Duz This Luk FuNE?

Spelling Reform

I have always been annoyed that it is so complicated to transcribe speech into text. Yes, "dictation" hardware is coming a long ways, but the problem is more in the symbol system than in the manual process of penning thoughts. The problem is we have 44 sounds and only 26 characters. In English there are over 14 sounds per symbol. The English writing system has 106 symbols (in combination) for 40 or so sounds.There needs to be a better way to represent sounds! Bernard Shaw, Ben Franklin, and Mark Twain were all proponents of a symbology that would capture the accurate relation of code and sound, phonemes. I found another, here, that does the job. I don't know if it will ever be universally accepted, but what a wonderful world it would be, if only it were.

In reviewing this, I learned there is a sanctioned phonemic alphabet, the International Phonemic Alphabet, which is used universally by linguists but is not so easy to learn/teach. UNIFON has been used in schools and with pre-school children with quick result.

This what follows is an approximation of representative symbology, but for the accurate version, you need characters Blogger can't support. Go to UNIFON to translate your own text accurately.

I hav xlwAz bin unQd Dat it iz sO komplukAtud tU transkrIb spEK intU tekst. yes, "diktASun" hordwer iz kumiN A lxN wAz, but Du problum iz mxr in Du simbul sistum Dan in Du manyUul proses uv peniN Txts. Du problum iz wE hav 44 sqndz and OnlE 26 kariktcz. Der nEdz tU bE A betc wA tU repruzent sqndz! gb Sx woz A prupOnunt uv A symbology Dat wCd kapKc Du akycut funetik rElASun uv kOd tU phonemes. I fqnd unuDc, hir, Dat duz Du job. I dOn't nO if it wil evc bE yUnuvcsulE akseptid, but wut A wundcful wcld it wCd bE, if OnlE it wc.