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Re: p^ho'nemIts) 'englIS

From:Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
Date:Wednesday, June 30, 2004, 17:02
Minor modifications to my scheme: by analogy with <i>/<y>, make <u>=/U/ and
<w>=/u/ so that words with vocalic <w> are still pronouncible.  Also,
change <x> to /ks/ as Trebor suggested, not because /x/ is difficult,
but to make it available as the pronunciation of <h> so that it is
distinguishible in final position.  Gemination is phonemic.

Even so, the scheme is slightly ambiguous in the direction
spoken->written, unless there is a phonemic distinction between e.g. /ts)/=<c>
and /ts/=<ts>, which I think is too subtle.

I should also note that <n>=/n/ has an allophone of /N/ before velars;
since /N/ doesn't otherwise appear as a phoneme this causes no
ambiguity.

The full mapping is then:

a=/a/  b=/b/ c=/ts)/ d=/d/ e=/e/ f=/f/ g=/g/ i=/I/ j=/dZ)/ k=/k/ l=/l/
m=/m/ n=/n/ o=/o/ p=/p/ q=/k^w/ r=/r\/ s=/s/ t=/t/ u=/U/ v=/v/ w=/u/
x=/ks/ y=/i/ z=/z/

ch=/tS)/ gh=/G/ kh=/k^h/ ph=/p^h/ sh=/S/ th=/D/ wh=/W/ zh=/Z/

Sample text:

'u.e xold 'De.se trUDs to be sel.fe'vI.dent Dat al men 'a.re tsr\e'a.ted
'e.k^wal Dat 'De.i 'a.re en.do'u.ed bi 'De.Ir\ tsr\e'a.tor\ wID
tser\'ta.In U.na.lI.en'ab.le rIGts Dat 'a.moNg 'De.se 'a.re 'lI.fe
lI'ber\.ti and De pUr\'sU.It of hap'pI.nes:

-Mark