ALFIKS

A Revised Alphabet

for consistent spelling & pronunciation

• Consonants

  • as in
  • replaces CH, e.g. instead of CHIN
  • as in
  • as in ; also replaces PH, e.g. instead of GRAPH
  • as in , i.e. hard G, not soft G
  • as in ; but not in combinations CH, SH, or TH
  • as in ; also replaces soft G, e.g. instead of GEM
  • as in ; also replaces hard C, e.g. instead of CAT
  • as in
  • as in
  • as in
  • replaces hard NG, e.g. instead of SONG; replaces soft NG
  • as in
  • as in
  • as in ; also replaces soft C, e.g. instead of CENT
  • replaces SH, e.g. instead of SHIP
  • as in
  • replaces unvoiced TH, e.g. instead of THIN
  • replaces voiced TH, e.g. instead of THIS
  • as in
  • as in ; also replaces WH, e.g. instead of WHEN
  • as in
  • as in ; also replaces voiced S, e.g. instead of HANDS
  • replaces the ZH sound (a.k.a. voiced SH or French J), e.g. instead of AZURE

• Vowels, short (single) & long (twins)

  • as in
  • (referred to as "A twins") sounds like long A, as in for FADE
  • as in
  • sounds like long E, as in for BEAD
  • as in
  • sounds like long I, as in for RIDE
  • as in
  • sounds like long O, as in for MODE
  • is the short OO sound, as in for COOK
  • is the long OO sound, as in for KOOK
  • The traditional long U sound is covered by , as in for UKE
  • The traditional short U sound is covered by the schwa sound (see below), as in for YUCK

• The Schwa Sound

  • is the ubiquitous schwa sound of unstressed syllables, e.g.
    • the A in LAPEL:
    • the E in GIVEN:
    • the I in HABIT:
    • the O in FELON:
    • the U in ALBUM:

• Diphthongs

  • replaces OI or OY, e.g. instead of BOY
  • replaces OU or OW, e.g. instead of FOUL or FOWL

• footnotes

  • Q is not needed; replaces QU.
  • X is not needed; FOX becomes , and EXIT becomes .
  • The sound also appears in syllables ending with NK, e.g. for HONK
  • I do not make a distinction between the vowel sounds in CLOD and CLAWED, and so on. There is plenty of variation in vowel sounds simply from various speakers' accents.
  • This alphabet does nothing to indicate which syllable of a word is stressed.

bee	see	dee	eff	jee	aitch	jay	kay
ell	em	en	agma	pee	are	ess	she
tee	theta	double-theta	vee	double-you	wye	zee	zhee
aye	ee	eye	oh	you	schwa	coin	ouch