SPEECHSKRIPT

Overview
Vowels
Consonants
Helpful Hints
Speechskript in Practice
Short Stories in Speechskript
 

Speechskript is a system for phonetically spelling words in the English language.  It is simple and intuitive.  For each meaningful sound in the English language there is one Speechskript symbol, and for each Speechskript symbol there is one meaningful sound.  The word "meaningful" is important.  Not everybody pronounces their vowels the same way.  There are many regional variations.  But these variations aren't "meaningful".  They don't change the meaning of the words.  Speechskript isn't concerned with these different flavors of sound.  Speechskript is only concerned with communication.

Speechskript recognizes 36 meaningful speech sounds.  However our alphabet has only 26 letters in it.  Speechskript resolves this supply-and-demand problem by representing some sounds with two-letter symbols.  These digraphs eliminate the need for inventing new symbols.
 

There are only three more vowels to learn, but unfortunately they are the most difficult:

There are only 8 more symbols to learn. A few of these (TH, NG and ZH) are less obvious and may require some explanation.

Here are some pointers that might be helpful in using these eight consonants:

"CH" in Speechskript is used just as it is in conventional spellings.  But a "C" is never found alone in Speechskript.  It always followed by an "H".

"G" in Speechskript always represents a "hard" G (Go get Gertrude!).  The "soft" G sound (German Gerbil George) would be represented in Speechskript by the "J" symbol (Jrmun Jrbul Joerj).

"TH" (with the underline) is used only for voiced sounds (That’s them there!).  Holding your hand softly to your throat makes it easier to differentiate between voiced and unvoiced sounds.  Adding the "underline" can be thought of as adding the voice.  (Unfortunately, underlining letters at the keyboard really slows down typing speed.  If we ever create a Speechskript font, there should definitely be an elevated "th" with a line underneath it.  It might be located on the keyboard at the "Q" or "X" location because there is no "Q" or "X" symbol in Speechskript.)

"TH" (without the underline) represents the unvoiced TH sound, just as in conventional spellings.

"NG" is obvious in words such as "king" or "bring", but it is easy to overlook in g-less words such as "plank" and "thank", which in Speechskript would probably be spelled as "plangk" and "thangk".

"Y" in Speechskript is always used as a consonant, never as a vowel. For example, the word "yearly" (which uses both types) would be written in Speechskript as "yeerlee".

"ZH" isn't a very common sound in English. It appears in "pleasure" and "treasure". Some people use it in the word "garage" (although the "J" sound might be more common).

That’s it! There’s nothing more! Now you know as much about Speechskript as anybody else on the planet.

HELPFUL HINTS:

Diphthongs (two vowel sounds joined together) can be difficult for beginners. Here are some examples:

"Toy" = "TOEY"
"Now" = "NOW"
"Star" = "STAWR"

Double consonants are unnecessary in Speechskript.  Some Speechskript words appear to violate this rule, but on closer inspection we see that they don't. Take the word "JRREE" (jury) for example. It seems to have a double consonant ("R").  But "R" is interesting in that it functions both as a consonant and as a vowel.  In a sense, the first "R" in "JRREE" functions as a vowel and the second "R" functions as a consonant.  Without the extra "R", it would be a one-syllable word.  Similarly the word "KONGGRES" (congress) appears to violate the rule with a double-"G". But the first "G" is actually part of the "NG" symbol. So there is really only one "G" in the word.

Use vowel separators, if necessary. It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally you’ll come across a word in which a combination of vowel symbols causes ambiguity. The word "science" is a common example. Most people would probably write it as SIE-ENS, with a dot or a dash in the middle. Without a separator, there would be two possible pronunciations of the word.

Unnecessary symbols cause clutter. People who overanalyze tongue positions sometimes use unnecessary letters. Take for example the word "church". Most people would probably write it as "CHRCH" in Speechskript. But if one overanalyzes the tongue position, one might write "CHRTCH" or even "TCHRTCH". This is unnecessary because there's no way to NOT make a "T" sound when pronouncing "CH".  For another example, take the word "pigeon". Most people would probably write it as "PIJUN" in Speechskript. Writing it as "PIDJUN" is unnecessarily cluttersome because the "D" is a natural part of the "J" mouth formation.

SPEECHSKRIPT IN PRACTICE:

If you accept that there is no "right" or "wrong" way to pronounce words, then there is no "right" or "wrong" way to spell words in Speechskript.  People who tend to pronounce words differently from others can be expected to spell their Speechskript words with similar differences. Speechskript spellings are relative, not absolute. This means that there will probably never be any Speechskript dictionaries, Speechskript spelling-bees, Speechskript spelling-checkers, or Speechskript report cards. A person's Speechskript, like his or her speech-sounds, is unique, personal, and worthy of respect.

AZ YUE KAN SEE, SPEECHSKRIPT IZ NOT VAEREE DIFIKULT TUE LRN.  UV KOERS IT WIL TAEK SUM PRAKTIS.  SPEECHSKRIPT KAN INDEED MAEK AWR WRLD U BETR PLAES BIE SIEDSTEPING KUNVENSHUNUL SPELING - AN UNESESAEREE OBSTEKUL TUE LITRRUSEE. 

Need more practice?  Try reading some Speechskript Stories.