New Try from a New Guy

Hello all,
    After spending some time learning the IPA sounds
(http://www.ling.hf.ntnu.no/ipa/full/) and also SAMPA for American English
(http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/sampa/american.htm) I have finally come up
with a  phonology for my language that I feel comfortable with. If you will
recall, in my first post I had said I wanted to use the same sounds as in
English. The advice given me was that I start with fewer sounds. I have done
that, although I still have several vowels.
    So, here is what I have come up with:

Consonants:
Letter     SAMPA
b             b
d             d
f              f
g             g
k              k
l               l
m             m
n             n
p             p
r              r
s             s
sh           S
t              t
th            T
v             v
w             w
y              j

Vowels:
Letter     SAMPA
i               I
ih             i
e              E
eh            e
a              A
o              o
u              u
uh            3
ai             aI
oi             OI
au            aU

    Now, I have a couple new questions.
1. Is it reasonable to have the diphthongs [aI], [OI], and [aU] even though
I do not have  the individual sounds of [a], [O] or [U]?

2. I understand the differences between phones and phonemes, but I'm not
sure if I should be putting [ ] or / / around the sounds in the above chart.
For example, I'm using [3] and representing it with uh, but when I listen to
the sounds on the IPA web site the sounds [@], [3], [6] and [V] all sound
close enough to me to be the same letter. I can hear the differences, I just
don't think the differences are big enough. So, I would consider these four
phones to be a single phoneme, correct? But if I write /3/ how does someone
else know that [@], [3], [6] and [V] are all included?

    Well, thanks again for any tips and advice.

----------------------------------------
Michael David Martin, Master Mason
Temecula/Catalina Island Lodge #524
Free & Accepted Masons of California

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