Revising the Latin Alphabet

What's wrong with the Latin Alphabet - and what I did to fix it

The Latin alphabet, despite its ubiquity and universal application to the English language, has many faults that make it inefficient for many tasks — particularly typing and handwriting, the primary means of written communication. 

Problems with the Latin alphabet(and their solutions)

• The letter “c” is wholly useless; it can be replaced by either “s” or “k” depending on pronunciation. 

• There are words with extraneous letters, such as “roll” and “pass”, which could be shortened to “rol” or “pas”. 

• The letters “ee” can be abbreviated to “ē”.

• The letters “ay” could be abbreviated to “é”. “Day” would become “dé”.

• The voiced “s”(as in “lies” or “recognise”) can be replaced with the letter “z”.

• All instances of “cs” or “ks” can be replaced with “x”; e.g. Tucson becomes Tuxin.

• “Ck” and the hard “ch”(as in loch) are redundant and can be replaced with simply “k”. “Pick” becomes “pik” and “picks” becomes “pix”

• “Wh” is also redundant and can be replaced with “w”.

• The letter “q” is completely reliant on the letter “u” to make the “kw” sound. The pronunciation of “qu” should be assigned to “q” alone; for example, “quick” becomes “qik”.

• “Ou”(when not followed by an “s”, as in “curious”(that shall be dealt with later)) renders both an “aʊ” and a “uː” sound. It may be separated into “ow” and “ü” respectively. “House” becomes “hows” and “boot” becomes “büt”. 

• “Th”, “sh”, and “ch” are common strings(e.g. “the”, “lash”, and “chair”) yet still written as two characters instead of only one. They can be replaced by thorn(þ), eszett(ß), and the IPA symbol for the voiceless postalveolar affricate(tʃ⁠) respectively.

• The “ed” at the end of many past-tense verbs may be shortened with an apostrophe; for example, “killed” becomes “kil’d”.

• The “lle”, “le”, and “ll” sounds at the ends, and occasionally middles, of many words(e.g. “bottle”, “full”, and “gullible”) are redundant. The aforementioned words can be shortened to “bötl”, “ful”, and “gulibl”. 

• The “aw” sound (e.g. “caught”) can be shortened in all cases to ö. “Caught” becomes “cöt”.

• The “or” sounds in “your” and “sure” are represented by unnecessary letters, and can be shortened to “er”. They can be simplified to “yer” and “ßer” respectively.

• The “you” sound can be shortened to “yü”; “you” itself becomes “yü”.

• The “iar” or “ier” sounds, such as in the word “peculiar”, are redundant — they sound identical, despite the different spelling. They can be shortened, collectively, to  “-yer”. “Pekiülyer”.

• The “ious” sound is identical to “yis”, and can be substituted with such. “Curious” becomes “kiüryis”; the “iü” string indicates the first syllable has an “e-yoor” rather than an “er” sound.

• The “-the” in “clothes” is in many dialects silent, and can be replaced with a “z”. The word “clothes” becomes “kloz”. 

• The “f” in “of” creates a “v” sound. “Of” will become “uv”. “Off”, which is one letter from “of”, will become “öf”.

• The “y” sound should not be made by “i”. “Wild” becomes “wyld”, for example. The personal pronoun “I” will become “Y”.

• The letter “e” is most often unnecessary at the end of a word(e.g. are). “Are” may be written as “ar”, and “were” may be written as “wer”.

• “A” should not make an “uh” sound; the letter “u” should. “Was” will become “wus”.

• “G” should make only the hard G sound. The soft G sound will be made only by “J”.

• The “w” in many words, such as “lawnmower” and “owe”, is redundant, and can be omitted and replaced with an “oe”. “Owe” becomes “oe”.

Þu kumplēt’d, revyz’d alfabet

A B tʃ⁠ D E Ē É F G H I J K L M N O Ö P Q R S ẞ T Þ U Ü V W X Y Z

Exampls

Cousin - Kuzin

Mother - Muþer

Duplicated - Düplikét’d

Intellectual - Intelektʃ⁠ul

Embarrassment - Imbérisment

Listening - Lisining

Boulevard - Bülivard

Deceased - Desēs’d

Within - Wiþin

Consideration - Kunsideréßin

Personal - Persinl

Aloof - Ulüf

Cognizant - Kogniznt

Handwriting - Handryting

Concerningly - Kunserninglē

Entrepreneur - Öntruprunor

Where - Wér

Were - Wer

Why - Wy

What - Wut

When - Wen

Lawnmower - Lönmoer

Outwardly - Owtwerdlē

Coat - Cot

Nettle - Netl

Exerpt frum ferst péj uv 1984(kumpér’d wiþ urijinl)

It wuz u bryt kuld dé in Éprl, and þu kloks wer strykng þertēn.  Winstin Smiþ, his tʃin nusl’d intü hiz brest in in efert tü eskép þe vyl winz, slip’d qiklē þrü þe glas dorz uv Vikterē Mantʃns, þo nöt qiklē inuf tü privent u swerl uv gritē dust frum entering ulong wiþ him.

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him.

Þis pröjekt iz stil under divelipmint and wil resēv ferþer updéts.