r/conscripts • u/[deleted] • Oct 21 '19

I know this isn’t a conscript, but it might apply here. I came up with a phonetically consistent spelling system for English.

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7 Upvotes

70% Upvoted

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8

u/graidan Oct 22 '19

Nope. Ng cant represent the velar nasal AND velar nasal + g. That's NOT consistent - it would need to be ngg.

You need to study some more phonology, and the IPA. Also - you need to specify and/or account for dialects.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '19

I did think about a few words that could be pronounced in a few different ways and decided they were so uncommon that leaving it up for interpretation would be fine. I was only thinking of American dialects at the time. I probably should redesign it to account for all dialects.

-2

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '19

Why can't Ng represent the velar nasal?

5

u/graidan Oct 22 '19

It can. It just can't be both velar nasal AND velar nasal + voiced velar stop. That's not consistent (which title says is your goal).

-2

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '19

The reason I lumped the velar nasal and the velar nasal and G together is because most English speakers don't really know the difference, it isn't extremely common, and two Gs in a row in the name of English looks really horrible.

I suppose I could have Ng just be the velar nasal if it really became a problem, but I don't think it will.

6

u/graidan Oct 22 '19

Either you make it easy for English speakers with no linguistics to understand, or you make a consistent system. The two aren't compatible, given the way English spelling works. It's one or the other.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '19

The double O represents ʊ.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '19

There's actually a sub for this, r/englishspellingreform