New Letters
The Alphabet
A Æ B C Ç D E F Φ Þ Ð Đ G Ȝ H Ƕ I J K Ʞ L M N И Թ Ŋ O Œ Ꝏ P Q R S Ʃ T Ч U Ȣ V W X Y Z
a æ b c ç d e f φ þ đ ð g ȝ h ƕ i j k ʞ l m n и թ ŋ o œ ꝏ p q r s ʃ t ч u ȣ v w x y z
The New Letters
There are 15 new letters:
Æ æ Ç ç Φ φ Þ þ Ð ð (or Đ đ) Ȝ ȝ Ƕ ƕ Ʞ ʞ И и (or Թ թ) Ŋ ŋ Œ œ Ꝏ ꝏ Ʃ ʃ Ч ч Ȣ ȣ
Æ
æ
aesh
æʃ
/ɪjːʃ/
Lock in pre-shift vowels e.g. aether is /ij/, /ɪː/, /eː/; not /e/, /ɛ/.
Æ letter prevents E being read as /ɛ/.
Ç
ç
say
çāa
/sij/
Mark c as /s/, condense ce/ci/cy. Supports some spelling “exceptions” and enables consonantal spelling.
Ð / Ð
ð / đ
thee
ðē
/ðij/
Represents digraph th as ⟨ð⟩.
Used to be called “eth” but I changed the name to fit the voiced/unvoiced nomenclature of fricatives (eff/vee etc).
θ and ð are rarely phonemically constrasting in English, but mis-voicing these can cause misinterpretation and confusion. We have to treat English as a global language, so its markings must support people learning pronunciation as per the common models.
Þ
þ
eth
eþ
/ɛθ/
Represents digraph ⟨th⟩ as /θ/.
Used to be called “thorn” but we change it to match fricative nomenclature (eþ/ðē.)
Φ
φ
phee
φē
/fij/
Represents digraph ⟨ph⟩ as /f/, almost solely in Greek- rooted words.
Phone → φōn. Syphon → sȳφon.
Ȝ
ȝ
yogh
yoȝ
/joɣ/
Replaces most instances of gh & ugh as /ɸ~f~(x)/ and silence, unless phonemically distinguishing (but I think there are no instances of this). Also may replace g in ⟨gn⟩→⟨ȝn⟩ as this represents a velaric narrowing prior to /n/.
Ʞ
ʞ
echo
eʞō
/ˈɛ.kəw/
Represents digraph ⟨ch⟩ as /k/, almost solely in Greek-rooted words. Tech → teʞ.
Chosen for visual similarity to k and χ.
И / Թ
и / թ
enyey
eиe
/ˈɛɲ.jɛj/
Represents phoneme /ɲ/. Rarely present in English: primarily assimilative (as in ⟨ny⟩ in “canyon”) or imported (as in ⟨ñ⟩ in “señor”).
Native English speakers with no awareness of palatal phones tend towards pronouncing both ⟨ny⟩ and ⟨ñ⟩ as [nj]; non-native speakers tend towards pronouncing both as [ɲ] because this phoneme exists in a broad array of languages.
⟨ny⟩ and ⟨ñ⟩ are not phonemically-contrasting in English and there is no trend towards it, thus a single letter is suitable: ⟨Ии⟩ (or ⟨Թթ⟩).
Letter is based on the Nn shapes and the shape of the first choice was derived from the Armenian letter T’o /tʰ/. This glyph does not fit Latinate glyphset styles so it is likely that the Cyrillic И will be used instead. The only problem with this is its identicality with N, rendering issues for dyslexic readers and new learners: most letters in English are distinct from one another (with the wild exception of dbqp).
Ŋ
ŋ
inga
iŋa
/ˈɪŋ.a/
⟨ng⟩ is a ridiculous and long-standing digraph in English which actually hosts a tonne of ambiguous spellings, but for some reason has never been replaced: /ŋ/, /ŋɡ/, /nʤ/ are all very common.
⟨nk⟩ is also very common, mainly producing /ŋk/.
⟨nx⟩ exists rarely, e.g. anxious /ŋʃ ~ ŋk̚ʃ/ and anxiety /ŋz/.
Œ
œ
oecō
œ́cō
/ˈy.kəw/
Lock in pre-shift vowels e.g. economic is /ij/ (/y/) not /e/. (οικος /ˈy.koʃ/
Œ prevents E being read as /ɛ/.
Ꝏ
ꝏ
o-dub, oowa
ódub, ꝏ́wa
/ˈo.dub/
Primarily represents /uː/ [uw] when spelled as ⟨oo⟩, such as too → tꝏ, food →fꝏd.
Ȣ
ȣ
ouáw
ȣau
dunno
⟨ou⟩ is an unreasonably common digraph in English, representing a crazy amount of both monophthongs and diphthongs. Ironically, not a single represented diphthong reflects the phonetic values of o+u.
The ȣ ligature has been selected to visually represent the modern digraph in a single character, and can be diacritiqued to modify its phonetic value. Where the ⟨ou⟩ digraph’s phonetic value can be better represented with other letters, it is. (E.g. house → haŭs.)
This glyph in many fonts is unwieldy and overheight; I have modified its appearance in a few standard fonts to be the same height as other vowels.
Ʃ
ʃ
esh
eʃ
/ɛʃ/
Represents ⟨sh⟩ as /ʃ/.
Ч
ч
chee
чē
/ʧij/
Represents ⟨ch⟩ as /ʧ/. Phonetic counterpart to the voiced ⟨j⟩ /ʤ/.
Ƕ
ƕ
hwair
hwăr
/ʍɛːɹ/
Aspirated w, i.e. ⟨wh⟩ in current orthography. Many native speakers conflate this with ⟨w⟩.
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