MORE Speling Rules and Protocol

April 1, 2000 revised 030313


Fifteen Majic-e-Oanly RITE (MORE) speling derivashen rules.  (RITE is for "Reduseng the Irreguleritys of Tradishonal English")
 
Ritten with MORE spelings
 

Unlike other speling skemes, MORE speling is a prossess for deriving spelings from TS that reduses the irreguleritys of English spelings. The prossess is based on a few rules and a protocol for makeng the nessesary chainjes. MORE speling is NOT a skeme that attempts tu define the sownds of English speech and ekwate them tu spesific simbols. Presumably, anywun, regardless of his lokel acsent, hoo foloes the protocol and uzes the rules wil derive the same set of spelings with oanly miner vareashen.

MORE speling is a lexicon, a wurd list, of derived spelings that retain much of the luhk and readability of TS. Becawse thare ar too or mor ways tu indicate som sownds, a new user has tu lern and memorize the differant spelings. Readers, on the other hand, get vizhual cues tu the wurds meaning. The majer advantaj of this skeme is that the spelings ar internally consistant. Wun nevver encownters a letter combinashen that can indicate too or mor sownds. Long vowl sownds ar clearly indicated. Stress, when it is not on the first silabel is offen clearer. Fluent readers of TS ar familyar with the MORE rules becawse thay aplie tu many TS wurds. While many TS readers wil notess the many unfamilyar spelings (offen reseivd as "rong" spelings) and may feel compeld tu mowth owt thayr sownds as thay read, kwite kwikly thay wil fiend that the spelings ar far mor consistant than thoze of TS.  Because MORE spelings ar derived from TS withowt refferanse tu acsent the wurds can be red in what evver acsent the reader habitually uzes. MORE speling reduses the irreguleritys of tradishonal English speling. New lerners of MORE speling wil nevver hav tu confront all the irreguleritys and inconsistansys and exepshons of TS. For them MORE speling wil be easy tu lern.

The rules listed bello ar verry detaild and, unless yu ar familyar with speling skeme details, shuhd be red and considderd sloely and delibberately.


The Rules


1)  Vowls hav long and short sownds. The long sownd of a vowl is determind by the acshon of majic-e (see #3), or by its posishon in vowl pairs (see #4). The names of the vowls indicate thayr long sownds: a, e, i, o, u. Short vowls ar as in bat, bet, bit, hot, hut, happy.

2)  Finel vowls ar long in singel silabel wurds: a (offen soffend in speech), me, I, go, yu, by.

3)  Oenly E has majic property of making a vowl, in vCe (vowl/Consonant/e) order, long. In vCe form 'e' is allways majic. (Majic-e Oanly = MeO) It is somtimes majic in vChe (vowl/Consonant/h/e) form as wel. (This is ambiguus and rekwires that the reader ges and the riter lern which wurds hav the long vowl. Occurs moast in shon/shen and ant/ent sufixes. The E in -shen or -ent is a hint that the majic funcshon aplies.)

4)  Vowl pairs: when too vowls ar tugether, the first is long and the second may or may not be expressd at all.  i/de-/a (MeO + VP), air, dear, di/al

5)  Medeal long vowls ar prefferanshally represented by;  ai, ee, ie, oa, ui when needed tu replase undesignated vowls in the TS as in moast, replie, uinited.

6)  OO, the exepshon tu the vowl pair rule, is "oo" as in TS "zoo" or "noon" or "tool" or "bamboo" or "voodoo" or as in "zoolojy"...



Indicaters of modified vowl sownds


AW, OW, EW, OY, ar used in plase of the comparabel misleading TS vowl pairs (au, ou, eu, oi).

In MORE speling, AY indecates oanly long A and EY indicates oanly long E.

UH is the sownd in: cuhd, puht, buhk, shuhd, bruhk, wuhd, fuht, luhk... (in plase of TS could, put, book, should, brook, would, foot, look...).

AH is used tu indicate the sownd in: fahther, pah (pa), lah (la), ahnt... /AR/ may indicate a similar sownd, as in: car, bargan, regard... if not pronownsed roticly.

Temporarily, L, , when folloed by m, l, f, or d, chainjes the sownd of the preseeding vowl: calm, palm, salm, hall, all, mall, half, calf, cold, hold...  Eventually, these spelings may be replased; cahm, hawl, cahf, hoald.

Y is short, terminally, in multisillabel wurds: marry, happy, poney, partly... 'ie' replases the long Y at end of mono-sillabel wurds that can be inflected: plie, shie... even when preseeded or folloed by an afix: crieng, implie, shiely... Pronowns and preposishons retain the long E sownd; my, by...

Y is a consonant when it is the first letter of wurd or silabel: yak, yule, yelloe… and medeally: milyon, rejoyse... In the terminal posizhon it has the sownd of Y in the TS wurd, "body".

Finel O is long: radeo, vidyo, peano, follo.

Finel E may soffen the sownd of /s/: siense, please, wunse (as in TS).



Exepshons tu the TS consonants


Consonants indicate wun sownd, modifyed significantly oanly by a folloing 'h'. (ch, sh, th, zh, wh)


C = ch cime, whic, curc, arcer

(Temporarily, 'ch' is used; chime, which, church, archer...)

(Temporarily C = k befor a, o, u, and consonants.)


K, oanly, may replase TS `ch', `qu-`, `ck' when the sownd is indicated.

(Temporarily QU = kw and is allowd for posterity: quak or kwak, quiet or kwiet....But; licker, anteke...)


G = g gag, get, git, got, gun, gie...


J = j jay, jet, jig, jog, juj, jinjer...


Di-grafs represent singel fonemes and MeO may wurk thru them.


SH = sh she, sho, ash, speshal, ship, ashor... and replases SCH when so sownded;  shist, shmo... and replases CH when so sownded; shampain, shallay... and replases TI, CI, SI, CE... when so sownded in speech.


WH = hw (folloing the consonant-H pattern)


ZH = zh vizhon, plezhure...


X is short for ks: next, exit, execute... and BLOKS majic e functshon. X is retaind in wurds that include it in TS. X is not added as a new speling.


Consonants ar dubbeld for four reasons as in TS:


NOTE any combinashen of theze may be opperabel in a particular wurd.


Sufix -shen has the majic-e funcshon indcateng that the presedeng vowl is long: stashen, speshalizashen, creashen. Similarly: revolushen, disilushen, oshen... Otherwise, sufix -shon is used. revolshon, ignishon...

Sufixes /anse, ant/ ar used unless majic-e funcshon is needed or meaning is derived from pronownseashon. Then use /ense, ent/: repent, pendant, extent, extant...


Compownd wurds ar made with hole root wurds and hole sufixes and prefixes: Combust/abel, tranquil/ity, eequal/ize, consise/ly, easy/ly, pre/ambel, pro/nunse/ashen, book/keep/or, abel/ly, aw/full
 

Tu derive MORE spelings, in all cases we start with the wurd as speld in traditional English spelling (TS).
 


The protocol

 

Begining with a TS wurd, we:

  1. REORDER any letters that ar not in lojical order (cable > cabel)
  2. CUT owt any letters that ar not needed tu indicate the pronunseashen (through > thru)
  3. CHAINJ any letters that mislead the reader by indicating a pronunseashen that is not uisual for that spoken wurd (they > thay)
  4. MODIFIE the spelings tu conform tu the rules of MORE speling. (trying > trieng)


A sample text


The Star
(H.G. Wells)


It was on the first day of the new year that the anownsemant was made, allmoast simeltaneusly from three observatorys, that the moshen of the plannet, Neptune, the owtermoast of all the plannets that wheel abowt the Sun, had becom very erratic. A retardashen in its velosity had ben suspected in Desember. Then, a faint, remote spek of liet was discovverd in the rejen of the perturbd plannet. At first this did not cawse any very graet exitemant. Sientific pepel, howevver, fownd the intelijanse remarkabel enuf, even befor it became noen that the body was rapidly groing larjer and briet'r, and that its moshen was kwite differant from the orderly progress of the plannets.


Pete Boardman