Basic Roman spelling of English

The Basic Roman spelling of English is a 2002 proposal for English spelling regularity [L.L. Ivanov, [http://members.lycos.co.uk/rre/Romanization.html On the Romanization of Bulgarian and English] , Contrastive Linguistics, XXVIII, 2003, 2, pp. 109-118.] based on five underlying principles:

:* reliance on the basic Latin alphabet, with no additional characters or diacritics used;

:* single-valued spelling, with no phoneme rendered by two or more graphemes;

:* short vowels are spelled by single letters, while long vowels and diphthongs are spelled by digraphs;

:* diphthongs are spelled in accordance with the spelling of their components, and long vowels either as diphthongs or by doubling the letters spelling the respective short vowels;

:* short vowels and consonants are spelled in a way that is common for the traditional orthography of most Romanized languages including English.L. Ivanov, V. Yule, [http://members.lycos.co.uk/rre/RPA-Paper-2007.html Roman Phonetic Alphabet for English] , Contrastive Linguistics, XXXII, 2007, 2, pp. 50-64.]

In compliance with these phonemic principles, Basic Roman explicates the vowel alternations in stressed syllables originating in the Great Vowel Shift of Early Modern English, offering a wider international perspective that transcends Chomsky’s defense of traditional spelling. [N. Chomsky & M. Halle, "The Sound Pattern of English", Harper and Row, New York, NY, 1968.] The Basic Roman system serves no particular standard of English pronunciation, but rather provides the means that could be used for the spelling of different varieties of English. The system uses 22 Roman letters to represent the set of English phonemes considered by J.C. Wells [J.C. Wells, "Longman Pronunciation Dictionary", Second edition, Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd., 2000.] ; the letters ‘j’, ‘q’, ‘w’ and ‘x’ are not used.

By way of illustration, the following reference text by V. Yule [V. Yule, [http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/ssurplu.htm Spelling without surplus letters] ] is given in traditional spelling and in Basic Roman (non-rhotic version):

:Once upon a time, the beautiful daughter of a great magician wanted more pearls to put among her treasures. “Look through the centre of the moon when it is blue,” said her royal mother in answer to her question. “You might find your heart’s desire.” The fair princess laughed, because she doubted these words. Instead, she used her imagination, and moved into the photography business, and took pictures of the moon in colour. “I perceive most certainly that it is almost wholly white,” she thought. She also found that she could make enough money in eight months to buy herself two lovely huge new jewels too.

:Uans apon a taym, da byutiful doota av a greyt madzhishan uontid moo paalz tu put amang haa trezhaz. “Luk tru da senta av da muun huen it iz bluu,” sed haa royal mada in ansa tu haa kueschan. “Yu mayt faynd yoo haats dizaya.” Da fea prinses laaft, bikoz shi dautid diyz waadz. Insted, shi yuzd haa imadzhineyshan, and muuvd intu da fotografi biznis, and tuk pikchaz av da muun in kala. “Ay paasiyv moust saatanli dat it iz olmoust houli wayt,” shi toot. Shi olsou faund dat shi kud meyk inaf mani in eyt mants tu bay haaself tuu lavli hyudzh nyu juualz tuu.L. Ivanov, V. Yule, [http://members.lycos.co.uk/rre/RPA-Paper-2007.html Roman Phonetic Alphabet for English] , Contrastive Linguistics, XXXII, 2007, 2, pp. 50-64.]

Roman Phonetic Alphabet for English

A more elaborate version of the system is the Extended Basic Roman spelling of English, which uses also the letters ‘j’ and ‘w’, and has two specific digraphs for the English voiced and voiceless dental fricatives. ] The above sample text would appear in Extended Basic Roman (non-rhotic version) as follows:

:Wans apon a taym, dha byutiful doota av a greyt majishan wontid moo paalz tu put amang haa trezhaz. “Luk thru dha senta av dha muun hwen it iz bluu,” sed haa royal madha in ansa tu haa kweschan. “Yu mayt faynd yoo haats dizaya.” Dha fea prinses laaft, bikoz shi dautid dhiyz waadz. Insted, shi yuzd haa imajineyshan, and muuvd intu dha fotografi biznis, and tuk pikchaz av dha muun in kala. “Ay paasiyv moust saatanli dhat it iz olmoust houli wayt,” shi thoot. Shi olsou faund dhat shi kud meyk inaf mani in eyt manths tu bay haaself tuu lavli hyuj nyu juualz tuu. ]

The Extended Basic Roman is close to one-to-one phoneme-grapheme correspondence, paving the way to a pronunciation respelling for English by means of the closely related Roman Phonetic Alphabet for English.

ee also

* Phonemic orthography
* English spelling reform
* List of English spelling reform proposals
* Roman Phonetic Alphabet for English

Notes