Re: USAGE: Shaw alphabet (was Re: USAGE: Con-graphies)

From: Mark J. Reed

"The word "trap" is pronounced with [&] in both RP and General American.
Brits also have that vowel in "taco", while Americans have it in "grass";
those last two vowels are reversed Transatlantically."


I once heard a proposal for a spelling based on 17th/18th century English
phonology which would serve as the basis for both US and UK English. I.e.
phonemic length is preserved as in UKE (lost in USE), but allows for
rhotacism, also the pre-voiceless fricative lengthening of /a/ is not
included. One remaining question would be whether to have /3r/ coalesce as
in US and UK English or retain (at least in the spelling) the distinction
/Ir/ and /Ur/ as it was in the 17th century and still is in Anglo-Irish.

Another possible base could be Northern UK Regional Standard English which
on a phonemic level has a lot in common with both southern UK as well as USE
accents.

A definite downside to using GA as a base is the highly variant and
unpredictable distribution of /A/ ~ /Q/ ~ /a/ in the US.

Dan