.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 ......

[TAAM]  " 40 is sufficient." 

[STEVE]  "46 is a good number.  But it is not firm. We can only agree on the 36 uncombined phonemes [ 14v - 22c ] and agreeemnt does not necessarily prevent merging. Most orthographies merge the stressed and unstressed sounds [er, u, and ee].  TO clearly distinguishes the unstressed a and the stressed u [ultra - ultru in truespel] and the stressed e and the unstressed y [berry]" 
 

This grapheme-phoneme correspondence table contains 42 phonograms.  c and x are clearly redundant and are dropped from most lists.  Four of the phonograms are combinations:  ch, j, oi, and ou.  This yields 36 as the minimum number of uncombined sounds in English speech.  This table combines the stressed and unstressed versions of two sounds in herder and freely.  This has been done to conserve space, letters in white circles are distinct phonograms. The schwa, which some orthographies combine with the short u, is a unique phonogram in Spanglish. 
 

Tom believes that a phoneme list should be a minimal list and Truespel gets by with 40.  In the list below, the phonemes in red.are considered by Taam [theTruespel transcriptions of Tom] to be duplicates - they are not needed for Truespel.  Truespel phonographs include 5 combinations: ch, j, air, er, or, 
 

Truespel is somewhat unique because it indicates syllable stress.  Most systems have to mark two vowels in herder /h3:d@r/.  Truespel doesn't.  [equate] can be written eekwwait.  The double consonant indicates stress on the second syllable. The first vowel becomes schwi. Thus with 40 phonograms and a stress marking system, Truespel can represent 43 phonemes.  Can there ever be any agreement on the minimum number of sound signs required to fully represent English speech sounds?  I don't see any convergence beyond agreement on the 14 uncombined sounds [see first chart].  Recognition does not mean agreement on how to represent these sounds and whether or not to merge them.  An analysis such as the following is a start.  Englik 49 phoneme list  Three articles discuss the issue. [#phonemes]

all notations here show stress abbot abut abaat ubbut  'ae-b't '-'bLht 'a-b&t &-'b&t abbat abutt  aebxt xbat abxt xbVt ubct cbut

VOWELS      Truespel    ASCII / LATIN1     on-line converter   IPA converter

IPA and UNIFON columns added - the order in this list is semi-alphabetical.                         count   symbol  sample  TS# IPA ae ' e' :'. ei o: e i: 'r 3: i y ai a: 'u oi o' u: au a u UNI a c cr or A x e E cr ur i E* II o* O Q Or U q u C .    1      a       PAT     1 a    (original SAXON alphabet added ash [ae] to represent this )   2      'a      AGO    2 u    (thu saem leter kant repreezzent difrint soundz)    3      air     HAIR   3 air    4      ar     ARM    4 aar   r-combination not listed as a distinct vowel   5      ay     DAY     5 ae    6      aw    SAW    6 au    7      e       PET       7 e    8      ee      SEE      8 ee    9      er      HER      9 er    (pure vowel /3:/ or /''/ not the same as er [uther.]  9/10    er    SURFER  9 er       Truespel: her urban curb as her erban kerb.  10       i       SIT        10 i         another = unnuther 10/11   y      COSY    ee (saem sound az 8 - except unstressed)  11      ie      TIE       11 ie  12/13  o      HOT     aa   (saem sound az 4)  12      oe     TOE    12 oe    (the vowel is 'u  traditionally represented as ow)  13      oi      OIL      13 oi  14      or     OAR     14 or   (o alone not defined in Truespel)  15      uu      TOO   15 ue    (you=yue)  16      ou      OUT   16 ou  16/17   u.     BUT     u    (saem sound az 2)  17        u      PUT     17 oo   (az in "foot")   [2 missing: u@, 3:] Where Truespell lists 17 vowels other orthographies [e.g., IPA] lists as many as 21. Agreement on 12 of the 14 pure vowels - disagree on the obscure vowels shwa and shwer  No short o in truespel or unifon.  Where would the short o be phonemic?

.
Truespel forgoes the chance to simplify spelling by having at least three different ways to represent the schwa sound.  The schwer is standardized as [er] but schwa can be u, i, e, or oo. 
e.g., system is spelled sistim. ALC does something similar but selects the schwa letter to match the traditional spelling:  sytem= sistem, pencil=pensil. 

Spanglish tries to standardize on the [a] as the default schwa spelling.  The exception is e withi r. Thus release will be spelled relies rather than ralies and her will be spelled her rather than har. 
When a syllabic  consonant occurs at the end of a word, the preference is to supress the schwa: littl, murrdr, prizm, prizn rather than littal, murrder, prizam, and prizan. 

Each letter is associated with three sounds. 
A short sound, a free usually unstressed sound, and a long sound. 
Only two of the long sounds correspond to the letter name  A and O 
None of the unstressed forms are recognized by Truespel since stress is independent of shape. 

a, a-, aa   a-go sofa- cazbah 
e, e-, ei/ey 
 
 

Six short, eight long, threee diphthongs  One unstressed vowel is essential in  RP  GA probably needs three or four: a, er, y, u  This chart shows the common mergers of the unstressed sounds.  In IPA, the schwi is usually merged with the short i. [very] = [veri]. Teal cells are not part of the basic 21 vowels  The traditional spelling,  earthly, should be pronounced "airthly" and may have been pronounced this way at one time.  urthly /3rqli/ would represent today's pronounciation.  .

 

vowel letter	6 short	6 free	6 long	3 diphthong
A	a. ae   add	a  schwa	aa	ai  I   [ie]
E	e. berry edj	e  shwa	ei / ey	-- A  [ae] [air]
I	i.  ill	y  shwi	ii / iy / ie / ee	oi
O	o.  otter	o ao / oo / aw /al	oa	-- ou/ow O [oe]
U  [obscure]	u. [v]  upper	er / ur   sulfur	3:  urr / ur  urban	-- yuu U [yue]
U	u [w]  hook	u  to  shwu	tuu / uw / oo	au / ou

The lighter shaded cells are merged in most orthographies.  The traditional orthography often distinguishes the stressed and unstressed sounds.  "The very thought" can be rendered thu vairee thaut or th& verE thot  if stress is ignored or marked in some other way. 
 
 

The 21 vowels in IPA include two more  3: and u'. 'r and 3:are merged in Truespel.  yur is not considered to be a simple combination. 

Truespel merges the short o and the long a, it also merges schwa and the sound in up. 
However the stress convention in Truesepl restores the distinction.  ubbut  [abut] 
This list is in AEIOU order which is the same as the arrangements in sounds of English. 
Not all of the R combinations are shown [air, her, arm, air] but not [ear, ire, our, your] 

The digraphs in Truespel usually represent letters - not blends.  Ten of the 17 vowel symbols would not be part of a universal alpabet.  ae, au, air, ee, er, oe,  u, ue, oo do not count. 

Truespel distinguishes these sounds as well as the IPA

Longerlists44-phonemesphonemeinventory4x6table

24 CONSONANT SOUNDS

 1  19      b      BED     b
 2  20      ch     CHIP    ch
 3  20/21   kh    LOCH         Is this needed if there is only one word that uses it.? 
 4  21      d      DOG     d
 5  22      f      FAT     f
 6  23      g      GET     g
 7  24      h      HOT     h

 8  25      j      JET     j
 9  26      k      KID     k
10  27      l      LEG     l
11  28      m      MAN     m
12  29      n      NET     n

13  30      ng    RING    --   [not in Truespel]
14  31      p      PEN     p
15  32      r      RED     r
16  33      s      SIP     s
17  34      sh     SHE     h

18  35      sure   MEASURE zh
19  36      t      TOP     t
20  37      th     THING   thh
21  38      th     THIS    th
22  39      v      VAT     v

23  40      w      WET     w
24  40/41   wh     WHET    --
25  41      y      YET     y
26  42      z      ZIP     z  Truespel total is40

----- 
24-26 consonants:  both missing hw, usually merged with w.
Everyone will accept 22 pure and 24 with 2 combined.
contested: kh, ng 

missing phonemes: schwa, schwi, 
add ch in loch, ng, schwi, and the short o   to get to 44. 
note that there is no schwa or rather it is merged with /^/. 
truespel reduces the number to 40 

  linear description 8k 

21v-sampa-ss.gif

50-phonograms-d.gif

feather - turn into a clickable image map
Did samaratan and aramaic come from old hebrew?
Not sure that modern square Hebrew came from Aramaic.
 

Vowel Phoneme Table for British English (RP) withkey words
MappingTruespel onto the 21 essential soundsfor RP English shown in IPA -4x6 table
Since Truespel merges o/aa, and u/schwa,it has only 16 vowels plus the R combinations.
.
6 checked +  6 unchecked  + 5 diphthongs + 4 ending with schwa= 21 essential vowels

IPA &TruespelVowelNotations   6 checked   |  6 unchecked  |  5 - diphthongs |   4 - 8 with shwa  Chekt-short  Free- long  Difthongs  4with schwa æa a:aa aiie a..aar| ai..ier at, ax,ask,  cat alms,want, star  5 eye, ice,bite are, care |  ire, fire ee 3:er eiae eair edge get,elbow 3 her, girl,urban ace, ape,vein air, care,there, barely i i i:ee oi oi i:ear it, in,index, ill eel, ski,sing, very oil, boy,loyal ear, fear,deer, mere a.turned aaa :au ouoe :or ox, cot,otter awe, call,cost oh, oat,low for, four,floor, more u oo u:ue  juyue uyuer hook,put, could ooze,zulu, zoo you, few,fuse your, sure, cure ^ turned v. u ..-u, oo, i, a, e auou auour up, cut,putt ago, sofa,unit out, down our, flower,power

The IPA turned e,turned a, and turned c are unavailable in ASCIIand Latin-1   The peachcoloredcells are not included in the Jones/Wijk essential phoneme inventory.   All checkedvowels(vowels which are checked or stopped by a consonant)are short andallfreevowels, with the exception of schwa in an initial position, are long. If a vowel occurs at the end of a word, it is by definition a free voweland does not need to be distinguished from a checked vowel. Thus "See mie haloe" could be "Se mi halo."  or "Si m'y halo." in CKS.

Only when the free vowel isfollowed by a consonant does it need to be distinguished from a closelyrelated short vowel.

24 consonants on the right  ©2001 Beta

Vowel Phoneme Table with key words
Mapping Truespel onto the 21 essential sounds for RP English shown in IPA - 4x6 table
Since Truespel merges o/aa, and u/schwa, it has only 16 vowels plus the R combinations.
Only when the free vowel is followed by a consonant does it need to be distinguished from a closely related short vowel.
Spanglish can substitute ee for i when followed by a consonant.

IPA.21.- .Spanglish.25.-. Truespel.19
  n 6 checked    |   6 unchecked   |    5 - diphthongs   |   4 to 8 with shwa

Chekt - short	Free - long	Difthongs	4 with schwa
æ ae a .	a: aa aa .	'i ai ie .	a' aar | ai' ier
at, ax ask, act cat	alms, want, star  5	eye, ice, bite, high	are, car  |  ire, fire
e e e .	3: r er er	ei ey ae .	e' er air .
edge let elbow  3	her girl surfer  word	ace, ape, vein, day	air, care, there, barely wear
i i. i .	i: i-y ee ee	oi oy oi .	i' ir eer .
it, in, index, ill	eel, ski, sing, very	oil, boy, loyal, oyster	ear, fear, deer, mere, iritate
a o. aa . .turned a	: ao au . turned c	ou ow oe . turned e + u	:' or or oer turned c + schwa
ox, pot, otter	awe, call, cost, law	oh, oat, low, silo	for, four, floor, more, war
u w oo .	u: uu ue .	ju yu yue .	u:' yur yuer .
hook,  put, could	ooze zulu zoo glue	you, few, fuse, utility	your,  tour, sure, cure
L a u . turned v	' a u . turned e [schwa]	au au ou . ae +  u	au' aur our . tripthongs not listed -Jones
upper,  putt,  cut	ago, sofa unit, sufer	out, down, cow, trout	our, flour, flower, power
peach colored phonograms are not part of the minimum phoneme set light blue phonograms have a related stressless variation yellow phonograms have been merged

© 2000BETA Interactive   Ì ò ™™® ©™ Peach colored cells reference phonograms  that are not isolated 
Blue cells reference variations in stress.
With the diacritics æ à  è  ì  ò  ù , Spanglish becomes phonemic.
All notations use the 25 vowels and combinations shown but IPA and TS recognize fewer vowel phonemes.

NOTES
There is a three way ambiguity for most vowel letters and sounds can overlap.
a=ago, aax, aex,   o=aa, awe, owe,   u=up, hook, hoop
The medial value will usually work in all situations: aa, awe, hook
at = aat, active
dotr = daughter, octive
ups=oops, sofa

dotr-daotr   cost-caost   octiv -aactiv-aectiv   cot-caat? 
When this is done there is little difference between active and octive.

  Helvetica">, Spanglish becomes phonemic.
All notations use the 25 vowels and combinations shown but IPA and TS recognize fewer vowel phonemes.

NOTES
There is a three way ambiguity for most vowel letters and sounds can overlap.
a=ago, aax, aex,   o=aa, awe, owe,   u=up, hook, hoop
The medial value will usually work in all situations: aa, awe, hook
at = aat, active
dotr = daughter, octive
ups=oops, sofa

dotr-daotr   cost-caost   octiv -aactiv-aectiv   cot-caat? 
When this is done there is little difference between active and octive.

Truespel Frequency Order 
from the Truespel 57,000 entry dictionary 
NR=New Romaji 

work in progress

Vowel	Letter	Freq	TS	NR	SS	Romik
v 1	i	9.9%	sit	sit	sitt	sit
v 2	ee	5.0%	see	sii	si	see
v 3	er	3.4%	her	hr	her	hrr
v 4	u	3.3%	up	ap	ap  vp	upp
v 5	e	2.6%	beg	beg	begg	beg
v 7	ae	2.1%	sundae	sandi	sunndy	sunndey

Sampa - Croatian
 

Of course, the above is not a list only of English phonemes, although
all of them are there.  It is a nice list of the major COMBINATIONS of
phonemes, as well.
 

Links

• Number of Phonemes article
• 50 sounds
• 50snds-long.html 
• 50phonograms-englik3.html 
• Saundspel Newsbrief Aug-2001