
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/fowler/

FINNISH LANGUAGE
http://www.georgetown.edu/cball/animals/finnish.html    2nd source    see also SSSJ

Henry Sweet's NOMIC
http://victorian.fortunecity.com/vangogh/555/Spell/sweet-nomic.htm

Latin - 1   x      Latin Course from LSMSA
Early Greek  Greek sound correspondents Greek
 

Visit these related pages on applied linguistics and rationalized spelling

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