Phase 2: Phonetiçīzā́tion

• Step 3: Mark consonants with diacritics.

  • This may take 5-8 years or even 1-2 generations.

• Step 4: Replace consonants with more-phonetically accurate consonants.

  • Common assimilations, such as dr → jr and tr → чr.

  • Consonants that are commonly marked diacritically with phonetic counterparts.

  • It can be taught that these exist as pairs and equivalents, e.g. s → s̈ → z

  • Certain consonants simply have to suffer the situation, such as that the suffix -ed cannot be replaced with t because doing so causes conflation with nouns from verbs ending in -t.

    • passed / past

    • missed / mist

    • massed / mast

    • Thus, need to retain the spellings of () grammatical particles.

Step 3 examples

asdfasdfa

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Step 4 examples

Assimilation tables currently under development. Please watch this space!

Common assimilations — U, R, I

but these have to be checked in case of erasing systematic homophone distinctions

Ū as /juw/ series

Here are some examples of assimilation between alveolar ridge sounds d, t, s & z, and the palatal onset /j/ of the u vowel ⟨u⟩.

du → ďū → jū	tu → ťū → чū	su → šŭ → ʃŭ	s̈u → zu → žŭ / g̃ŭ
dune → ďūn → jūn (dura)	tune → чūn	sugar → šŭg̊ar → ʃŭg̊ar	usual → ū́žŭal
duly → ďūly → jŭlȳ́	venture → vénчŭr	sure → šŭr → ʃŭr	measure → méàžŭr
endure → enďŭr → enjŭr (dura)	Tuesday → Ťū́zdāy	assume → ašūm

• The letter ⟨j⟩ shows that the /ʤ/ descended from palatalization of i /i/.

• Changing ⟨d⟩ to ⟨ď⟩ shows that this form of /ʤ/ arose only from assimilation; it is a phonetic mutation, but not phonemic.

• A quick etymological foray shows that dr and tr in some common words have always been spelled as dr and tr, and that they used to be /dr & tr/ instead of /dɹ & tɹ/. (/ɹ/ may be relatively recent.)

• d has parity with t and s. (z does not get a turn.)

• dune as jūn looks identical to June as Jūn. (This would not be an isolated case.)

• dune is from the same root as durable and endure. Thus, the spellings should have visual similarity. Changing them to jŭrabl and enjŭr, but keeping dune with a d, would break the visual & orthographic relationship. This demonstrates the power of etymologically-aware spelling systems.

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R as /ɹ/ series

There is no specific benefit to changing dr to jr and tr to чr.

dr → ďr → jr	tr → ťr → чr	shr → ʃr
drive → ďrīv → jrīv	→ ťrūþ → чrūþ	shrine → ʃrīn
drink → ďriŋk → jriŋk	trick → ťrik → чrik	shrink → ʃriŋk
drain → ďrāin → jrāin	train → ťrāin → чrāin	shriek → ʃrïk
android → ánďroid → ánjroid	construe → consťrū → consчrū	mushroom → múʃrꝏm
laundry → lånďry → lånjry	country → cȣ̂nťry → cȣ̂nчry	shrimp → ʃrimp
mandrake → mánjrāk	strain → sчrāin	shrill → ʃril
dry → ďrȳ → jrȳ (dura)	try → ťrȳ → чrȳ	shriek → ʃrïk
drip → ďrip → jrip	trip → ťrip → чrip	shrink → ʃriŋk
drool → ďrꝏl → jrꝏl	trowel → чrawel	shrivel → ʃrivl
draw → ďråw → jråw	traipse → чrāips	shrapnel → ʃrápnel
drawn → jråwn	trawl → чråwl	shrewd → ʃrēwd
drew → jrēw	strewn → sчrēwn	shroud → ʃraŭd
drawer (box) → jråwr	straw → sчråw	shrug → ʃrug
drawer (person) → jrårer / jråwer	string → sчriŋ	shrub → ʃrub
	strict → sчrict	shred → ʃred

From the conversion exploration above, it seems that all alveolar–R assimilation letter substitutions are valid and do not cause any ambiguity or other loss.

There are no chr as /ʧɹ/ spellings! Does this suggest that the tr spelling was chosen to represent this phonetic sequence over chr? Leaving ⟨chr⟩ for /kʰɹ/ from Greek? So how was /ʧɹ/ in ⟨tr⟩ words spelled historically?

This aligns with the lack of sr spellings — s-like followed by r only exists as shr.

For some reason, there is no zr or zhr. (Also no zh in general.)

And there is no jr, which I suppose aligns with the lack of chr.

• no ⟨jr⟩ or ⟨chr⟩ /ʧɹ/ exist in English spelling currently, so both jr and чr are available.

• no ⟨sr⟩ exists in English spelling, so there’s no risk of conflation with ⟨shr⟩.

• no /zɹ/ or /ʒɹ/ exist in English spelling.

However,

• replacing ⟨dr⟩ with ⟨jr⟩ and ⟨tr⟩ with ⟨чr⟩ does remove the spelling parity with ⟨du⟩, ⟨tu⟩ and ⟨su⟩.

However,

• that’s not so different than the lack of ⟨sr⟩ in English, which indicates that shr was already used to phonetically record the permanent and unavoidable (at scale) assimilation shift away from /sɹ/.

So, that’s tidier overall.

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The I series (ioticization)

Affricates /ʤ/ & /ʧ/

These are super rare.

diV /dj→ʤ/	StiV /Stj→ʧ/
soldier → sóljer	question → quésчon or
	bastion → básťon

• V here represents any vowel

• S represents any sibilant (s, z, ʃ, ʒ)

See the page on to learn more about the symbols V and S.

/djV/ exists in perhaps only 2 or 3 words.
/tjV/ is much more common, but its de facto sound is /ʃ/, as in most -tion suffixes.
/StjV/ is very rare. The /S/, a sibilant, before the assimilated ⟨tiV⟩ as /ʃ/, causes the /ʃ/ to change into a /ʧ/. If it didn't change into a /ʧ/, you would not be able to distinguish the sounds.

Sibilants /ʃ/ & /ʒ/

tiV /tj→ʃ/	siV /sj→ʃ/	ciV /sj→ʃ/	siV /zj→ʒ/
caution → cåťon	mission → míšon or míʃon	facial → fāç̌al	vision → vížon
vacation → vācā́ťon	passion	ancient → ānç̌ent	Asia → Āža
potion → pōťon	compression → compréšon	gracious → grā́ç̌ȣs	illusion → ilūžon
situation → siťūā́ťon or siťūā́ч̌on	session → séšon	glacial → glāç̌al	fusion → fūžon
renovation → renōvā́ťon	emission → ėmíšon	special → spéç̌al	decision → dėçížon
station → stāťon	possession → pozéšon	precious → préç̌ȣs	cohesion → cōhḗžon
tessellation → tesėlā́ťon	dimension → dīménšon	magician → majíç̌an	version → véržon
translation → ťranzlāťon	emulsion → ėmúlšon	sufficient → sufíç̌ent	amnesia → amnēža
pronunciation → prōnunçïā́ťon	controversial → conťrovéršal	theoretician → þēoretíç̌an
objection → objécťon		ocean → ṓç̌ėan