4000 The Fifth Milemium - More on Nue English Speling

The greatest impediment to learning in the English speaking world is our haphazard spelling. The 42 sounds of spoken English are written in over 400 different ways! The tables below compare the ways we write two important vowel sounds with the way they are spoken.

Q.	Would words like 'hear' and 'here' have only one spelling?
A.	Yes. Context will clarify the meaning just as it does in speech. For example, "Come heer to heer the music." There's nothing new in using context to clarify meaning. We do it all the time, "That gold mine is mine." "Bank at the bank on the bank." Context is even stronger than spelling. If I write, "Come hear to here the music", you know exactly what I mean. Thousands of words with only one spelling have numerous meanings. The word 'point' has 86, 'set' has 115.

Q.	Is Nue English Speling 100 percent regular? Is there perfect fit between spelling and pronunciation in all cases?
A.	No. No language has 100 percent fit. But with a single page for its alphabet key, no new letters, no diacritical marks, and only 14 rules, NES achieves a remarkably good match. Its visual compatibility with Traditional English Spelling, TES, should do much to speed adoption.

Q.	Will proper names be respelled?
A.	No. Nor will uncommon scientific or medical words whose present spelling have terminological significance. These will provide the "memory training" so dear to traditionalists. Of course, we are all free to spell our names as we wish and some people may choose to spell theirs in Nue English Speling. In the United States, it is legal to spell your name in a new way as long as you are not doing it to deceive.

Q.	What about regional dialects?
A.	TV, radio, and travel have made regional dialects less distinctive than they were. Even so, many regional remnants remain. A word like "car" has one spelling, but several regional pronunciations. This means that in different sections of the country the letters represent slightly different sounds to the local reader's ear. Yet one spelling can suffice because all of us, in speaking, use the same number of spoken sounds no matter where we live. If this were not true, every dictionary publisher would be printing a separate edition with a different pronunciation scheme for each section of the country. Other languages have regional dialects too, with one spelling.

Q.	Will etymologists object?
A.	Not if they are as thoughtful as the eminent Dr. Mario Pei who has pointed out that since words must be traced back through several changes to reach their origins, reformed spelling will add just one more step of retracing.

The need is great, the time is right. Just as Arabic numerals replaced Roman numerals, so fonetic spelling is destined to replace traditional spelling.
--The American Literacy Council

(The fonetic spelling plan used for Nue English Speling was developed by Edward Rondthaler and Edward J. Lias of the American Literacy Council.)

The letter, "Z", is used as the symbol for this fonetic spelling reform movement because the letter, "z", is used to represent the "z" sound. This causes a dramatic increase in the use of "z", from 4,068 per million written words to 118,101! A little less than half of our plurals and third person singulars (hits, keeps, tonics, surfs, tasks) end with an "s" sound. The rest have the "z" sound (armz, yardz, kegz, cowz, jawz, jabz, iz, wuz, haz, sez, hiz).

If you wish more information on Nue English Speling, along with five other futurist and Utopian ideas, including base 12 numbering and a new calendar, order the book, 4000, THE FIFTH MILENIUM, Six Revolooshunairy Iedeeas, from Aster Esprit Press, 16265 Dahlgren Road, King George, VA, for $14.95, which includes shipping.