1a. GENERAL RULES. We use Dictionary pronunciation
guides to identify UK Received Pronunciation (RP) and US General American (GA)
pronunciation. We adopt the spelling nearest TS (Traditional Spelling) if
pronunciations differ. If neither of the alternative spellings is nearer, we
adopt the spelling wich is shorter. If neither is shorter we leave the TS
unreformed.
1b. Reformed spelling will not be compulsory. Whoever prefers an
unreformed (TS) spelling may continue to use it.
1c. Proper Names and their derivatives (England, english) remain
usually unchanged, but derivatives dont have capitals any mor.
1d. If a new word by these principles wood be speld the same way as an
existing RITE word and they don't have the same pronunciation, we refrain from
changing.
2. CUT ALL REDUNDANT LETTERS, namely those wich do not
serv any function in the pronunciation of the word, eg hed, dout, exept,
hankerchif, hav, foren, tho, wat, frend,
no, haf, nemonic, dam, yung, sycological,
iland, wach, corse, sho for head, doubt, except,
handkerchief, have, foreign, though, what, friend, no/know, half, mnemonic,
damn, young, psychological, island, watch, coarse/course, show.
3a. THE BASIC RULE FOR THE STRESSD SHORT VOWELS. These
ar speld 'a, e, i, o, u': plad, sed, mith, cof, cum for plaid, said,
myth, cough, come. If this vowel is folloed by a consonant then a vowel, we
double the consonant: havving, matter, betting, bennefit, wimmen, bitter,
offen, possible, munny, suddenly.
3b. We dont double 'j, k, q, r' or 'x', eg project, liquid, very,
taxi, exept wen TS doubles it, either a "real" double, like 'rr'
(carry), or a digraph acting as a double, eg 'dj' (adjectiv), ck
(lacking).
3c. no doubling befor syllables with '–ic, -ity, –ogy' (and their
derivvativs (economic/economical), eg geografic, gravity,
ideology.
3d. no doubling wen the consonant has an atipical sound, eg national,
special, module, colision.
3e. 'A' sounded as short 'o/u' after 'w' or 'qu' remains 'wa' (in the US
sum of them hav short u-sound), eg was, quality. We spel 'father' and
'bother' as in TS.
3f. We'l spel short 'oo' (good) with 'oo', eg 'cood', exept wen TS
uses'u', then RITE keeps the 'u': put.
4a. THE BASIC RULE FOR THE STRESSD LONG VOWELS exept
long E: These ar speld with the vowel letters a, i, o, u (caos, idea, bias,
poet, fuel, baby, biker, over, during). If there is no vowel sound after a
single folloing consonant, we ad silent ("magic") e (made,like,
home, huge). Befor consonant clusters we use AI-Y-OA-EU (chainge, paint,
fynd, oanly, neuclear). At the end of root words AY-Y-O-EW (thay-ways-by-bys-so-new-news).
But there sum special cases:
4b. Derivvativs of final 'o': 'oing/oe': going, noen (known), goes.
4c. Long 'o' befor L + consonant is speld 'ol+consonant': old, told.
4d. The sound /yu:/ is short ‘u’, the sound /u:/ is also considderd
short ‘u’ if TS dusnt reprezent it with ‘o’ (o, oe, oo, ou). There is too much
variation in UK and US pronunciations here.
4d1. At the end of a base word after L, R and CH it is speld ‘u’, befor
a suffix beginning with consonant ‘ue’: blu-blues, bru-brues, tru-trueth.
4e. Long 'e' as in 'complete' is speld 'e' befor anuther vowel (theory)
and in the words 'be, he, me, she, the, we'. In uther cases it is speld
'ee' (peeple, eeven).
4f. The long oo-sound (havving ‘o’ or a dygraf with ‘o’) of 'boot' is
speld 'oo': room, groop, shoo, exept in final position wen the
werd dusnt hav derivvativs wair the ‘u’ wood be misleeding (az in ‘zu-zus’), in
wich case we spel ‘u’: tu, du, thru.
4g. We try tu keep root werds if thay’r not misleeding, eg lately,
shapeless, brekfast, not laitly, shaipless, brecfast.
5. UTHER VOWELS
5a. For the sound /au/ az in 'sauerkraut' we spel OU befor a consonant
in the root word and OW in uther cases: out, toun, cow, plow, power.
5b. For the sound /o:/ az in 'naughty' we spel AU befor a consonant in
the root word and AW in uther cases: author, auction, daun, aw, awful,
law, aul, caul. Befor R, we spel O: or, for, dinosor.
5c. We spel the /Er/ sound az in 'air' with AIR. Thus air, bair,
dair, pair, cair, wair, shair, fair.
5d.
Boath /3r/ (verb, first, fur) and /@r/ wil be spelt ER: verb, ferst,
fer, letter, faver, callender. Wen stressd in a non initial sillable
or wen we’d hav tu chainj from ‘c’ tu ‘k’, it is spelt 'ur': ocur,
concur, prefur.
5e.
The shwa in final /@s/ sound is speld 'us': famus, enormus, bius, tortus.
5f.
The shwa-letter after a diftong befor an L or R is dropd (oil, roil, sour,
tour).
5g. In final 'consonant + le' or '+ re', the vowel gets its real
pozition, so we spel littel, abel, aker. The ending /@b@l/ remanes: avalable,
probbable, terrable.
5h. The endings /@nt/ and /@nt/ ar speld ‘ent’ and ‘ense’: asistent, asistense.
5i. Unstressd final short I (wich sum peeple call an unstressd long 'e'
or 'haf-ee') is speld 'y', eg cuntry, cuntrys, coffy. Unstressd /i/ or
/ai/ ar speld ‘i’, provided TS spels it with I or Y: sistematic, sicolojy.
7a CONSONANTS: The /f/ sound is always speld 'f', eg enuf,
tellefone.
7b. We spel the soft G or J-sound consistently with J. Jeografic,
jin, brij. The endings -age, -ege, -ige ar spelt -ej: villej,
collej, porrej.
7c. We spel the sound /k/ with K befor E, I and Y and at the end of words
exept in the ending -/ik/, spel QU for /kw/, and C in uther cases: car,
kemmistry, king, cof, cup, queen, quire (choir), basic.
7d. /ks/, /ksh/ and /gz/ ar speld 'x', eg six, exelent, but not
in the boundery between root werd and inflection eg books, statistics,
inflection.
7e. We
spel S for the /s/ sound: senter, sertain, sitty, us,
7f. but spel ‘ss’ at the end of a root word if TS has ‘ss’, eg less,
across, and ‘se’ after a dygraf or a consonent, eg goose, house,
sense.
7f. We spel 'sh' for /sh/ sound, but not wen TS has 'consonant + e or i'
for it: shaddo, shure, but national, concius.
7g. For the ending /sh@n/, we spel 'cian' for persons (politician,
muzician), 'ssion' after a short voul (passion, fassion,
expression, mission, ignission) and 'tion' in uther cases (information,
action)
7h. The /z/ sound is speld with a 'z', eg wize, realize, exept in
inflections, cars, yeers, Johns munny, he sees, has (have),
was (be), is (be).
LINKS:
- RITE RULES WITH MENNY EXAMPLES