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Fonetikspell Alphabet and Spelling Mechanism

Objective:

The intention of this article is to arrive at a minimal basic phonetic alphabet, simple, clear and a robust spelling system, which is small and easily understandable by both humans and linguistic processing computer. One can easily create spelling on hearing a word with phonetic alphabet. Since Sanskrit is phonetically advanced and grammatically Structured language, this article looks at English Alphabet Phonetics and Spelling Mechanism from Devanagari (Sanskrit - script) perspective. Let this approach be called 'DevaGreek'. Minimal Devanagari is used here to keep resulting alphabet small. Attempt has been made to make this article as simple as possible. The central idea is to continue using multiple vowels as 'AI' in 'FAINT' or 'OI' in 'OIL' instead of using diphthong symbol. The 8 vowels are used instead of 5 for clarity. The consonant q,w,c,x are replaced using existing consonants and 5 new consonants are added to avoid the use of letter 'H' to denote a special consonant as in 'CHat','GHost','SHarp','THen','THink' (aBHor). Quiet, Wise, Fox, Circle , Experiment can also be written without q,w,c,x as kvâyat, vâis, Fôks, sarkal, Êksparimênt. 23 consonants with their unique sound and 8 vowels with their dual purpose to arrive at 'spell as you speak'.

The Alphabet will also simplify transcribing Devanagari and other language Script so that one can read those languages without learning their script. This article is not meant for praising Sanskrit or criticizing English. This article or its author does not support any religious belief or racial bias.

Consonants: (Total 32 Consonants, 23 English Specific)

♦- Characters in this color are Generally Not Found in English dictionary, used in other languages

♦- This English letter or combination is used to denote the sound (Click on ♪ symbol to hear the sound)

♦- This is new alphabet symbol (Latin Extended , Basic Greek for δΔ, Cyrillic for ъЪ)

Origin of Sound (Sanskrit)	Origin Of Sound (English)	1	2	3	4	Nasal 5
1) Kanthya/JibhMulya ♪ (sounds produced in the throat by contact between the base of the tongue and the soft palate-area above the root of the tongue)	Guttural	Cat, Kite, baCK   क - K K k ♪	Khartoum,  MiKhail  Gorbachev, Khomeini   ख - Kh Ķ ķ  ♪	Go, Game   ग - G G g  ♪	Ghost   घ - Gh Ğ ğ  ♪	siNG (not used in this approach) ङ - ng ŋ
2) Talavya ♪ (sounds produced by the front surface of the tongue arching toward the hard palate-area above and behind the upper frontal teeth)	Palatal	Check     च - Ch Č č  ♪	Chhatra     छ - Chh Ć ć  ♪	Jam, Gem, ledGer, solDier   ज - J J j  ♪	Zoom, vaSe(sibilant) ज़ - Z,(Jh) Z z  ♪ झ - Z Ž ž  ♪	(not used in this approach) ञ - nya
3) Murdhanya ♪ (sounds produced with the tip of the tongue drawn back into the dome of the palate-area in top center of mouth)	Cerebral	Toy   ट - T T t  ♪	Nishthha   ठ - Thh Ť ť  ♪	Dog   ड - D D d  ♪	Dhaka   ढ - Dh Ď ď  ♪	RamayaN   ण - N Ň ň  ♪
4) Dantya ♪ (sounds produced by the tip of the tongue and the root of the frontal upper teeth)	Dental	Mao Tse Tung, Tantra त - T Ţ ţ   ♪	Thin   थ - Th Ŧ ŧ   ♪	Dalai Lama, Damascus,  LeonarDo  Da  Vinchi द - D Δ δ  ♪	Then   ध - Th Đ đ  ♪	No न - N N n   ♪
5) Oshthhya ♪ (sounds produced using the lips)	Bilabial	Pen   प - P P p  ♪	Fit, Phone   फ - F, Ph F f  ♪	Bat   ब - B B b  ♪	Bhutan ,aBhor   भ - Bh Ъ ъ  ♪	Man   म - M M m  ♪
6) Antahastha (half-vowels produced by articulating the vocal cords)	semi-vowels	Yes (palatal)   य - Y Y y  ♪	Run (cerebral)   र - R R r  ♪	Lip (dental)   ल - L L l  ♪	Water, Vote (labial)   व - V, W V v  ♪
7) Usman (uttered with a hissing voice)	sibilants	Ship, notion श - Sh Š š   ♪	Sit, Cent स - S S s  ♪
8) Visarga (sound produced by the full emission of breath)	Aspirate	Hat ह - H H h ♪
		(Unicode 0933) ळ - L Ľ ľ  ♪
Anusvar (soft nasal 'N' sound produced without touching the tip of the tongue behind the upper front teeth or 'Um' without closing lips)		DashaŃsh (Unicode 0902) ं - N Ń ń  ♪

Unique Symbol for Each Consonant

In preceding table (consonant table), consonants in English are organized in Devanagari Fashion.  The place of origination of sound inside the mouth dictates the organization of Devanagari consonants.

The simple rule followed from row 1 to 5 is as follows, adding letter 'H' to odd column gets the sound of next even column (column 2, column 4).

English alphabet also followed this rule for 2 letters Z (Jh) and F(Ph).

1. Three consonant symbols are added to make English language phonetic (Gh, Ch, Sh).
2. Two consonants symbols are added to distinguish 'TH' in 'Thin' and 'Thus'.
3. Ten new consonants are added to accommodate other languages so that one can easily pronounce famous names using English.

Breaking down Complex Consonant

Following eliminates 4 letter in current alphabet 'Q','W','C','X',

1. 'V' and 'W' are assumed to having same sound (Wave-> vave),
2. 'X' is assumed as combination of basic consonants 'KZ'  (Xenon -> Kzenon), 'Ks' (Tax -> Taks)
3. 'Q' is assumed to be combination of 'Kv' (Quest -> Kvest),  'Ky' (Queue -> Kyu)
4. 'C' is replaced with 'K' (Cat->Kat, Check->Chek), 'C' is replaced with 'S' (Center -> Senter)

Duplication in Current Language

Other changes to achieve phonetic language are,

(Following are some changes can be applied even without new symbol or notation)

1. Replace C, CK with K where sound of K is intended.
2. Replace S with Z where sound of Z is intended.
3. Replace G, DG, DI with J where sound of J is intended.
4. Replace W with V wherever W is used.
5. Replace Ph with F wherever Ph is used.
6. Replace C with S where sound of S is intended.
7. Replace Y with I where sound of I is intended.
8. Replace 'tio,sio,...' with 'sh' where sound of 'sh' is intended.

Accent variations,

1. The American English accent is spoken with sounds of first and third column shifting towards next even number column. e.g. 'K' is more towards 'Kh' and 'B' more towards 'Bh' as compare to the the sound of same letters in hindi/sanskrut.

Half the Vowels:

English has five vowels (a,e,i,o,u and sometimes Y). All vowels are used interchangeably and each having more than one purpose making language less phonetic. Table shows the basic vowels in Dictionary, followed by Devanagari Perspective at Spelling Creation. British and American pronunciation and 'devagreek spelling' differs in levels of 'E'(hat/hate) and 'O'(pot/most) shown in the table. It may sound exageration but if one may consider all the level of 'E'(cat/game) and 'O'(hot/vote), they might exceed the octave (shwa will make symphony!) leading to non-distinguishable vowels. Thus it seems exactly 8 vowels are sufficient to create phonetic spelling system. The convention used is 'áéíóú' with chop(acute) on top for narrow or short sound and 'âêîôû' with a roof(circumflex) on top for broad sound known as candra. Usage of 2 í and 2 ú eliminates the need for î and û thereby reducing the vowelcount to 8. (It is devagreek convention and the characters are used solely because of their easy availability in ISO-8859-1, they need not be confused with their usage as accent or pronunciation key in any other language)

Vowel  (10 basic Vowel Sounds)

The Advantage of Single letter for vowel:

1. In Devanagari by deault every consonant is appended by sound of 'u' in 'under', if one needs to write a half sound, one has to either write an angled line at the bottom right of character (in the direction of reverse slash) or cut the right side of the character, making it a difficult to type using computer keyboard (pen language).  In English by default all the consonants have half sound, they have full sound only and only if they are appended by a vowel. E.g. in Fun, F has full sound because it is appended by 'u', 'n' has half sound.
2. Another feature of Devanagari, the notations for denoting vowels appended to a consonant are different from symbol for that vowel itself, vowel appended is denoted by writing additional set of lines on side of character. E.g Appending Vertical line for denoting 'a' as in 'Farm', although symbol for vowel 'a' as in 'arm' is different.  In English, the same symbol is used for altering the sound of preceding consonant and for denoting the sound of that vowel.  E.g. Bat, And (a alters sound of B to Ba, Word 'And' starts with sound of A).  In Farm, arm ('a' alters sound of F in Farm, 'a' has its own sound in arm)
3. The combination Vowels in English language have following pattern.  The first of the vowel alters the sound of preceding consonant and next one has sound of vowel itself.  E.g. Paint (a alters the sound of P to Pa and I has sound as that of I in In, n and t have their default half sound)
4. When a word starts with a Vowel, the Vowels have their own sound in full letterform.  E.g. OUT (O has sound of a as in arm, U has sound of u as in Uzbekistan, T has default half sound).
5. Some of the combination vowels requires proper breakdown as they are either a combination of one of the basic 8 vowels followed by one of  'r' as in 'rat' or 'v' as in 'Van' or 'Y' as in 'Yes' or combination  of  2 of basic 8 vowels.  Thus, one may not need more than basic 8 vowels or in other words diphthongs,digraph may not be required.

Considering five features mentioned above, it becomes very simple to create a phonetic spelling system.  Spelling Mechanism Section below shows examples incorporating five features mentioned above.

New δévágrîk Alphabet:

Each Symbol's Name is their sound, click on ♪ to find, 23 consonants 8 vowels

Spelling Mechanism:

('Spell as you speak') Following is not a syllabic breakdown. Full Sound is denoted by letter or letter combinations enclosed in parenthesis. Half Sound is denoted by letters not enclosed in parenthesis. Large words are first broken down using square brackets (in currently spoken form which may be syllabic beakdown)

In Complex Cases, write the word in Sanskrit/Hindi and create the spelling applying the rules described in 'English Advantage' section.

Sanskrut Sandhi Occurrence:

Some of the naturally observable sandhi is generation of sound of letter 'v' and letter 'y' as in 'yes'.

'V' Generation:

When a letter short 'u' is followed by any other vowel, 'v' is generated.

e.g.  Equation could be more easily read as Ikvation  (Ikuation).

Other exmples: Quick(kvik), quart(kvart), quote(kvot), quirk(kvark).

It may not be applicable to long 'U' as in Ruin, Doing…

'Y' Generation:

When a vowel short 'i' is preceded or followed by any other vowel, 'y' of 'yes' is generated.

(exception 'u' followed by 'i' = 'v')

Admire  may be (admayar or admaiar)

require (rikvayar, rikuaiar)

Driver (Drayvar or Draivar)

Although may not be applicable, 'Y' may also be heard in  near (neear), fear(feear), dear(deear)…

One may spell based on one's pronounciation for proper nouns, so far as English Dictionary is considered, the spelling is changed only to the extent that a person not familiar with the language can read it and arrive at a nearest pronounciation. Which means 'linguist' need not be changed to 'lingvist' but 'q' based words may have new spelling with 'v' and 'y' following 'k'. Words like fear (fiar), near (niar) will have the new vowels indicating the 'i' of 'in' and 'a' of 'another' (not 'y' or 'niyar'). Fire spelling 'fayar', admire (admayar) are some changes in spelling where 'a' of 'cast' is preceding 'i' of 'in' followed by 'a' of 'another' (it is just impossible for a new person to guess the pronunciation by looking at the old spelling).

Phonetically Unique English Dictionary:

It does require some changes in the current dictionary because some of the words sound extremely similar. Following are example of phonetic word list,

C code to phonetize English spelling (this is to demonstrate the complexity and why it can not be done without phonetic word list)
Devagreek (phonetically spelled) Word List Derived from Following pronunciation dictionary
Oxford-Cambridge English Word List with Phonetics
Other Files:
Keymap file for using devagreek in Microsoft Word(2002)
Download 'devagreek' (this) webpage with subdirectories (5MB zip)
Install Help with 'devagreek' subdirectories

Sound Table:

Sources:

(following and some not mentioned are found from search engines)
Evolution of Latin alphabet
Quick Sanskrit Tutorials Source Location
Chinese learning URLs
Harvard-Kyoto Convention for representing devanagari characters with English alphabet
DevaNagari Unicode
Spelling Society
Simple Parser Example. Be Pâňini create your own language grammer!
Free Online Indian Language URL Transliteration Read Indian Languages in Roman/Other Indian Language Script.
Google Script Transliterator Read Indian Languages in Roman/Other Indian Language Script.
Free Online Japanese Language URL Transliteration Read Japanese in Roman/Devanagari Script.
Devanagari Romanization Transliteration Standard ISO 15919
DeskTop

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