Sounds and symbols

[Jonathan Buhacoff]

Proposal:

Each symbol should have only one associated sound, and each sound should be represented by only one symbol.

Intent:

This makes spelling and reading easier. Once a person learns a sound and symbol, they can be confident each time they hear it or see it. Eliminates uncertainty when encountering new words. Reduces learning time.

Discussion:

In English, the letter “c” can make at least three sounds: “s”, “k”, and “ch”. The letter “s” can make at least two sounds: “s” and “sh”. The letter “p” can make at least three sounds: “p”, “ph”, and “psy”. These make the language harder to learn. Students spend more time trying to understand that the letter makes different sounds in different places, and also trying to remember which usages correspond to which sounds. Sometimes there are rules and sometimes there are exceptions to those rules for seemingly individual words.

It would be easier to simply learn additional symbols so there is only one symbol for each sound used in the language.

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