Glh  Alphabet  The ideal for Glh orthography is to assign a single letter (grapheme) for each sound (phoneme). In other words, writing should be isomorphic with speech. But the problem is that although English has a minimum of 36 phonemes (some expand this to 40), we are cramped with only 26 letters to choose from. Accomodating the excess sounds in this disparity can be dealt with by one of several methods:        add new symbols to our standard character set, or        use letter combinations (digraphs), or        modify existing symbols (diacritical markings).  Non-standard alphabets pose their own problem. Acceptance by the world community can be seriously impaired with the introduction of any character not already represented within the standard keyboard repertoire. George Bernard Shaw, and a few modern reformists, argue for a totally new alphabet. Shaw engineered his version by proxy, including in his will a "contest" to design the new alphabet. Kingley Read won the event which was held in 1958 by producing his 48 character "Shavian" alphabet. But such solutions are so radical, besides the difficulty of rendering the symbols, they became virtually unreadable. Sample of Shavian Text Other proposals retain the standard 26 letter Roman character set, but rely on vowel combinations or accents to deal with the greater range of vowel sounds than our standard AEIOU palette can provide. Such schemes keep the familiar letters and impose strict phonetic-spelling conventions that result in significantly different word appearances as well. More importantly, double letters are in conflict with our reductionist goal. Neither would the use of accented letters aid the speed of data entry. An example of this approach is Inglish  where words like aand, thaat, faact, laangwidj illustrate the use of double letters for short vowel sounds, while accented forms like r d, r t, g , aw are used to indicate long vowel sounds. Strangely, consistency still seems to be problematic, at least in the examples provided. Th is still rendered in both voiced and voiceless forms, and appears as both and and aand, u appears in both uv and un ted. Fanetiks also uses many digraphs: OU, OI, EE, AE, EE, IE, OE, UE. A final alternative could incorporate currently available non-letter symbols, such as the digits. Besides the limitations of capitalization, digits could not be used as single letter words for risk of creating ambiguity with their numeric role. One such spelling system that uses numerals as alphabetical extenders is Chekt Speling  which uses 3 (ng), 5 (sh), and 2 (zh). English Phoneme-Grapheme Ratios Gls will use thirty-six phonemes. These separate utterances form a repetoire of phonemes that are orgnized in various ways. The most common grouping is into vowels and consonents. Additionally, some authorities arrange them into syllabics, non-syllabics, and semi-syllabics. Still others divide them into resonants and non-resonants.  Frontal --------     ------Gutteral vowels syllabics: w ue oo oh uh eh ooh ah iy ay ih ee resonants consnants semi-syllabics:    m    n      l              r  y ng non-syllabics: p b f v t d     s  z           k g non-resonants      th dh ch j sh zh    xh   h This leaves unaccounted such common sounds as long /i/ and the vowel sound in wood , not to mention a number of blended vowels such as the diphthongs oy and ow . Linguistics applies a rich array of terms for the consonants that are based, for the most part, on anatomic considerations and as to whether they are voiced or not. stops            voiced  voiceless    fricatives          voiced  voiceless labial b p labial v f dental d t alveolar z s gutteral g k palatal zh sh oral h nasals glides labial m apical y l dental n dorsal w r gutteral ng affricates j ch Vowels Vowels can be catagorized by tongue position using a matrix based on heighth and depth:     front          central             back       high    beet brook bit bait boot mid bet bite bull bat boss bowl low  bus    The most common vowel in English: schwa (the sound of oo in "look, hood, wood" and ou in "would, should, could", etc.) Glh Phoneme-Grapheme Map The Glh focus is on maximum word size reduction. This can be accomplished by using a single graphical character (grapheme) for each individual sound (phoneme). Standard English has 5 main vowel letters (AEIOU) and two vowel-like letters (W and Y). Glh recognizes 16 vowel sounds represented by 25 individual symbols. Because Glh also achieves maximum text complession by removing spaces wherever possible, using upper-case characters to signal the start of each word and thus requiring both upper and lower case characters for each phoneme except those that never begin or end a word (ng and h sounds). Alphabetical Order AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHh!iJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz 2 5 74 83 96 $ = /^ &~ @ %* #+ ' ` VOWELS Letters Sounds Aa ay Xd "aid" Lxt "late" 83 ee 8zi "easy" Kr3xt "create" Yy eye Ydl "idle" Lyt "light" Qq oh Orgn "organ" Lqd "load" Ww oow Wut "what" Mwv "move" Xx a Xpl "apple" Stxndrd "standard" Ee eh Efrt "effort" Defn' "deafening" !i   ih   !ntres "interest" Bil' "billing" Mnt "mint" i at the end of a word take long e sound:  "Prti" pretty" Oo ah Oktps "octopus" Doktr "doctor" Uu uh Undrstan "understand" Butr "butter" = oo K=d "could" L=k "look" /^ yeh /lq "yellow" K^r^s "curious" &~ yew &nyt "unite" B~tfl "beautiful" @ yay Kr@t "create" Nh@t "initiate" 96 ow 9tsyd "outside" S6n "sound" %* oi %l "oil" B* "boy" CONSONANTS Bb voiced Pp unvoiced Dd voiced Tt unvoiced Gg voiced Kk unvoiced Vv voiced Ff unvoiced Zz voiced Ss unvoiced Mm voiced Nn voiced Ll voiced Rr voiced Jj voiced Hh sh unvoiced Hp "ship" H=dv "should've" Cc ch unvoiced Crc "church" Pc "pitch" 47 th unvoiced 4sl "thistle" 4nk "think" Pa7 "path" #+ dh voiced #s "this" Lq+ "loath" 2 zh voiced Me2r "measure" L32r "leisure" 5 ks unvoiced M5 "mix" Tr5 "tricks" $ gz voiced F$ "figs" Pe$ "Pegs" ' ng voiced St' "sting" F'r "finger" ` h unvoiced `elp "help" `evi "heavy" Multiple characters are used in standard English to accommodate the many additional vowel sounds for which our alphabet makes no single character provision. Glh addresses this by expanding the vowel characters from 7 to 16. For example: a x e 3 [i] y o q h u w 6 * ^ ~ @ lak l8k let l3k lk lyk lok lqd lhk luk lwp l6d l*n sr^s m~t M3d@t lack lake let leak lick like lock load look luck loop loud loin serious mute mediate Glh default vowel between consonants is short i. So "lick" is "lk" is Glh. Explicit "i" is required to avoid ambiguity. For example:   Str would normally be read as "stir".   But an "i" is required in Sitr to read as "sitter". English schwa sound (uu) in "wood, look, put" is represented in Glh by the letter = to spell these examples as w=d, l=k, p=t. English Phonemes      Glh Characters     Examples b p v f Bb Pp Vv Ff  Bl bill  Pn pin  Vjl vigil  Ft fit d t dh th Dd Tt 74 #+  Dp dip  Tk tick  7s this  #k thick g k z s     Gg Kk Zz Ss  Gv give  Ks kiss  Zw zoo  St sit h ng zh sh ` ' 2 Hh  `t hit  S' sing  Me2r measure    Hp ship m n j ch Mm Nn Jj Cc  Ms miss  Nkl nickle    Jrm germ  Cn chin l r ks gz Ll Rr 5 $  Lm limb  Rb rib  F5 fix  F$ figs ah oi ou uu Oo %* 96 =  Bos boss    B* boy  L6d loud  L=k look ih a Yeh oo !i Xx /^ Ww  Sitr sitter  Bxt bat    /s yes  Glw glue eh ee Yay oh Ee 83 @ Qq  Bet bet  8t eat  Kr@t create  Bqt boat ay eye Yew uh Aa Yy &~ Uu  At ate  Ys ice  F~l fuel  undr under  non-standard usage  only at start of word  never at start of word English Alphabet: 26 lower case 26 upper case 52 total characters a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z A B C D E F G H ! J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Glh Alphabet: 38 lower case 34 upper case 72 total characters a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 3 4 6 2 5 $ + = ^ * @ ~ ' A B C D E F G H ! J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 8 7 9       #   / %   & ` Default Vowels Short i is the default vowel sound between consonants. Thus, "Bit his lip"  becomes  bt `z lp.  And "terrific" is rendered trfk. Default vowel usage is especially indicated in promoting orthographical consistency when vowels precede the letter [r]. English spelling hosts a vast assortment of such spelling variations: burglar -ar teacher -er actor -or glamour -our acre -re murmur -ur injure -ure martyr -yr stir -ir In Glh they become: Brglr T3cr Xktr Glxmr Akr Mrmr Njr Mortr Str Glh-English Words with Same Spelling   a short sample short e: beg best bet fed felt fled fred fret get hen help jet kelp led leg let med men met melt ned net nest pen pet pelt pest red rent rep rest set sex sled slept ted ten temp tempt tred trend vex vent vest web wed weld welt went west wet zest zen short i: if it in (since "i" is the default vowel between consonants, few options here) short o: on bob bog box dog dot fog god got hog hop hot job jog jot log lop lot mob mod mom mop nod nog pod pop pot pox rob rod rom ron rot sob sod sop slop stop tog tom top tot wod short u: up bud bug bum bun bust but dub dud dug dust fun gum gun gust gut hub hug hut jug just jut lug lust mud mug mum must nub nut pub pug pun pup rub rug rum run rust rut sub sum sun sup tub tug y: by dry fly fry my sky sly try All 16 Glh Vowels: Aa Ee !i Oo Uu Xx 83 Yy Qq Ww = 96 %* /^ @ &~           upper and lower case pairs short Xx: Xpl Xmpl Xdres Xkrt Xnsr Xbslwt Xttwd Xsprn apple ample address accurate answer absolute attitude aspirin short Ee: Eb Eg Ej Efrt Bred Sed Rek Betr ebb egg edge effort bread said wreck better short !i: Str' Stri' Trm Trim Str Sitr Frm Brim stirring string term trim stir sitter Firm brim short Oo: Lon Otr So Bo4r Gon Kof Ort Posbl lawn otter saw bother gone cough art possible short Uu: Undr Upr U4r Tuc Tuf Ruf `u'ri Funi under upper other touch tough rough hungry funny long Xx: Xj Xnjl Xm Dx Sx Trxn Skxp Ejkxhn age angel aim Day Say train escape education long 83: 8gl 8s F3r Gr3t S3m P3l 8zi Z3rq eagle East fear great seem Peel easy zero long Yy: Ydl Ys Ytm Fyr Lyt Yz Dlyt Kry idle ice item fire light eyes delight cry long Qq: Qdr Qhn Qpn Qrnj Bqt Flqt Kqr Slq odor ocean open origin boat float core slow long Ww: Bwt Flw 4rw Hw /wn^n Nwz Cwz Krwz boot flew through shoe union news choose cruise schwa: = B=k H=d K=d W=d F=t L=k H=k T=k book should could would foot look hook took DIPTHONGS ou: 96 9c 9r 9l B6n F6l Gr6n Kr6n T6l ouch hour owl bound fowl ground crown towel oi: %* %l %li %str B*l K*n T* P*nt S*l oil oily oyster boil coin toy point soil yuh: /^ /l /r /s /t A'h^s Kl3j^t Dv^n 'ler^s yell year yes yet anxious collegiate deviant hilarious yay: @ Br3v@t L3v@t Sqh@t Prqpr@t Sfql@t 'rn@t Fl@hn Nh@t abbreviate alleviate associate appropriate exfoliate herniate affiliation initiate yew: &~ &r &z &rup &fqr^ B~ti F~z '~mn Kntn~ you're use europe euphoria beauty fuse human continue See also: Glh Dkhnxri Next up: Glh Breviations