New English

03/17/08

 In the last week's  SS, it was mentioned thatan attempt was made thru my book of 'New English' to make written word conform to spoken word. The main drawback in English is that there are too few vowels. In use of consonants too, there is often no consistency as we have noted earlier.  Hene, details proposals are presented in New English regarding vowels as well as cosonants, and a few modified once.
  
   In New English  the spoken word is taken  for granted, with its pronunciation, and the spelling is made to conform to it. Also, this was done without introduction of any new alphabets so that the present keyboards of typewriter or computer would  suffice. When spellings are rational and based upon logical principles, they become easily predictable, because, the aspect of unjustifiable convention, is eliminated. Possibility of spelling mistakes is almost reduced. New English can take care of any different pronunciations for the same word.

   A sample of modified spellings as per New English, are given below to get some idea. Before that however, better to note a few of the proposals in it :  'u' is used as in 'but'. To pronounce 'u' as in 'put', the letter 'u' is underlined.  'y' is used  as in 'my', 'type' etc.  To pronounce as a consonant as in 'yatch', 'yam' etc, the letter 'y' is underlined. Such changes were needed to avoid confusion and ambiguity.  Every consonant has its distinct function. In order to know all the proposals in detail, 'New English' has to be referred to.  Well, here are some modified spellings  as per 'New English' :

accent = aksent     accrue = akroo    action = akshun    align = alyne   become = bikum    blue = bloo
bread = bred    busy = bizee    candle = kandil    close = kloaz   bright = bryte   circus = surkus
blood = blud    car = kaar    clock = klaak   cough = kaaf    eight = ait    jealous = jelus   come=kum
cynic = sinik    fight = fyte   friend = frend    germ = jurm   knife = nyfe   liquid = likwid knock = naak   phone = foan   know = noe   often = aafen   psychic = sykik   rough = ruff   sanction = sankshun   should = shud    succeed = sukseed    through = throo   quick = kwik   sigh = sy   said = sed  subtle = sutil   touch = tuch   walk = waak   whole = hoal   vicious = vishus   whom = hoom   write=ryte wealth = welth      wrong = raang    zone = zoan         and so on . . . . .

   NB.  In this connection, I wish to mention that in 2002  the European Union decided to adopt English as  its lingua franca.  However it felt that the spellings were far from satisfactory (which fact even UK agreed). They appointed a Committee to revise the needed spellings. By then, my book  of "New English" was published, and I sent them a few copies of it. They promptly acknowledged, and mentioned that they would make use of it, as and when needed.