Every once in a while I sometimes think about remaking the English writing system, as is normal I’m sure😅, and I wonder what would be the most useful revision of punctuation or phonetic.

  • Justas🇱🇹
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    11 months ago

    Spell things the way they are pronounced. Add extra letters if you have to.

    • Darthjaffacake@lemmy.worldOPM
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      11 months ago

      I’m always curious on people’s ideas on how to reduce the number of letters that are needed for spelling in english (48~ phonemes which is massive for an alphabet). Personally I find that it makes sense to spell zh (like the g in beige or the s in pleasure) with Ž as it’s so uncommon it’s not really worth the extra letter.

      • Justas🇱🇹
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        11 months ago

        Two letter phonemes are always possible.

        For example, Lithuanian has 32 letters in its alphabet, and has no x, q, or w, but has ą, ę, į, ų, ū, č, š and your aforementioned ž.

        It also has two phonemes that require two letters:

        ch to differentiate it from h, to separate hide (h sound) from whores (ch sound)

        dž to pronounce Jack and John as Džekas and Džonas, because j is pronounced as the y in yarp.

        it also as ie, au, ei and similar two vowel combos that slowly go from one sound to another.

        • Darthjaffacake@lemmy.worldOPM
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          11 months ago

          True that’s also useful, Two letters has worked fine for a lot of stuff in English (th, sh, ch) I guess zh isn’t a stretch at all for us. I’m kinda worried about vowels though since we have so many, maybe an addition like Cyrillic’s ь makes sense so non is non but known is noьn or something

          • Justas🇱🇹
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            11 months ago

            You could either combine vowels to make new sounds or use something with diacritics like å, ä, ė or whatever is used the most.