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Click
here for today's suggestion.
Click here to see an index of all words used
so far, in chronological order, most recent first.
Click here to see an index of all words
used so far, in alphabetical order.
Click here for the principles that govern the
selection of words.
Click here for a list of words rejected for this
project because of those principles.
This page comprises two areas: (1) a list of about 1,054 proposed reformed spellings for individual words, plus derivatives, as at May 28, 2017 (as words are used, they are removed from this list and added to the two used-words files, alphabetical and chronological), and (2) a list of wider families of words that lend themselves to a single type of reform (e.g., changing CK to K): -ack, -age, -alk, -alm-, -angle, -atch-, -dg-/soft-G, -ee/-ea, -ed, -eeze, -ell, -ew, -eing, -ick, -ind, -ill, -illion, -ingle, -ingo/-ango, -ive, -nge-, -ock, -ogue, -old/-olt, -ore, -ous, -ove-, -ow, -ower, -own, -uck, -uff, and -y/-fy (long-I sound).
I welcome suggestions, BUT first please search the current versions of (a) this list (including the families of words after the initial alphabetical list) to see if your proposed reform is already under consideration, (b) the "Archives and Index (Alphabetical)" page (filename: archives-alpha.html) to see if that word has already been used, and (c) the "Rejected Words" page (filename: Rejected.html) to be sure that it has not already been considered but rejected. The used-words files (alphabetical and chronological) change every day; the future-words list may change every day as well; and the rejected-words file changes from time to time, tho not regularly.
The partial name (to protect identity) in brackets indicates who first suggested that reform. I will credit any suggestion from another person than myself by the same designation as appears on this page, unless s/he wishes to be credited by full name and locality (which should be conveyed in the email that makes the suggestion). If, for some reason, you don't want even the abbreviation of your email ID, as below, to appear on the SSWD website, do not send me suggestions, since I can't keep track of such things. Suggestions made hereinafter will bear the originator's ID as shown below.
The notation "(comments?)" indicates that I am uncertain about what to do with this word and would welcome advice.
Please direct suggestions and feedback to Fanetiks@aol.com.
| Traditional Spelling/s | Proposed Reformed Spelling |
| [A] | |
| abattoir | abbatwar (will the last syllable be seen as rhyming with present word "war"?) or abbatwahr (comments?) |
| abrazo | abrosso (American-Spanish pronunciation, not Castliain) |
| absotively (playful) | absotivly (use only with "posilutely") |
| absquatulate (Dictionary.com: "to flee; abscond") | absquochulate |
| a capella | occapella |
| à cheval | oshavol |
| acquiesce/nt, ~nce | acquiess/ent, ~nce (not a good spelling in regard to the IE, which dopily represents the sound sequence long-E, short-E, but what alternative do we have?) |
| adduce | aduce |
| airtight | airtite [tite=Music...] or airtyt |
| alcaide (Dictonary.com: in areas of Spanish history: "commander of a fortress" or "a jailer; the warden of a prison." | alkydee |
| allege | alej [yaora...] but adjective can be alejjid and adverb is alejjidly (comments?) |
| allochthon (Science Saturday) | alokthon or alocthonm (comments?) |
| altiplano | oltiplonno |
| altogether | aultogether |
| alveolar, alveolus, alveoli (Science Saturday) | alveeolar, alveeolus, alveeoli (This is intended to indicate that the word's stress falls on the second syllable, not third. Does it succeed?) (comments?) |
| ambassador | ambassader (The spelling-pronunciation aam.báas.a.dàur is well-established. Can we defy it?) (comments?) |
| ambivalent, ~ce | ambivvalent, ~ce |
| aminobenzene, aminobenzenoate (Science Saturday) | ameenobenzene, amenobenzenoate |
| amblyopia ("lazy eye"; Science Saturday) | amblyopea |
| amnesia, amnesiac, amnesic | amneezha, amneezheac, amneezic (comments?) |
| amphibole (mineral) (Science Saturday) | amfibole |
| amuse-bouche (Food Friday: appetizer, free of charge) | amuzeboosh or amuzebooshe or amuzebuesh (comments?) |
| amyloid/osis (Science Saturday) | ammiloid/osis |
| anal (Science Saturday) | aenal [Wilddog...] or ainal or aynal |
| anaphylactic, anaphylaxis (Science Saturday) | annafilactic,annafilaxis |
| androgyne, androgynous/ly, androgyny | androjine, androjjinus/ly, androjjeny |
| anemone | anemmonee |
| anemometer (Science Saturday) | annemommeter |
| angio- (Science Saturday) | anjeo- (-gram, -graphy, -plasty, -sperm) |
| angiosperm (Science Saturday) | anjeosperm |
| anhydrous (Science Saturday) | anhydrus |
| animism (Sunday) | annimism |
| anthophilous, anthophagous (Dictionary.com: "attracted by or living among flowers. ... feeding on flowers, as certain insects." (Science Saturday) | anthoffilous, anthoffagous |
| antigen (Science Saturday) | antijen |
| anywhere, anyplace | enneewhair, enneeplace |
| apartheid | aparthait (how do we show that the T and H are pronounced separately?with a hyphen, "apart-hait"; w/an X, apartxhait; or Q, "apartqhait"?; or apostrophe, "apart'hait"?) (comments?) |
| aphesis, aphetic (Dictionary.com: "the disappearance or loss of an unstressed initial vowel or syllable, as in the formation of the word slant from aslant.") | affasis, afettik |
| aphrodisiac/al | afrodeezeac, afrodiziacal |
| app | ap (low priority) |
| appoint, dis~, ~ment | apoint, disapoint or dissapoint, ~ment |
| appropriate | apropreat (adjective) / apropreate (verb) |
| appurtenance, appurtenant | apurtenance, apurtenant |
| aquaculture | aquaculchur |
| arborvitae, arbor vitae | arborvitee (plural then become "~ vitees") |
| archaic | arkayic or arcayic (comments?) |
| archeology, ~ical (Science Saturday) | arkeology /-ical [Cargo...] or ~ollojy |
| archetype | arkitype |
| archon | arkon (term is used in Greek-letter sororities/fraternities) |
| archosaur (Science Saturday) | arkosaur |
| areola | areeola |
| argent | arjent |
| argue, argument | argyu, argyument [space...] |
| Arkansas | (state:) Arkansaw (river: placed intu Rejected file because of two pronunciations) (There's a problem with changing the name of a state because of the many legal documents that would be affected if the change is adopted by the government. So a change in spelling could in general be used only outside government.) |
| Armagnac (Booze Tuesday) (brandy) | armanyac(k) (comments?) |
| armamentarium | armamentareum |
| armoire | armwar or (clearer) armwahr (cf. Brahmin, cheetah, Fahrenheit (for spellng, not pronunciation), hurrah; the AR in the first syllable may make a simple AR in the second syllable acceptable, tho "war" is a word to itself with the wrong sound) |
| arrhythmia (Science Saturday) | arithmea |
| arrow/head | arro [Dogs...], arrohed or arro-hed (comments?) |
| arroyo | aroyo |
| articulate | articculit (adjective), articculate (verb) |
| artifice | artifiss |
| asafetida, asafoetida | assafettida (Merriam-Webster shows a pronunciation with a long-E in the third syllable that other online dictionaries do not. Do we need to accommodate it and thus not double the T, which would make this word not appropriate for change?) (comments?) |
| ascites, ascitic (Science Saturday) | asiteez, asittic |
| asexual | aisexual [garden...] |
| ashore, shore | ashor [Fireworks...], shor |
| ashram/a (Sunday) | oshram, oshrama |
| asomatous (incorporeal) | aisomatus |
| asparagus | asparragus |
| asphyxia/te | asfixia/te |
| assail/ant | asail/ant |
| assassin | asassin |
| assess/ment | asess/ment |
| asseverate | asevverate |
| assiduous | asijjuus (compare continuum, vacuum) |
| assist/ant | asist/ant [Gator...], ~ance |
| assuze | asize |
| associate | asociate (verb), asociat (noun) |
| assorted | asorted |
| assume, assumption | asume [Music...], asumption [tvp...] |
| assure | ashure [Firewall...] |
| assuage | aswage [yaora...] (Will this be read as a compound of "as" and "wage"?) or aswaje (beter, frum Box...) (comments?) |
| asthma, asthmatic | asma [Yaora...], asmattic; or azma, azmattic ("Asthma" has two pronunciations, one with a Z-sound, the other with an S-sound. Will people who use a Z-sound accept a plain S as representing their way of speaking (they do now, cf. "plasma"), or as mandating that they use an S-sound, so prefer "azma"? If the latter, this word cannot be changed, because Z will surely not be seen as accommodating the pronunciation that employs an S-sound. ) (comments?) |
| astronomy, astronomer (Science Saturday) | astronnomy, astronommer |
| asymmetric | aysimetric or aisimetric |
| ataraxia (Dictionary.com: "a state of freedom from emotional disturbance and anxiety; tranquillity".) | attaraxea |
| atavism, atavistic (Science Saturday) | attavizm, attavistic |
| atlatl | otlottle |
| atrium, (plural) atria or atriums | aitreum, aitrea, aitreums or aytreum, aytrea, aytreums |
| attempt | atempt |
| atelier | attelyay |
| atrocious | atroashus |
| attach | atach |
| attempt | atempt |
| attend/ance | atend [Music...]/ance |
| attention | atention |
| attenuate | atennuate (wrong letter is doubled) |
| attire | atire [Music...] |
| attorney | aturny [yaora...] or aterny (comments?) |
| attribute (verb; noun remains {attribute") | atribbute |
| atypical/ly | aytippically or aitippical/ly ("typical/ly" was used as "tippical/ly" on December12, 2012) |
| aubergine (British for "eggplant") | oberzheen |
| audacity | audassity |
| audience | audeance |
| aught | awt [fishstick...] or aut (comments?) |
| au pair | opair |
| auspicious | auspishus |
| autobahn | autobon (This is for people who use the anglicized pronunciation. People who prefer a more German pronunciation, óut.oe.bon, will prefer to leave the current spelling. So this is low-priority.) |
| autochthon (Science Saturday) | autocthon or autokthon (comments?) |
| autologous (Science Saturday) | autollogus |
| automaton, automata | autommaton, ~a (I actually heard some woman appraiser on Antiques Roadshow say áu.ta.ma.tòn, but that's wrong.) |
| automobile | automobeel |
| autonomy, ~nomic, ~nomous/ly | autonnomy, autonommic, autonnomus/ly |
| autumn/al | autum/nal |
| auxiliary | auxilyary or auxilyerry (to fite illiterate mispronunciation aug.zíl.a.rèe) |
| avarice | avvariss |
| avatar | avvatar |
| average | avrij (or, because some, tho very few, people do use the spelling pronunciation, with three syllables) avverij (comments?) |
| avid | avvid |
| avionics (Science Saturday) | aveonics |
| avocation | avvocation |
| awe | aw (but there is the interjection of the same spelling) or auw [Foog...], awsum [Check...] (comments?) |
| awry | ari, arie, ary, arye, ariy, arih, or ?? (comments?) |
| axiom | axeom or axeum |
| axolotl (Science Saturday) | axolottle |
| aye | ie (but cf. "i.e.") [Dogs...] or iy ("ie" was already offered here for "eye" on November 5, 2010; can we use it for both "eye" and "aye"?) (comments?) |
| azimuth | azzimuth |
| azure | azhur |
| [B] | |
| baggie | baggee [garden...] |
| bandolero (Not all dictionaries accept this as English, but Oxford does: "Spanish bandit".) | bandolairo |
| barbie (Australian for bbq) | barby [garden...] or barbee |
| barbiturate | barbichurate |
| bathysphere (Science Saturday) | bathisfere |
| belligerent | bellijjerent |
| benzocaine (Science Saturday) | benzocain |
| Bichon Frise | beeshon freezay (Can this name of a breed of lapdog be changed? Some people giv it French pronunciation with a long-O, nasalized and stressed, in the first word (bee.shóenn) and a long-A at the end of the second word (free.'ae); others pronounce it bee.shon freez; comments?) |
| biggie | biggy [tvp...] |
| binomial | binomeal ("meal" presents a problem) |
| biography, biographical | biografy [Dogs...] or bioggrafy; biograffical (comments?) |
| blackboard | blakbord [Garage...] (If "black" is not revised, can this be revised?) (comments?) |
| blowgun, blowhole, blowtorch | bloegun, bloehole, bloetorch [Multi...] |
| boat | boet or bote [both from space...] (low priority) |
| bombardier | bombardeer (airman who drops bombs); bombardeeay (for snowmobile vehicle) (comments?) |
| boohai; booai, booay (in New Zealand, a remote area) | boohi; booi |
| bookworm | bookwerm [Cal...] |
| botryoidal (shape of cluster of grapes) | bohtreoidal, or bohtryoidal or boatreyoidal or boatryoidal or boatreoidal (comments??) |
| botulin, botulinus, botulinum, botulism (Science Saturday) | bochulin, bochulinus, bochulinum, bochulizm |
| boulder | boelder |
| bougainvillaea, bougainvillea | booganvillea |
| bow (and arrow) | boe [Clap...] or boew (see -OW GROUP, below) ("Boe" was offered for "beau" on April 14, 2008.) |
| brew (Booze Tuesday) | broo (but what do we do about "brewer/y"?: broower/y? bruery) (comments?) |
| bridge | brij (plural: "brijes", "brijjes"?) |
| bronchus, bronchi, bronchitis (Science Saturday) | brongkus, brongkee or brongki, brongkitis |
| brow | brou [Shoe...] or brouw |
| bruit (medical term) | bruwy, bruewy, or brooey (like "hooey") |
| Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist (Sunday) | Booda, Boodizm, Boodist (OO allows either the short-OO or long-OO pronunciation) |
| budge, ~es, ~ing, ~ed | buj, bujjes, bujjing, bujd |
| budgerigar, budgie | bujjereegar, bujjereegah, bujjy or bujjee |
| buoy/ant, ~cy | booey (noun)/ boi (verb) [Clap...] (cf. gooey, poi, borzoi), boy/ant, ~cy |
| bustier (corset) | boostyae or boosteyay or boostyay or boosteay (comments?) |
| buttock/s | buttak/s [Clap...: "the word buttocks is often mispronounced to rhyme with rocks because of it's misleading spelling"] |
| [C] | |
| caper (Food Friday) | cayper |
| cardio- (Science Saturday) | cardeo- |
| cardiomyopathy (Science Saturday) | cardeomyoppathy |
| cartilage, ~ginous (Science Saturday) | cartilij, cartilajjinus |
| cassis (Buez Tuesday) (use with "kir") | caseece or caseese or caseess (comments?) |
| cataplasm (Science Saturday) | cattaplazm (use only with "poultice") |
| cetacean, ~ous (Science Saturday) | cetation or citaition or citaishon (comments?), ~us |
| cheat/er/s | cheet/er/s |
| checker/board, chequer/board | checkerbord [Fisherman...] or chekkerbord ("Check"/"cheque" was offered here as "chek" on August 28, 2010.) |
| chia (Food Friday) | chea |
| chiropody, chiropodist (Science Saturday) | kiroppody, kiroppodist (if the pronunciation with an SH-sound is commonplace, we cannot reform this word |
| choroid, chorioid, choroidal (Science Saturday) | coroid, coreoid, coroidal |
| chorion (Science Saturday) | coreon |
| Christie, Christy, Christiana (skiing) | cristee, cristeannea |
| chromatography (palmistry) | cromatoggrafy |
| chronometer, chronometric (Science Saturday) | cronommeter, cronomettric |
| Cimmerian (Dictionary.com: "very dark; gloomy") | cimerean or cimeerean |
| cirrhosis (Science Saturday) | cirosis |
| clear | cleer [Water...] (necessary? intended to distinguish from "nuclear", but "clear" is part of a pattern whereas "nuclear" is the exception) (comments?) |
| clinic | clinnic |
| cloasma | cloewazma (use with "melasma") |
| clockwise, counter~ | clockwize [Fisherman...], counter~ |
| closure | cloezher [Moon...] or cloezhur or clozher or cloazher or cloazhur or clohzher, etc. (comments?) |
| coagulate | coaggulate (verb), coaggulit (adjective, but obsolete) |
| coati/mundi, ~mondi | coewottee/mundy (comments?) |
| coccyx, (plural) coccyges, (but should be) coccyxes (Science Saturday) | coksix, coksijeez, coksixes (comments?) |
| coerce; coercion | coewerce or coawerce or cohwerce; coewershan or coewerzhan (comments?) |
| coeval | coeeval or coeweeval or coeweval (comments?) |
| cohesion | coheezhon or coheezhun (comments?) |
| coir | coyyer or coiyer [Music...] >>("oir" is very ambiguous and "coir" is the only word where "oir" is pronounced "oiyer".)<< |
| coincide/nce | coewincide/nce |
| coitus, coition | coewitus, coewition |
| cold | coeld [Clap...], or coald or cohld (comments?) |
| collaborate, collaboration | cullabborate, cullabboration |
| colorectal (Science Saturday) | colo-rectal (mention that this spelling is clearer, tho longer, and contains a hyphen, whereas people tend to prefer to do without hyphens; but here, without it, the word starts with "color", which is misleading) |
| comedy, comic, comedian, comedienne | commedy, commic, comeedian, comeedienne |
| commission | comishon or comishun or camishon or camishun (comments?) |
| commode, dis~ | camode, discamode or comode, discomode (comments?) |
| commodious | camodeus or comodeus (comments?) |
| comparison | comparrison |
| composite | compozzit (Brits actually say kóm.pa.zit; if "compozzit" would offend them, they can continue to use the unphonetic spelling, and just add that to the list of words spelled differently in the New World and Old.) |
| compost | compoest or compoast (comments?) |
| concierge | coanseeyairzh or coneceairzh or conesyairzh or ?? (comments?) |
| concupiscence, concupiscent | concupissence, concupissen |
| concussion | concushon |
| condescend, condescension | condisend, condisention |
| confidant | confidont (prescriptivist, but rightly) |
| confit (Food Friday) | caunfee or confee (comments?) |
| confuse, confusion | confuze, confuezhon or cunfuez, cunfuezhon or ~feuzhon or ~zhun (comments?) |
| conga | congga |
| congeal | conjeel |
| congee, congé | conjee, conzhay or conjay |
| congener | conjener, conjenerric, conjennerus |
| congenial | cunjeenyal or conjeenyal (contrast "congenital") |
| congenita l(Science Saturday) | conjennital |
| congest/ion, ~ive | conjest/ion, ~iv |
| conjecture, conjectural | conjecchur, conjecchural |
| conk | congk |
| connect | canect |
| conscience, conscious, subconscious, unconscious, ~ness | conshence, conshus, subconshus, unconshus [fishstick...]/ness (contrast "science" with "conscience") -NSH- is perceived by some people to have an implied T (-NTSH-), which means the whole sequence is in turn perceived as NCH (kon.chans, etc.). |
| consecutive | conseccutiv |
| consigliere, (plural) consiglieri | caunseelyairae, (plural) caunseelyairee |
| constable, constabulary | constabull, constabbeulerry |
| consummate | consumat/e or consummat (adj.; leave verb as-is?) (comments?) |
| contagious, contagion | contaijon, contaijus |
| contemn | contemm or contem (comments?) |
| contemptuous | contempchuus |
| contest (noun) | conntest (low priority) |
| contingent | continjent |
| continuous | continuus (cf. "continuum") |
| contrary | contrerry and contrairy |
| contrecoup | contracoo |
| contretemps | contraconn |
| contribute | contribbute (to fite foreign mispronunciatiion kón.tri.byùet) |
| control/led, ~l(l)ing | controle/d [Clap...], controling |
| contusion | contuezhon or contuezhun (comments?) |
| convey | cunvay [Firewall...] or convay (will comparison with "convoy" produce stress on first syllable?) |
| convivial | cunvivveal or convivveal (comments?) |
| convulsion | convulshon or convulshun (comments?) |
| cookie | cookee (cf. pie, tree) [Clap...] or cooky (comments?) |
| coomb/e, comb | coom [fishstick...] (but there is more than one pronunciation; can we change this?) (comments?) |
| copacetic, copasetic | copasettic |
| co-pay, copay | copay |
| copulate, ~tion | coppulate, ~tion |
| copy/write/r | coppy [Doghouse...] /rite [Cal...], /-riter [Red...] |
| coquette | cokett or cokette (comments?), cokettish |
| coriander | coreander |
| cornstalk | cornstauk [GreenD...] (use with "stalk") |
| cornucopia | cornucopea |
| corpuscle | corpussle or corpussel (comments?) |
| corral | coralle or caral or caralle (comments?) |
| corroborate | carobborate |
| corrode, corrosion, corrosive | carode, carozhon (or corrozhun), carosiv |
| corsage | corsozh |
| cos (British for romaine lettuce) | causs |
| cosmic | cozmic [Garden...] |
| cosmopolitan, cosmopolite | cozmopollitan, cozmoppolite |
| cosmos | cozmos |
| cosy, cozy, cozie | cozy |
| cotillion, cotillon | cotillyon or catillyon |
| cottage | cottij |
| cotto | coto |
| couchette | cooshette |
| counterfeit | counterfit |
| counterpoise | counterpoiz |
| coup | cu, cooh, ku, koo, or kooh (comments?) |
| coup d'état, coup d'etat | kudaytah or coodaytah or coodaitah or cooh~ |
| coupe, coupé [?] | cupay [Clap...] or coopay |
| courageous | curraijus |
| courier | curreur or curreeyur or curreeyar (comments?) |
| courtesy, courteous | curtesy (however, there is an unusual legal term with this spelling), curteus |
| courtier | cortyer or corteur or corteyur or corteyar (comments?) |
| courtship | cortship ("Court" was used as "cort" on May 16, 2005/) |
| courtyard | cortyard ("Court" was used as "cort" on May 16, 2005/) |
| covet | cuvvet or cuvvit |
| covey | cuvvy |
| cow | cou [Starry...] or couw |
| coward | cowwerd or couwerd or cowward or couward (necessary? if used, already-offered "cowardiss" (5/12/05) will have to be adjusted) (comments?) |
| cower | cowwer or couwer (see -OWER GROUP, below) |
| cowl | couwel |
| coyote | coyotee (to fite the spelling-(mis)pronunciation kíe.yoet) |
| cozen | cuzzen |
| cozy, cosy, cozie (remove "cosy" above when I use this) | cozy |
| crabbed | crabbid (low priority for being rare nowadays) |
| cranium, cranial | craneum, craneal |
| crappie | croppy or croppie or croppee (comments?) |
| craquelure | craklure or craclure (to avoid 3-syllable mispronunciation that "cracklure" (similar to "crackle") might produce) or crackelure (if we decide that 3 syllables is a better pronunciation after all) |
| cravat | cravatt |
| creativity | creativvity |
| credit | creddit |
| crematorium | creematoreum (I actually heard a reporter on the Deeutsche Welle TV show Focus on Europe say krèm.a.táu.ree.am) |
| crème fraîche, creme fraiche | cremfreh |
| cremini/s, crimini/s | cremeeny, cremeenies |
| crenel/lated, ~ationFF | crennel/ated, -ation |
| crepitate | creppitate |
| cretaceous | cretaishus |
| crevice | crevviss |
| crew | cru(e) (do we need a final-E?) (comments?) |
| criminal | crimminal |
| crinoline | crinnalin |
| criterion, criteria | critereon, criterea |
| critique | criteek |
| crooked | crookid [FireW...] |
| croquet | crokay |
| croquette (Food Friday) | croket or crokett or crokette (comments?) |
| crore | cror or kror (from Hindi "kror") |
| crow/ed, crowing | cro/ed, croeing or croewing (comments?) |
| crowbar | crobar or croebar |
| cruel | crual |
| crustacean | crustaishon, crustayshon, crustation (comments?) |
| crwth | crooth [fishstick...] |
| cryptosporidium, ~a | criptosporideum, ~ea |
| crystal/line | cristal/in (but American pronunciation of adjectival form) |
| cuckold | cuckled or cuckald (comments?) |
| cuckoo | cookoo |
| cudgel | cujjel |
| culture | culchur or culcher (comments?) (would include derivatives agriculchur, viniculchur, aquaculchur, etc.) |
| comeuppance | cumuppance |
| curettage | curettozh |
| curfew | curfue [Staek...] |
| curio | cureo |
| curmudgeon | curmujjon or curmujjin (comments?) |
| curvaceous | curvayshus or curvaeshus (comments?) |
| curve/ball | curv [Fireworks...] /ball |
| custodial | custodeol [fishstick...] (contrast "dial") |
| cutie, cutey | cuty (low priority) |
| cwm | koome or koohm or koom [space...] |
| cyan | siyan [Gator...], ciyan (comments?) |
| cybernetics | cybernettics |
| cygnet | signit or cignet (comments?) |
| cylinder, cylindrical | sillinder, sillindrical |
| cymbal | simbal [Firewall...] |
| cynic/al | sinnic/al |
| cyst | cist (cf. cistern and esp. cisterna) or sist (comments?) |
| [D] | |
| damascene, damaskeen | dammasene or dammaseen, dammaskeen |
| daphne (Science Saturday) (Dictionary.com: "(lowercase) Botany. any Eurasian shrub belonging to the genus Daphne, certain species of which, as D. mezereum, are cultivated for their fragrant flowers.") | dafnee or dafny (comments?) |
| décolletage | daycoltozh (a guide away from spelling-pronunciations rather than prescriptivist condemnation of other pronunciations) |
| décolleté, decollete | daycoltay (a guide away from spelling-pronunciations rather than prescriptivist condemnation of other pronunciations) |
| defamation, defamatory | deffamation, defammatory or difammatory (comments?) |
| defecate, defecation | deffecate, deffecation |
| dehisce/nt, ~nce; indehisce/nt, ~nce (Science Saturday) | dehiss/ent, ~ence; indehiss/ent, ~ence |
| demerol (Science Saturday) | demmerol (but this is a trademark) |
| demography, ~phics | demoggrafy, demmograffic/s |
| dermatology, dermatological, dermatologist (Science Saturday) | dermatollojy, dermatolojjical, dermatollojist |
| dernier cri | dairnyaycree |
| dhole | doel [Gator...] or doal (low priority) |
| dhoti, dhooti, dhootie, dhuti | doty; dooty |
| diatomite (Science Saturday) | diattomite |
| dinitrobenzenen (Science Saturday) | dinytrobenzene |
| disable/d | disaible/d |
| discursive | discursiv |
| disease | dizeez (use with "ease") |
| diva, (plural) divas, dive | deeva(s), deevay (contrast "diver", "divagate", "divan") |
| divisive | divysiv (to fite mispronunciation di.vís.iv) |
| divorcé(e), divorce(e) | deevorcsay |
| Djibouti | Jibuety, Jibuetee, Jibooty, Jibootee, Jiboohty, or Jiboohtee (comments?) |
| Doberman pinscher | Doberman pinsher or doberman ~ |
| dodge, dodgy | doj/yy (But what of the plural of the noun, and third-person and past tense of verb? "Dojes", "dojd"?) |
| don't | doan't or doen't (cf. "dont walk" signs) [Clap...] (comments?) |
| dook (wooden plug) | dooke or doohk (comments?) |
| dos-à-dos, do-si-do | dosydoe or doseedo or doeseedoe (comments?) |
| douche | doosh or dooshe or duesh (low priority and perhaps not entirely appropriate for this project, which is largely directed to schoolchildren) (comments?) |
| doux | doo |
| dower, dowry | dowwer, douwry or douwer, doury (see -OWER GROUP, below) (comments?) |
| Dramamine | drammameen |
| dramaturge, dramaturgy | dramaturj, dramaturjy |
| drogue | droeg or droag (comments?) |
| drongo (tropical bird) | dronggo |
| drudge | druj |
| duplicate (noun) | duplicat [Dogs...] |
| Dutch | Duch (nationality); duch (sharing expenses) |
| dysgeusia (Dictionary.com: "an impairment of the sense of taste") | disgyoozea or disgyoozha (comments?) |
| dysphagia | disfaijea, disfaja, or disfaija (comments?) |
| dysphemism | disfemizzam or disfemizm or disfamizm or disfumizm (comments?) |
| dysphoria | disforea |
| dystrophy, ~phia, dystrophic | distrofy, distrofea, distrofic (tho some people pronounce the O in "dystrophic" as a short-O, other people, and maybe most, pronounce it long, so we should not double the following-F — ?) |
| [E] | |
| edify, edification | eddifi, eddification |
| edifice | eddifiss |
| Edinburgh | Edinburra |
| effect | ifect or efect (comments?) |
| effectual, in~ | ifechual, in~ |
| effectuate | ifecchuate |
| effendi | effendee |
| Egypt, Egyptian | Eejipt, Eejipshan or Eejiptian (TIAN is a variation on the common suffix TION, which we are not attempting to replace.) |
| ejaculate | ejacculate (verb), ejacculit (noun) (noun may be inappropriate for this project, which is largely directed to schoolchildren) |
| elision | elizhun or elizhon (comments?) |
| emanate | emmanate |
| emolument | emollyument or emolleument (comments?) |
| emu | eemyue (to fite common mispronunciation ée.mu) |
| encrypt/ion | encript/ion |
| endemic | endemmic |
| endocardium | endocardeum |
| engage/ment | engaje/ment |
| ennead | enneyad or enneead (does either of these imply stress on the second syllable? if so, how else might we show that the pronunciation is én.ee.àad?) enneadd? (comments?) |
| enrapture | enrapcher or enrapchur ("Rapcher" was offered for "rapture" on September 20, 2006, so if "enrapchur" seemz preferabool here, we should revise "rapture" to "rapchur" there.) |
| enthusiasm, enthusiastic/ally | enthuzeazm, enthuzeastic/ally |
| entomology, entomological/ly, entomologist | entomollojy, entomolojjical/ly, entomollogist |
| entreaty | entreety |
| en/vision | en/vizhon or en/vizhun |
| ephedra (Science Saturday) | efedra |
| epidemiology (Science Saturday) | eppidemeollojy or eppideemeollojy (comments?) |
| epigram/matic | eppigram/attic |
| episiotomy (Science Saturday) | epeezeottomy |
| equanimity | equanimmity |
| equilibrium | equilibreum |
| equipoise | equipoiz |
| equivalent | equivvalent |
| equivocal, equivocate | equivvocal, equivvocate |
| esophageal (Science Saturday) | isoffajeeal |
| espionage | espeonozh |
| eugenics | eujennics |
| euphonium (small, tenor tuba) | eufoneum |
| eustachian (tube) (Science Saturday) | yuestaishan (tube) |
| evil | eevool |
| evocative | evoccativ |
| excoriate | excoreate |
| exfoliate | `exfoleate |
| exist | egzist [space...] (low priority) |
| extraembryonic (Science Saturday) | extraenbreonic |
| explosion, explosive | exploazhon or ~.zhun or ~.zhan ; explosiv (comments?) |
| [F] | |
| facetious | faseeshus [space...], or faceeshus |
| fandango | fandanggo |
| Fauntleroy, fauntleroy; Little Lord Fauntleroy | fauntlaroy |
| fava (bean)(Food Friday) | fovva |
| feinschmecker (German for "gourmet") | fineshmecker |
| feisty | fysty or fystee (comments?) |
| fentanyl | fentanil |
| fetid | fettid |
| fettucine (Food Friday) | fettucheenee |
| fibrosis | fybrosis |
| film noir | filmnwahr or film nwahr |
| fidget | fijjet |
| fleishig (Saturday or Sunday) (Microsoft Encarta dictionary: "under Jewish dietary laws, relating to ... meat") | flyshig |
| floriferous | florifferus |
| fluctuate, fluctuation | flucchuate, flucchuation |
| forilegium (Dictionary.com: "a collection of literary pieces; anthology") | florilejeum |
| flumadiddle (Dictionary.com: "utter nonsene", "worthless frills") | flummadiddle |
| fontina (Food Friday) | fonteena |
| fou (Scottish for "extremely drunk") | fooh |
| foursome | faursum |
| frangipani | franjipanee |
| fraudulent | fraujulent |
| freak | freek |
| free | fre (low priority) |
| frittata (Food Friday) | fritotta |
| frondescence | frondessence |
| frottage | frotozh or frottozh |
| frousy, frouzy, frowsy, frowzy | frouzy |
| fugacious (Dictionary.com: fleeting) | feugaishus or feugayshus (comments?) |
| fugleman | feugelmon or fuegelmon (comments?) |
| fuliginous | feulijjinus |
| fungus | funggus |
| fusain (charcoal for drawing) | feuzain or fuezain (comments?) |
| [G] | |
| garbanzo (Food Friday) | garbonzo |
| gasholder, gasometer | gas-holder, gasommeter |
| gastroenterology, ~gist | gastroewenterollojy, ~jist |
| gaucho | goucho (compare "Groucho") |
| Gemini | Jemmini |
| gentility | jentillity |
| genital | jennital |
| geodesic | jeodessik (There are two minor alternative pronunciations that I think we don't need to accommodate: jèe.ya.dées.ik and jèe.ya.déz.ik.)(comments?) |
| German/y | Jerman/y [space...] |
| gerodontics | jerodontics |
| gigolo | jigolo (alternate pronunciation zhíg.a.loe is not accepted by all major dictionaries) |
| girlfriend | gurlfrend [space...] or gerlfrend or goorlfrend (comments?) |
| glottal | glottle [Caste...] (low priority because "glottal" is phonetic, if not consistent with other words of parallel pronunciation) |
| going, thoroughgonig, ongoing (etc.) | goeing, thorogoeing, ongoeing (etc.) |
| gotcha | gocha |
| gouda (Food Friday) | gooda or gueda or goohda (comments?) |
| goujon (Food Friday) (Dictionary.com: "flathead catfish"; MS Encarta dictionary: "a long strip of fish or chicken coated in egg and breadcrumbs and deep-fried ") | goojen |
| graduate, graduation | grajjuate, grajjuation |
| grandaunt, ~child, ~daughter, ~father, ~mother | grandont, -chiald, -dauter, -fother, -muther [GreenD...] |
| granita | graneeta (low priority) |
| grey, gray | gray |
| greyhound | grayhound |
| grievance | greevance |
| grown, grown-up | grone, grone-up ("space...." suggests "gronup" for the noun) (comments?) |
| growth | groath (but "gro" and "gru" have already been used) |
| guidon | gydon or giedon (comments?) |
| gymnosperm (Science Saturday) | jimnosperm |
| [H] | |
| halal (Food Friday, which is also appropriate for Islamic issues / Church Sunday) | halahl |
| halcyon | halceon |
| hard-boil/ed | hardboil/ed |
| harmonium | harmoneum |
| Hasid, Hassid, Chasid, Chassid; Hasidic, Hassidic, Chasidic, Chassidic (Saturday) | Hassid, Hasiddic |
| Hephaestus (Greek equivalent of Roman god Vulcan) | Hifestus |
| heretic (noun; adjective should be "heretical", not "heretic", stressed on second syllable) | herretic |
| heroic, heroism | herroewic, herroewizm |
| herpetophobia | herpetofobea |
| heterochromia | hetterocromea |
| heterochromosome | hetterocromosome |
| heterochromatic, ~in, ~ism | hetterocromatic, ~in, ~ism |
| histology | histollojy |
| holster | hoalster (compare "roaster") |
| homeopathy | homeoppathy |
| homily (Sunday) | hommily |
| houdah, howdah | houda |
| Hugh | Hyu or Hyue (comments?) |
| hussar | huzzar (alternative pronunciation does employ an S-sound) |
| hyena | hiyena or hieyeena (comments?) |
| hypha, (plural) hyphae | hyfa (plural then becomes "hyfas" or "hyfee") |
| hypocorism (nickname, like "Al" for "Alan", "Allen", or "Albert") | hypoccorizm |
| [I] | |
| ichnology | icnollojy or iknollojy (comments?) |
| ignominy\ | ignominny (contrast "tiny") |
| incipient | incippeant |
| inclusion | inkluezhon or inkluezhun (comments?) |
| indigenous | indijjenus |
| infidelity (use with "fidelity") | infidellity |
| innuendo | inyuewendo or inyuwendo or inneuwendo (comments?) |
| intelligentsia | intellijentsea (rejects minority, puristic (Russian) pronunciation with a G-sound rather than J-sound) |
| intelligible, unintelligible | intellijible, unintellijible |
| intercession | interceshon |
| intercourse | intercorse |
| interstitial | interstishal |
| intervention | intervenchon |
| inveterate | invetterit |
| isoprene, isoprenoid (Science Saturday) | isopreen, isopreenoid |
| italic/s | itallic/s |
| [J] | |
| jacquard | jackard |
| java (Food Friday) | jovva |
| Judaize (Saturday) | Judeyize |
| [K] | |
| kanone (Dictionary.com: "expert skier".) | kanona |
| katzenjammer | katsenjammer (only one letter changes) |
| ketoacidosis | ketoassidosis |
| kieserite | keezerite |
| kieselguhr (Science Saturday: diatomaceous earth) | keezelgoore |
| kimchi, kimchee, gimchi (Food Friday) | kimchee |
| Kir, kir (use with "cassis") (Booze Tuesday) | keer |
| kirsch, kirschwasser (Booze Tuesday) | keersh, ~vosser |
| Kiswahili, ki-Swahili | Keeswaheelee |
| koan (Encarta dictionary: a Zen Buddhist riddle used to focus the mind during meditation and to develop intuitive thinking) | koewahn |
| [L] | |
| laconic | laconnic |
| lacustrine (Dictionary.com: "of or relating to a lake".) | lacustrin |
| lammergeyer, lammergeier (large vulture) | lammergyer or lammergiyer or lammergiur or ?? |
| langoustine | langgusteen |
| Laos, Laotian | Louws or Lous; Layoeshan (comments?) |
| lathe | laith(e) |
| lee | le |
| legitimate | lejitimit |
| lesion | leezhon |
| licorice | licorish |
| limit | limmit |
| linen | linnen |
| litany | littany |
| lobotomy | lobottomy |
| logorrhea (Dictionary.com: "pathologically incoherent, repetitious speech. ... incessant or compulsive talkativeness; wearisome volubility".) | logareea |
| lorazepam | lorazzepam |
| lotophagi (in classical mythology, lotus-eaters) | lotoffaji |
| [M] | |
| macédoine, macedoine | massadwonn(e) |
| maco, mako (Caribbean: gossip) | macco |
| maelstrom | mailstrom |
| Mafia, mafia | moffea |
| malodorous | malodorus |
| marque | marke [Fishin...] |
| mariculture | marriculchur |
| marriage | marrij (second-round change; first was to "marrage" on September 5, 2004) |
| mariner | marriner |
| meal/y | meel/y |
| measles | meezles |
| measly | meezly |
| meatus | meaytus |
| megalomania | meggalomainea or meggalomanea (comments?) |
| melasma | melazma (use with "chloasma") |
| memoir | memwahr [Clap...] (Some people may see AH within a word as "un-English". I see only two words that aren't frankly foreign, in which an AH in medial position represents broad-A (without a consonantal-H following), "mahjong(g)" and "dahlia", and in "dahlia", oddly, some people say NOT broad-A but short-A and even LONG-A! I would LIKE to be able to propose respellings like "memwahr", "rezervwahr", etc., but I fear they may look, to many people, too much like pronunciation keys in folk phonetics, not real, general-purpose spellings. But see discussion at "armoire", above. Comments?) |
| memorabilia | memmorabillea |
| memorandum/s, memoranda | memorandum/s, memoranda |
| meninx, meninges | meninx (cannot be changed because there are two common pronunciations, one with long-E, one with short-E), but meninjeez can be reformed) |
| Mephisto, Mephistopheles | Mefisto, Mefistoffeles |
| mercurial | mercureal |
| meta (self-referential) | metta |
| metabolism, metabolic | metabbolizm, mettabollic |
| methemoglobinemia | met-heemoegloebineemea "(met-HEEM-oh glo-bin-EE-mee-a)" |
| methylphenidate | methilfenidate |
| mews | meuz |
| microglia | mycrogleea or mycrogleeya |
| micropolitan | mycropolitan |
| minatory (Dictionary.com: "menacing; threatening") | minnatory |
| minuet | minneuwett |
| minutiae | minuesheeyee or minoosheeyee |
| miraculous | miracculus |
| misery, miserable | mizzery, mizzerable |
| Mississippi | Mississippy or Mississippee (comments?) |
| moai, mo'ai | moewi |
| modulate | mojjulate |
| modus operandi | modus opperandee |
| molding, moulding | moeld/ing [Clap...], moald/ing |
| molecule, molecular | mollecule, moleccular |
| monetary, monetize | monnetary, monnetize |
| *monger | *mongger |
| monocline, monoclinal, monoclinic (Science Saturday) | monnocline, monnoclinal, monnoclinnic |
| monomer | monnomer |
| mononym/ous | monnonim, mononnimus |
| monophagous (Science Saturday) | monoffagus |
| moonrise | moonrize [Fisherman...] |
| moonwalk | moonwauk [Fisherman...] |
| moraine | morain |
| Morellino di Scansano (Booze Tuesday) | morelleeno dee sconsonno |
| mores | moraze, moraez, or moraiz (comments?) |
| morgue | morg |
| mountain | mountan [Dogs...] or mounten [fishstick...], who says: "better respelling than mountan because it allows "mountainous" to be respelled 'mountenus' rather than 'mountanus' which looks like 'Mt. Anus'". I don't think we should go out of our way to avoid spellings that children can mock, because children can be very inventive. Still, "fishstick" has a point. Wouldn't "mountin" work? (comments?) |
| mouths (plural only) | mouthz (contrast "breaths") [garden... and smithb...] |
| movable, moveable | muvable |
| mow | (verb) moe [Bookk...] (see -OW GROUP, below) |
| mow (hay pile) | mouw |
| Ms. | Miz [space...] |
| multiply (adj.) | multiplee [Dogs...] |
| multitudinous | multitudinus |
| Mumbai | Moombi (how show short-OO?) |
| muscle | mussle [Clap...] |
| mustard | musterd [Clap...] |
| muesli | myuezlee |
| mulatto | moolotto (I was startled on January 22, 2017, to find that three dictionaries gave as the first pronunciation for this slitely antique word, ma.láa.to, with a short-A as in "at". I am 72 years old and have never once in my entire life heard anyone say ma.láa.to, not in person, not on television, not in film. So we need to suppress that insane spelling-(mis)pronunciation by writing the correct pronunciation clearly.) |
| mush (sentimentality and some other senses) | moosh |
| mutt | mut [Music...] |
| mutual | meuchual or muechual (comments?) |
| muumuu, muu-muu | moomoo or mumu (comments?) |
| mycelium (main part of a fungus), (plural) mycelia | myceleum or myceeleum (plural then becomes "myceeleums" or "mycelea") (comments?) |
| myocardium, myocardial | myocardeum, myocardeal |
| myopia | myopea (cannot change "myopic", however, because there are two pronunciations, one with a short-O and one with a long-O) |
| myriad | miriad [rhod...] or meeread or meread (comments?) |
| myrmidon (Dictionary.com: "a loyal follower; especially : a subordinate who executes orders unquestioningly or unscrupulousl") | murmidon |
| myrrh | mur [rhode...] or mer (comments?) |
| mythopoeic | mithopeeic |
| [N] | |
| nausea, nauseous | nauzea, naushus |
| nebulizer/r | nebbeulize/r |
| nicety | nysity |
| non sequitur | nonsequitur |
| nouvelle cuisine (Friday) | noovell kwizeen or nuvel ~ |
| novocaine | novocain |
| nudge (Yiddish), noodge, nudzh | nooj |
| nudnik | noodnik |
| neurophysicist | nurofizzicist |
| neurosurgery | nurosurjery |
| nulliphidian (Dictionary.com: "a person who has no faith or religion; skeptic" | nullifiddean |
| nutrition, ~tious | nuetrition, nuetrishas |
| [O] | |
| objet trouvé, objet trouvé (merriam-webster.com: "a found object with aesthetic value"") | obzhaitruvay or obzhaitruevay or obzhaytruvay or obzhaytruevay or obzhaitroovay or obzhaytroovay or ?? (comments?) |
| obligatory | obliggatory |
| obstreperous | obstrepperus |
| often | offen (combats ignorant spelling-pronunciation with a spoken-T) |
| oleaginous | oleajjinus |
| onager | onnajer |
| onychomycosis | onnicomycosis or onnikomycosis |
| ophicleide (musical instrument, predecessor to the tuba) | oficlide |
| ophidiophobia, ophiophobia (fear of snakes) | ofiddeofobia, ofeofobia |
| opinion | opinyon, apinyon, opinyan, or apinyan |
| opioid (Science Saturday) | opeoid or opeeoid (comments?) |
| oppress, oppressive, oppression | apres/iv, apretion |
| opprobrium, (plural) opprobria | oproabreum, oproabrea or aproabreum, aproabrea |
| oriole | oreole |
| orthodontiae, orthodonture | orthodonsha, orthodonchur |
| orthotic/s | orthottic/s |
| otolaryngology, otolaryngologist | otolarringgollojy, otolarringgollojist |
| ougiya (unit of currency in Mauritania) | oogeeya |
| overwrought | overraut or overaut (comments?) |
| [P] | |
| Paiute, Piute | Piute (only) or Piyute |
| palanquin | palankeen |
| palatine, palatinate | palatine but palattinate |
| pallet | palet (tho that would make it the same as reform proposal for palette / pallette / pallet (color-mixing board in painting proposed September 17, 2009; but they were already written the same in one form of that word, so it makes no difference) |
| panocha, panoche, penuche, penuchi (Food Friday) (different foods need different spellings) | panoacha, panoachee; penoochee |
| paraplegia (Science Saturday) | parraplegea or parrapleegea |
| pareve, parveh, parve (Saturday or Sunday) | parava |
| parkour (sport; use with "traceur") | parkoor or parkoore |
| paten, patin | pattin |
| peignoir | painwahr |
| penetralia (Dictionary.com: "the most private or secret things. ... the innermost parts or recesses of a place or thing,") | pennetrailea |
| pericarp (Science Saturday) | perricarp |
| periodontist, periodontics, periodontia, periodontology, periodontal (Science Saturday) | perreodontist, perreodontics, perreodontia, perreodontollojy, perreodontal |
| Pernod (Booze Tuesday) | pairnoe |
| phallic, phallus | fallic, fallus [yaora...] (Inappropriate for this project, which is largely intended for schoolchildren?) (comments?) |
| phat | fatt [space...] |
| philanthtopy, philanthropic | filanththropy, filanthroppic |
| phreak | freek [fishstick...] ("Phone freak": http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/phreak?s=t) |
| phys ed | fiz ed [space...] |
| physiomesh | fizzeomesh |
| phytoestrogen (Science Saturday) | fytoewestrojen |
| piano, pianist | peeanno [Boath...] or peanno; peannist (comments?) |
| pied-à-terre | pyaidatare, pyaidatair (two AI's, slitely different, OK?) |
| pier | peere [Firewall...] or pere (comments?) |
| piezoelectric/ity (Science Saturday) | pyeezoeelectric/ity |
| Pilates | pilotteez |
| pillion | pillyon [yaora...] (contrast ''lion'') (low priority; not part of the general public's vocabulary) |
| pirogue, piragua | piroeg or piroag, pirogwa (There is a second pronunciation for "piragua" with a short-A rather than "broad"; do we need to accommodate that?) (comments?) |
| pizzaiolo, pizzaiola (Food Friday) | peetsiolo, ~la or peetsiyolo, ~la |
| planchette | planshett |
| plantain (Food Friday) | plantan, or planten (We can, if we like, distinguish the two different plants, the banana-like fruit of the tropics, from the temperate-zone weed, by assigning one of these spellings to each.) |
| playa (American Heritage Dictionary.com: "A nearly level area at the bottom of an undrained desert basin, sometimes temporarily covered with wate".) | pliah |
| pledge | plej (What about the plural or third-person singular? "Plejes" or "plejjes"?) |
| Pleistocene | plystocene |
| plesiosaur (Science Saturday) | pleseosaur or pleeseosaur (comments?) |
| pneumococcus, ~i; pneumococcal (Science Saturday) | numococcus, ~cocci; numococcal |
| plurial (Science Saturday) | pluveal |
| pocketknife | pocketnife, -nives [GreenD...] |
| polio/myelitis (Science Saturday) | poleo/myelitis |
| poltergeist | poaltergyst, poeltergyst (comments?) |
| polydactyl/y (Science Saturday) | pollydactil/ly |
| polyethylene (Science Saturday) | pollyethalene ("Ethalene" was used February 18, 2013.) |
| polymer (Science Saturday) | pollimmer or pollimer or polimer or polimmer (comments?) |
| polymorphic, polymorphous (Science Saturday) | pollymorfic, pollymorfus |
| polyp (Science Saturday) | pollip |
| polyphone, polyphony, polyphonic, polyphonous | poleefone, poliffony, pollifonnic, polliffonus |
| polysaccharide, polysaccharid (Science Saturday) | pollysackaride or pollysaccaride (Discounts variant spelling without a final-E and pronunciation with a short-I in the last syllable.) (comments?) |
| pore | por (or leave as "pore" to contrast with "por" for "pour"?) (comments?) |
| pornography, pornographic | pornoggrafy, pornograffic |
| porous | porus |
| portabella, portobello, portabello (Food Friday) | portabella (eliminate others) |
| portmanteau, (plural), portmanteaux, portmanteaus | portmantoe |
| poseur | pozerr |
| posilutely (playful) | pozzilutely (ues only with "absotively") |
| posit/ive | pozzit, pozzitiv |
| positronium (Science Saturday) | pozitroneum |
| possess/ive, possession | pozess/iv [Red...], pozesshon or pazess/iv, pazeshon (comments?) |
| post/age | poest /ij (cf. "lost", "posture", "imposter") or poast/ij (like "toast", "roast", "boast") (comments?) |
| posthumous | postchumus (T-H would not be right; SCH would not be right) |
| postprandial | poastprandeal or poest~ (comments?) |
| posture | poschur |
| potpourri | poepooree or poparee (comments?) |
| Pouilly-Fumé (Booze Tuesday) | pooyee-feumay |
| Pouilly-Fuissé (Booze Tuesday) | pooyee-fweesay |
| poultice (Science Saturday) | poaltiss (use with "cataplasm") |
| pour | paur [Clap...] or por (see "pore", above) (comments) |
| pow | pou [Wilddog...] or pouw (see -OW GROUP, below) |
| power | powwer or pouwer(see -OWER GROUP, below) |
| powwow | pouwou [Red...] or pouwouw (see -OW GROUP, below) (comments?) |
| precedent (noun), unprecedented | pressident, unpressidented |
| precious, preciosity | preshus, presheosity or presseosity (even if "preciosity" is not reformed because there are two pronunciations, we can still reform "precious") |
| precipitous | precippitus |
| preconceive | preconceve |
| predicate | preddikit |
| preeclampsia (Science Saturday) | pre-eclampsea or preeyeeclampsea (commens?) |
| preface, prefatory | preffis, preffatory |
| preference | prefference [rhod...] |
| prehensile (Science Saturday) | prehensil |
| premier | primmeer |
| premiere, première | premeer (for pronunciation pree.meer); leave premiere for uncommon/pretentious pronunciation pri.myair) |
| preparation | prepparation |
| presbyter/ian | prezbiter, prezbiteerean |
| present/ation, omniprezzent | prezzent/ation, omni/prezzent |
| present (verb) | preezent |
| presentiment | prizentiment |
| preserv/ativ | prezerv/ativ |
| president | prezzident [yaora...] |
| presidio | presiddeo |
| prestidigitation | prestidijitation |
| prestige | presteezh (I simply do not accept, as a respectable alternative, the illiterate pronuncation "presteej") |
| presumptuous | prezumpchuus |
| pret-a-porter | prettaportay |
| pretension | pretention |
| preternatural | preeternachural |
| pretzel (Food Friday) | pretsel [Clap...] |
| prevalent, prevalence | prevvalent, prevvalence (PRE is commonly pronounced with long-E) |
| prevaricate | prevarricate |
| preview | prevue |
| previous | preveus |
| prey | prae [Firewall...] |
| prima donna | preemadonna |
| primary | primerry |
| primavera | preemavaira |
| primitive | primmitiv (compare primordial, primary) |
| primo | preemo |
| prism, prismatic | prizzam [Clap...] or prizzom (cf. blossom) or prizm (comments?); prizmattic |
| private, privacy | privat, privacy (low priority) (British pronunciation prív.a.see would be accommodated) |
| privet | privvet |
| privy | privvy |
| prix fixe | preefeex [Firewall...] |
| proactive | proewactiv |
| probit | probbit |
| procaine (Science Saturday) | procain |
| procedure, ~uralaa | proceejur/al |
| prodigious | prodijjus |
| prodigy | proddijy |
| produce (noun) | proeduce |
| product | prodduct |
| profanation (Sunday) | proffanation |
| progenitor | projenniter |
| program | proegram or proagram or prohgram (comments?) |
| progressive, progression | progressiv, progretion or progreshon / progreshun (comments?) |
| proliferate, ~ation | prolifferate, prolifferation (starts "prolife") |
| prolific | proliffic |
| prologue | prolog (or change with -OGUE group) |
| promise | prommiss [Firewall...] (cf. surmise, paradise) |
| pronunciation | pronunceation |
| proof | prufe or proohf |
| propagate (Science Saturday) | proppagate |
| propel | propell |
| proper/ty | propper [Fieyer...], propperty [fishstick...] |
| propitious | propishus |
| propose, ~sal | propoze, propozal [Monsters...] |
| proprioception | propreoception |
| proscenium | proseneum or proseeneum (comments?) |
| prosecute, prosecution | prossecute, prossecution |
| prosody | prossody |
| prospective | prospectiv |
| prosthetic/s ("prosthesis" is fine) (Science Saturday) | prosthettic/s |
| protean | proteean (shows clearly that the word is three syllables; also cues stress on second syllable that many people use to distinguish from "protein") |
| protein | proteen or protene (to distinguish from "teen", for "teenager") (There is an old-fashioned, scientific pronunciation in three syllables, proe.tee.yin, that I don't think we need to accommodate.) (comments?) |
| protest (verb), protester, protestor | protestt, protestter |
| provenance | provvenance |
| provender | provvender |
| proverb | provverb |
| province | provvince |
| provocateur | provoccatur |
| provocative | provoccativ |
| proximity | proximmity |
| pseudo- | sudo- |
| pseudobulbar (Science Saturday) | sudoebulbar |
| pseudoephedrine (Science Saturday) | sudo(-)efedrine, sudoewefedrine (Do we need to insert a hyphen or W here? Simpler to read and write is not necessarily shorter.) (comments?) |
| psittacism (Dictinary.com: "mechanical, repetitive, and meaningless speech") | sittacizm |
| psoas (Science Saturday) | soass (but cannot reform "iliopsoas" because it has two pronunciations, one without and one with a P-sound) |
| psoriatic (Science Saturday) | saureattic ("Soriasis" was used here on August 9, 2004, but sound of the second syllable is different here.) |
| psychiatry, ~tric (Science Saturday) | sykiatry, / sykeeatric |
| psychoactive (Science Saturday) | sycoewactiv or sycoactiv (comments?) |
| psychology, ~gical (Science Saturday) | sycology, /-ical (but see -ology, above) |
| psychosis, psychotic (Science Saturday) | sycosis [fishstick...], sycottic |
| psychometry, psychrometer, psychrometric (Science Saturday) | sycrommetry, sycrommeter, sycrometric |
| Ptolemaic | tollemayic |
| pubescent, pre~ (Science Saturday) | peubessent, pre~ |
| pudgy | pujjy |
| pull | poole or poohl or pooll [Orange...] (Would this still be read as having a long-OO?) (comments?) |
| pulley | pully |
| pumice (Science Saturday) | pummiss [yaora...] |
| pungent | punjent (2 probs: GE for J, no NG-sound despite an NG-spelling) |
| punish | punnish (contrast "punitive") |
| purblind | purbliend or purblynd or pur~ |
| purchase | purchus [Garden...] |
| purée, puree (Food Friday) | peuray(e), puray (comments?) |
| purge | perj [Red...] or purj (comments?) |
| purpose | purpus (contrast "propose", "verbose") |
| purr | pur [Unicycle...] (cf. fur, cur, blur) |
| purview | purvue |
| put | poot (cf. foot) [Clap...] |
| pueblo | pweblo |
| putsch | putch or puch or pootch or pooch (comments?) |
| Pygmy, pigmy (Science Saturday) | pigmy |
| pycnocline (Science Saturday) | picnocline |
| pyorrhea (Science Saturday) | pioreeya |
| pyramid/al, ~ical | peeramid/al, ~ical [Dogs...] |
| pyrotechnic/s, pyrotechnical | pyroteknic/s, pyroteknical |
| Pyrrhic | Peeric (I actually heard Jonathan Turley, a legal scholar, say this with a long-I, píe.rik, on MSNBC 12/5/08.) |
| Pythagorean/ism | pithaggoreean/izm |
| puberty (Science Saturday) | peuberty (to combat the occasional mispronunciation púe.ber.tèe as against the proper pyúe.ber.tèe) |
| pubes (Science Saturday) | peubeez |
| pubescent, pubescence, pubescency (Science Saturday) | peubessent, peubessence, peubessency |
| pugilism, pugilist/ic | peujilizm, peujilist/ic |
| pulchritude | pulcritude |
| pusillanimous | pusilannimus |
| putamen, (plural:) putamina (Science Saturday) | peutaymen, (plural:) peutammina |
| pyretic, antipyretic (Science Saturday) | pyrettic, antipyrettic |
| pyrography, pyrographic | pyroggrafy, pyrografficj |
| [Q] | |
| quadriplegia (Science Saturday) | quodriplejea or quadripleejea |
| [R] | |
| Rajasthan | Rojjastan |
| ramada | ramodda |
| rambunctious | rambunkshus |
| ratio | raisheo |
| ration/al, irration/al | rashon/al, ir/rashon/al |
| reflexology | reflexollojy |
| remedy | remmedy |
| renovate | rennovate |
| repeat | repeet |
| repose | ripoze |
| repulsive | repulsiv |
| requiem | requeam |
| reside, resident, residence | rezide, rezzident, rezzidence |
| resilience | rezillyence |
| resumption | rezumption |
| reticulate/d, reticular (Science Saturday) | reticculate/d, reticcular |
| retch | rech (even tho it becomes a homograf for reformed version of "wretch"; we could leave this as-is, of course, in that the other homophone, "wretch" has been offered for reform) |
| retribution | rettribution |
| revocation | revvocation |
| revulsive | revulsiv |
| rhabdom, rhabdome; rhabdomere (structure in an insect's compound eye) (Science Saturday) | rabdom, rabdomere |
| rhyolite (Science Saturday) | ryolite |
| riposte, ripost | ripoast |
| risograph | rizagraf |
| riven | rivven |
| rivulet | rivvulet |
| roque (a type of croquet) | roak (to avoid confusion with rare word "roke", a scratch on an ingot) |
| rosarian | rozarean |
| row (argument) | rouw |
| rupestrine (Dictionary.com: "Biology. living or growing on or among rocks.") (Science Saturday) | rupestrin |
| rupicolous (Same as "rupestrine.) | rupiccolus, rupestrin |
| Russia/n | Rusha/n |
| [S] | |
| saccharine | saccarin ("saccharin" was offered as "sackarin" on October 31, 2005) |
| salicylic (Science Saturday) | salicillic |
| sandals | sandle/s (low priority; present spelling is phonetic, but unexpected so would not be guessed by someone who hears it) |
| savoir vivre, savoir-vivre | savwahrveevra ("war" is an existing English word with the wrong sound; and "savwarveevrar" might suggest some kind of warfare) |
| scathe, scathing | scaith(e), scaithing |
| scent | sent [Univer...] ("context would make clear what is meant"?) or sentt (comments?) |
| scherzando | scairtsondo (but Brits say a short-A, not short-O in second syllable) (comments?) |
| schottische | shottish (Do we need to accommodate the alternate pronunciation sho(q).téesh? How would we do that?) |
| scrofula, scrofulous (Science Saturday) | scroffula, scroffulus |
| scrounge | scrounj |
| seal | seel (to prevent pronunciation in two syllables) |
| secretary, secretarial | secraterry, secraterrea; |
| Seneca | Senneca |
| sensor | senser (The spelling-pronunciation sen.saur is well-established. Can we defy it?) (comments?) |
| sequin | seequin |
| sexagenarian, sexagenary | sexajenarean [Fisherman...] or sexajenairean; sexajjenerry |
| sildenafil (generic name of Viagra) (Science Saturday) | sildennafil |
| skijoring (Dictionary.com: "a sport in which a skier is pulled over snow or ice, generally by a horse".) | skeejoring |
| slew | slu(e) (which of "slough" and "slew" (noun for "bunch") should take "slu" and which "slue"?) (comments?) |
| slough, slue | slu(e) (comments?) |
| smaragdine (Dictionary.com: "of or relating to emeralds. ... emerald-green in color.") | smaragdin |
| snow/ing, snowboard, snowplow | sno/ewing, snoewbord, snoewplou(w) or snoeing, snoebord, snoeplou(w) (see -OW GROUP, below) (comments?) |
| social/ize | soashal/ize |
| sociopathy (Science Saturday) | soceoppathy |
| soft-boil/ed | softboil/ed |
| sombrero | sombrairo |
| soon | sune [Caste...] or soone or soohn (low priority) (comments?) |
| soupçon, soupcon | soohpsaunn or soohpson (comments?) |
| spasm/odic | spazm, spazmoddic |
| spotlight | spotlite [Fisherman...] or spotlyt |
| sprightly | spritely or sprytly |
| stalk (use with "cornstalk", "beanstalk") | (noun:) stauk, (verb:) stawk |
| staph, staphylococcus (Science Saturday) | staf, staffilococcus (and plural, ~cocci) |
| starlight | starlite [FireW...] or starlyt |
| statute | stachute |
| steatopygia (Science Saturday) | steeatopijjea |
| stegosaur/us (Science Saturday) | steggosorus [Clap...] |
| stenograph, stenographer, stenography | stennograf, stenoggrafher, stenoggrafy |
| stepbrother, stepchild, stepdaughter, stepfather, stepmother, etc. | stepbruther, stepchiald, stepdauter, stepfother, stepmuther, etc. |
| stimulus, stimuli | stimmulus, ~i |
| stir | ster [FireW...] or stur |
| stoic, stoicism | stoewic [Gator...], stoewicizm |
| stomachic/al | stomackic/al |
| stooge | stooje |
| stoplight | stoplite [Fisherman...] or stoplyt |
| strenuous | strenuus |
| stopwatch | stopwoch [GreenD...] |
| store | stor [Clap...] (do "restor" at same time) |
| stratagem, strategy, strategic | strattajem, strattejy, stratejic or strateejic |
| stratosphere (Science Saturday) | stratosfere [Moon...] or strattusfere (comments?) (mention people's misreading it as "stratastrophe" on TV show Street Smarts) |
| stravage, stravaig (Dictionary.com: "Scot., Irish, and North England. to wander aimlessly ... to saunter; stroll.:) | stravaig |
| streetlight | streetlite [FireW...] or streetlyt |
| stretch | strech |
| stew/n | strue/n |
| stringent | strinjent (point out not just J-sound but ambiguity of NG) |
| striped | stripid or strypid (for those who pronounced the -ED as a separate syllable; low priority) |
| striven | strivven [Fishin...] |
| stroll | strole |
| stronger, ~est | strongger, stronggest [Firewall...] |
| stricture | stricchur |
| structure | strucchur |
| strudel | struedle or strudle (Do we need to accommodate the Germanized pronunciation 'shtruedle'?) (comments?) |
| strychnine, strychnia, strychnina, strychnic (Science Saturday) | stricnine or striknine or stricknine (we can't change the -INE ending because it is pronounced differently by different people), stric(k)nea, stric(k)nin(n)a, stric(k)nic (comments?) |
| stucco | stucko [FireW...] (low priority; present spelling is phonetic, but unusual) |
| studio | studeo [Unicycle...] (cf. "video", contrast "Ohio") |
| study | studdy |
| sturgeon | sturjun |
| Stygian | stijjean |
| style | stial (compare "dial") |
| subject (noun) | subbject [Bookk...] (low priority) |
| subliminal | sublimminal |
| submerge | submerj |
| subordinate | subordinate (verb), subordinat or subordinit (adj., noun) |
| subterfuge | subterfuje (also mention ZH-sound some people accord the GE) |
| succumb | sucumm or sacumm (comments?) |
| sucrose (Science Saturday) | suerose |
| suet | suwit |
| suffice | sufice |
| suffixion | suffiction [Clap...] |
| suffrage | suffrij |
| suggest | sugjest |
| sulphur/ous, sulfur/ous (Science Saturday) | sulfur/us |
| sumptuous | sumpchuus |
| sunlight | sunlite [FireW...] or sunlyt |
| sunrise | sunrize [Fisherman...] |
| supercilious | supercilleus |
| superficies | superfisheez (The singular and plural are the same, so the -S in the singular does not represent a plural; there is at present a minority pronunciation with 2 syllables in -CIES (sùe.per.físh.ee.yêez), but it seems unlikely to survive much longer so probably need not be accommodated.) |
| superfluous | superfluus |
| superior | supereor |
| superlative | superlativ |
| supervise | supervize [Firewall...], supervizer |
| supremacy | supremmacy |
| surety | shoority [Tom...] |
| surfboard | surfbord [FireW...] |
| surface | surfus [Caste...] or surfiss (comments?) |
| surfeit | surfit or surfet (better than "surfit", which looks like a compound of "surf" and "it") |
| surmise | surmize or sermize |
| surrey | surry |
| surrogate | surrogit |
| survivor | surviver [Red...] or serviver (comments?) |
| susceptible | susseptible or suseptible |
| suspect | susspect [JEA...] (comments?) |
| suture (Science Saturday) | suecher |
| Svengali | svengollee |
| Swahili (see "Kiswahili") | |
| swan | swon [Clap...] |
| swarm | swaurm |
| swatch | swoch (see -ATCH GROUP, below) |
| sweetbread | sweetbred (no "bread" here) [Firewall...] |
| sweetheart | sweethart [Mario...] |
| sweetie | sweety |
| swimsuit | swimsute [GreenD...] |
| swollen | swolen [JEA...] (contrast "pollen") |
| sybarite, sybaritic | sibbarite, sibbarittic |
| sycophant | siccofant (Dictionary.com allows of a second pronunciation, síe.ka.fant, but other online authorities do not show that, so we don't need to accommodate it.) |
| syllogism | sillojizm |
| sylvan | silvan |
| symbiosis, ~otic, ~iont (Science Saturday) | simbeosis, simbeottic, simbeont (How common is the pronunciation sìm.bie.yóe.sis? Can we reform this word or do we have to accept the validity of the (British?) pronunciation sìm.bie.yóe.sis and leave this word unchanged? Comments?) |
| symmetry, symmetrical | simmetry, simmettrical or simettrical |
| symphonic | simfonnic ("Simfony" was used here on October 24, 2004.) |
| synchromesh | singkromesh |
| syncopate, ~tion | sincopate or sincapate, ~tion |
| syncope | sincapy or sinkopy (unusual word; low priority) (comments?) |
| syncretic, syncretism | sincretic or sincrettic, sincretism |
| syndicalism | sindicalizm |
| synecdoche | sinekdokee, sinekdoky, sineckdoky, or sinecdoky (comments?) |
| synoptic (Science Saturday) | sinnoptic |
| synovia, synovial (a lubricating fluid resembling the white of an egg, secreted by certain membranes, as those of the joints) (Science Saturday) | sinovea, sinoveal |
| syntax | sintax |
| syringe (Science Saturday) | sirinj |
| syrup | serup [Music...] |
| systole, systolic (Science Saturday) | sistolee, sistollic |
| [T] | |
| tachyphylaxis, tachyphylaxia (Science Saturday) | tackeefilaxis, tackeefilaxea |
| taphephobia (Dictionary.com: "an abnormal fear of being buried alive.") | taffefobea |
| tapir (Science Saturday) | tayper or taiper or tapur or taypur or taipur (comments?) |
| taxonomy, taxonomic (Science Saturday) | taxonnomy, taxonommic |
| tea or tee | te |
| telekinesis, tellekinettic | tellekine(e)sis, tellekinettic |
| telluric, tellurian (Science Saturday) | teluric |
| teratology (Dictionary.com: "the science or study of monstrosities or abnormal formations in organisms") (Science Saturday) | terratollojy or terrotollojy |
| thraconical (Dictionary.com: "boastful; vainglorious.") | thrayconical or thraiconical (comments?) |
| threesome | threesum |
| tian (Food Friday: French cooking [casserole] dish) | tyonn |
| timbre | tamber (unless the pronunciation tím.ber is comparably frequent, in which case we can't revise this word) |
| -tious, -cious | -SHUS (?); is this comparable in frequency to -TION, as cannot be changed to something most people will regard as "un-English"? |
| tocotrienol (Science Saturday) | tocotrianol |
| tomography, tomographic (Science Saturday) | tomoggrafy, tomograffic |
| tostada (Food Friday) | toastodda |
| tourniquet (Science Saturday) | turnikit |
| towser | touzer |
| traceur (participant in sport, parkour; use with "parkour") | trassurr or trassurre (comments?) (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/traceur?s=t) |
| transvestite, transvestism | tranzvestite, tranzvestizm |
| treaty | treety |
| tremulous | tremmulus |
| tritium (Science Saturday) | tritteum (fights mispronunciations with an SH-sound) |
| true | tru |
| trunnion | trunnyon or trunyon |
| trepidacious | trepidashus or trepidatious (comments?) |
| Tuareg | Tworreg or Twahreg (comments?) |
| tuque (Dictionary.com: "a heavy stocking cap worn in Canada") | tuke |
| tutelage | tutelij or tutalij (comments?) |
| tutti-frutti | tooty-frooty or tuty-fruty (comments?) |
| twosome | tuesum [space...] or tusum |
| [U] | |
| ultracrepidarian (Dictionary.com: "noting or pertaining to a person who criticizes, judges, or gives advice outside the area of his or her expertise") | ultracrepidarean |
| [V] | |
| variety, varietal | variatal, variatal |
| veal (Food Friday) | veel |
| veridical | veriddical |
| vesicle (Science Saturday) | vessicle |
| vestigial (Science Saturday) | vestijjeal |
| Vichy (water) (Food Friday) | veeshee |
| villatic | vilattic |
| vivacious | vivaishus or vivayshus (comments?) |
| vocative | voccativ |
| voluble, volubility | volleuble, volleubillity |
| votive | votiv |
| [W] | |
| Wehrmacht | Vairmokht (Perhaps this word, regarded now as English as well as German, should be left in its German spelling, except that people in some places new to English and not at all familiar with German, would prefer a spelling that conveys its pronunciation in English conventions.) |
| Weimaraner | wynaranner |
| werewolf | wairwoolf |
| whiffler | whifler |
| whitey, whity | whity |
| wold | woald |
| wool | wooll (to show that the OO is short) |
| woylie (rat kangaroo) | woylee |
| [X] | |
| ?? | |
| [Y] | |
| Yahweh, Yahwe, Yahveh, Yahve, Jahveh, Jahve, Jahweh, Jahwe (Sunday) | Yahwae |
| [Z] | |
| zoogenous, zooganic (etc.) (Science Saturday) | zoewojjenous |
Now, some families of words that can be offered as a group rather than
one-by-one, unless we have patience enuf to offer them one-by-one.
| BRITISH-AMERICAN DIFFERENCES GROUP |
| -amme versus -am (gramme, programme, kilogramme) |
| -ce versus -se (defence, offence, licence, etc.) |
| -ise versus -ize |
| -lling versus -ling (levelling, travelling, etc.) |
| -our versus -or (British spellings are needlessly longer) |
| -re versus -er (e.g., centre, litre, metre, etc.) |
| Oddballs: aether/ether, cheque/check (offered as "chek" on August 28, 2010), connexion/connection, diarrhoea/diarrhea, draught/draft, encyclopaedia/encyclopedia, faeces/feces, foetus/fetus, gaol/jail, haemorrhage/hemorrhage, haemorrhoid/hemorrhoid (offered here September 2, 2010 as "hemmaroid"), inflexion/inflection, jewellery/jewelry, kerb/curb (kerb is at least as good, but "looks funny" to Americans), oesophagus/esophagus (offered July 23, 2006 as "isoffagus"), orthopaedic/orthopedic, pyjamas/pajamas, reflexion/reflection, sceptic/skeptic, storey/story, tyre/tire, |
| ACCEPTED VARIANTS GROUP (simpler spellings that are already recognized but not universally used; the idea would be to promote the total abandonment of the less reasonable version) | |
| Less Reasonable Spelling | Accepted Variant |
| absinthe | absinth |
| adze | adz |
| aeon | eon |
| aesthetic, aesthete | esthetic, esthete |
| aging | ageing |
| although | altho |
| anaesthesia, anesthesia; anaesthetic, anesthetic | annesthesia, annesthettic |
| aneurysm | aneurism |
| axe | ax |
| barbeque (Food Friday) (This is actually the variant spelling, but is so common that many people don't realize it is not the preferred form.) | barbecue [Firewall...] |
| barque, bark | bark |
| barre | bar or barr (comments?) |
| bhang | bang [Robert...] (arcane) |
| blonde | blond (There is actually a distinction between "blonde" and "blond", the form with the E being feminine, the form without, masculine. But if people do not draw that distinction, the shorter form is better.) |
| bogeyman, bogyman, boogerman, boogeyman, boogieman | boogeyman [Shoe...] or boogyman |
| bootie | bootee |
| brusque | brusk |
| bused, buses, busing | bussed, busses, bussing (tough call, since "buss" meaning "kiss" and "to kiss" is a word, but "busing" etc. look as tho they should rhyme with comparable forms of "fuse") (comments?) |
| caesura | cesura |
| carat | karat |
| catsup, catchup (Food Friday) | ketchup ("kechup" has, however, been offered (March 31, 2006) as a more thoro reform) |
| chalcedony, /-onic | calcedony, /-onic |
| chamois / chammy | shammy |
| charivari | shivaree |
| chutzpah, chutzpa, hutzpah | hootspa or hutspa or khutspa or khootspa (comments?) |
| cigarette, cigaret | cigaret or ciggarett or ciggaret [space...] (comments?) |
| comptroller | controller |
| coney | cony |
| conveyor | conveyer [Firewall...] |
| crepe, crepe, crape | crape |
| crummy, crumby (miserable) | crummy |
| cuing | cueing [yao...] |
| cutie | cutey [Firewall...] (but "cutey" and "cutie" are proposed as "cuty" in main list) (comments?) |
| daemon | demon |
| disc | disk |
| d.j., DJ, dj | deejay |
| doughnut (Food Friday) | donut |
| draught (Food Friday) | draft |
| drier | dryer [Firewall...] |
| duffel (bag) or duffle | duffle |
| e-mail, emailm E-mail | email [Unicycle...] |
| fakir | fakeer |
| fusee | fuzee |
| gases | gasses |
| gauge | gage |
| gee | jee [Cal...] |
| granddad/dy | grandad/dy [Firewall...] |
| grannie | granny [Firewall...] |
| grey/hound | gray/hound [GreenD...] |
| gunwale | gunnel |
| Hallowe'en | Halloween [Firewall...] |
| hashish | hasheesh |
| hiccough | hiccup or hickup [Fisherman...] (comments?) |
| hoagie (Food Friday) | hoagy |
| hot dog, hot-dog (Food Friday) | hotdog [Firewall...] |
| huskie | husky |
| impostor | imposter |
| jiujitsu, jiujutsu, jujutsu | jujitsu |
| junkie | junky |
| kebab, kebob, kabob | kabob |
| kidnaped, kidnaping | kidnapped, kidnapping [Firewall...] |
| leary | leery [fudge...] |
| lollipop (Food Friday) | lollypop [Unicycle...] |
| lower (verb, "to appear threatening") | lour [yaora...] |
| meanie | meany [Firewall...] |
| mic | mike [Firewall...] |
| midnight | midnite [GreenD...] or midnyt |
| mileage | milage (cf. phraseology) |
| mollusk, mollusc (Food Friday) | mollusk |
| monies | moneys [yao...] |
| moolah | moola |
| mullah | mulla |
| odalisque | odalisk |
| paean | pean (but looks like it should rhyme with "bean") |
| phantasm/a | fantazm, fantazma |
| phantasy | fantasy ("phantasy" is a variant that should be banished) |
| phantom | fantom (an accepted variant that should be standard) |
| phial | vial (this is not exactly an alternate spelling, since the PH in "phial" is pronounced F; rather, this is an entire alternate word that should be driven out of the language) |
| pierogi, pirogi | pirogy or pirogee or pirogee or piroghee or piroaghee (comments?) |
| plough | plow |
| preterite | preterit |
| ramequin | ramekin |
| rase | raze [Firewall...] |
| rescission | recision |
| rhumba | rumba |
| rouble | ruble |
| shh | sh [Firewall...] |
| shish kebab (~kabab, ~kabob, ~cabob, ~kebob, with and without hyphen) | shishkabob |
| sulphur | sulfur |
| swab | swob |
| swap | swop [Clap...] |
| synch | sync |
| template | templet |
| tepee | teepee [Firewall...] |
| theatre | theater (but "theeater" would be better, for showing 3 syllables) |
| tonight | tonite [GreenD...] or tonyt |
| trolley | trolly [Unicycle...] |
| tyke | tike or tyk |
| verandah | veranda |
| wagon | waggon [yaora...] (low priority) |
| whiskey (Food Friday or Wine Wensday) | whisky |
| yoghurt, yoghourt | yogurt [Fishin...] |
| -ACK GROUP | |
| back | bak (cf. yak) |
| black | blak/-en ~/-list ~/-hed (cf. flak) |
| (claque) | clak |
| crack/er (Food Friday) | crak/ker |
| flak jacket | flak jaket |
| flapjack (Food Friday) | flapjak |
| hack | hak |
| jack | jak |
| knack | nak |
| pack | pak |
| plaque | plak |
| sac / sack | sak |
| shack | shak |
| slack/s | slak/s |
| stack | stak |
| tack | tak |
| track | trak |
| whack | whak |
| wrack | rak [Cal...] |
| -AGE GROUP (just a few samples of a very large group, a subgroup of the Soft-G group, below) | |
| adage | addij |
| append/age | apend/ij |
| percentage | percentij |
| sewage | suwajij |
| steerage | steerajij |
| -ALK GROUP | |
| balk, baulk | bauk |
| chalk | chauk (used October 19, 2004) |
| talk | tauk (used August 24, 2004) |
| walk | wauk (used October 18, 2004) |
| -ALM- GROUP | |
| alms | omz (it is not a plural) |
| balm | bom/bolm |
| palm | pom (offered March, 2008) |
| psalm | som (offered November 28, 2010) |
| -ANGLE GROUP | |
| angle | anggle |
| bangle | banggle |
| new-fangled | new-fanggled |
| gangling, gangly | ganggling, ganggly |
| mangle | manggle |
| wrangle | ranggle |
| strangle | stranggle |
| tangle | tanggle |
| triangle | trianggle |
| wangle | wanggle |
| -ATCH- GROUPS | |
| Group 1: pronounced AACH | |
| batch | bach (used May 11, 2015) |
| catch | cach |
| hatch/ery, crosshatch | hach/ery, crosshach |
| dispatch, despatch | dispach, despach |
| latch | lach |
| natch, scratch, etc. | nach, scrach, etc. |
| But not match, because mach, pronounced mok, is already a word. | |
| Group 2: pronounced OCH | |
| swatch | swoch |
| watch | woch |
| Exceptions: bach (cf. composer Bach), mach (speed of sound), Sasquatch (two pronunciations, -och and -ach). | |
| -EE/-EA GROUP (This group works as a simplification only if there are no grammatical endings added. If an ending is added, the dropped-E has to be restored.) | |
| Cree | Cre |
| fee | fe (cf. be, he, me, (re,) we; "Fe fi fo fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman") |
| gee | ge / je |
| glee | gle |
| lee / Lee / Leigh | le / Le |
| pee | pe |
| see | se |
| spree | spre |
| tee | te |
| tree | tre |
| -DG- / SOFT-G GROUP: There are a great many words in
which G represents not its own unique sound but the J-sound. This is often
but certainly not always the case before E, I, and Y ("gesture" but "get";
"gibberish" but "gibbon"; "gyroscope" but the first GY in "gynecology").
It seems advisable to me to offer J in such locations, and where grammatical
endings would not require a double-J, which some people will shy away from
because it is "funny-looking" and "un-English". Thus "sage" to "saje" would
be unobjectionable, because endings work fine: sajer, sajest, sajeness,
sajely. But "frij" for "fridge" would meet more resistance, because the
plural would have to be frijjes to show the -I- is short. -DG- is
the standard way English spells the J-sound after a short vowel: badge(r),
edge, bridge, dodge, grudge, acknowledg(e)ment, judg(e)ment. Somehow,
you can simply add endings to the J-sound when it is represented by -DGE,
dropping the E when adding -ING in accord with a well-understood rule
(badges, bridging), and that doesn't "look funny" to us, whereas
bajjes and brijjing would. (I offered "baj", "bajjes",
and "bajjer" on August 10, 2010.) Mind you, there are some compound words
in which -DG-, even -DGE-, does not represent the J-sound:
handgun, headgear. There is also at least one common
word, "margarine", in which the G represents the J sound before a vowel other
than E , I, or Y. Plainly, ordinary people would have no difficulty accepting
a J there: marjarin[e].
Since G is most often "soft" (J-sound) before E, I, and Y tho not in some common words (gear, gecko; give, giddy; gynecology; and their derivatives), traditional spelling employs U or H between a G that retains the G sound and a following E or I (guess, guest; gherkin, ghetto), and we end up with absurdities like "get" but "ghetto". There are also other difficulties, such as the -NGE- group (below), in which the final-E is also taken as a silent-E to signal that the vowel last written before it, is pronounced long, even tho it is two letters away. We learn to recognize "stranger" as now written as not parallel in sound to "hanger". But changing the G to J will leave some people seeing short-A: stranjer. I have offered -AINJ for such words, which would neatly solve that particular problem. At end, spelling reform cannot indulge irrational aversions, as to JJ or VV, just because such letter combinations are not found in many traditional English words. What "looks funny" is a function of what one is accustomed to seeing, and to new readers, things like -DG- or -DGE "look funny", but J or JJ does not. After all, J or, after a short vowel, JJ makes sense. DGE does not. The list below is only indicative, samples. There are a great many words in different forms (G, GG, DG) that fall into this category. |
|
| acknowledge/s, acknowledg(e)ment | aknollej/jes, aknollejment |
| age | aje |
| dodge/ball | doj/ball, doj/jer, /jes, /jy |
| engage/ment | engaje/ment |
| enrage | enraje |
| exaggerate | exajjerate or egzajjerate (substitution of GZ for X is a new spelling that will be resisted; see #17 of the principles that control selection of words for this project) (comments?) |
| fridge | frij/jes |
| gauge | gaje |
| knowledge | nollej (used) |
| rage | raje |
| sage | saje |
| sedge/s | sej/jes |
| wage | waje [rhode...] |
| wedge, wedgie | wej/jes, /jy |
| -ED ENDING GROUP |
| -t for some -ed endings: burnt (use as model), tipt, quipt; flapt, tapt; sapt; rokt, sokt; flokt; mixt, fixt |
| -d for some -ed endings: lernd, queld, feld |
| -EEZE GROUP | |
| breeze | breez |
| freeze | freez (offered October 20, 2010) |
| sneeze | sneez |
| squeeze | squeez |
| tweeze | tweez |
| wheeze | wheez |
| -ELL GROUP (but verbs would retake their second-L in some inflected forms: yelled, yelling) | |
| bell | bel |
| cell | cel |
| dell | del |
| fell | fel |
| gel (use as model) | jel |
| hell | hel |
| knell / Nel | nel / Nel |
| sell | sel |
| spell | spel [Cal...] |
| swell | swel |
| tell | tel |
| well | wel |
| yell | yel |
-EW GROUP: This is a low-priority area, words like "blew","few", "hew", "Jew", "mew", "curfew", etc. Reforming them to -U or -UE might not suffice nor "look right" to many people, in part because it will be unclear whether there is a Y sound in them or not, in part because U alone at the end of a word is uncommon, tho certainly not unheard of (ecru, emu, flu). Moreover, if we offer -YU or -YUE endings for them (fyu/e, hyu/e, myu/e), they will "look funny" and "un-English".
-EING GROUP: There are verbs like "bathe", "paste", "waste", "change",
and "plunge" whose pronunciation becomes unclear when -ing is added. "Pasting"
and "wasting" are not parallel to "fasting"; and "binging" and "plunging"
are not parallel to "banging" and "singing". Today, "singeing" and "dyeing"
are correct spellings for those verbs. There's no reason we can't write
"pasteing", "wasteing", "bingeing" (and "purgeing"), "changeing", "plungeing",
etc. Indeed, "bingeing" is a recognized (but unusual) variant, tho "purgeing"
is not!
| -ICK GROUP | |
| brick | brik |
| chick | chik |
| crick | crik |
| dick (detective) / Dick | dik / Dik |
| flick | flik |
| hick | hik |
| lick | lik |
| mick | mik |
| nick | nik |
| pick | pik |
| prick | prik |
| quick | quik |
| shtick / schtick | shtik (variant) |
| sick | sik |
| slick | slik |
| stick | stik |
| tick | tik |
| trick | trik |
| wick | wik |
| -IND GROUP (comments?) | |
| bind/er | biend/er, bynd/er, biynd/er |
| blind | bliend or blynd or bliynd |
| find | fiend or fynd or fiynd |
| hind | hiend or hynd or hiynd |
| kind | kiend or kynd or kiynd |
| mind | miend or mynd or miynd |
| wind | wiend or wynd or wiynd |
| -ILL GROUP | |
| bill | bil |
| chill (Food Friday) | chil |
| dill (Food Friday) | dil |
| fill (Food Friday) | fil |
| gill / Gil (a model) | gil |
| hill | hil |
| ill | il |
| Jill, jill | Jil, jil |
| kill | kil |
| Lil(lian) | Lil (a model) |
| mill | mil |
| nil / nill (rare word) | nil (a model) |
| pill | pil |
| quill | quil |
| rill | ril |
| sill | sil |
| spill | spil |
| still | stil |
| swill | swil |
| till | til |
| trill | tril |
| twill | twil |
| will | wil |
| -ILLION GROUP (comments?) | |
| billion | billyon |
| centillion | centillyon [caj...] |
| decillion | decillyon |
| gazillion | gazillyon |
| jillion | jillyon |
| million | millyon |
| nonillion | nonillyon |
| octillion | octillyon |
| quadrillion [offered as "quodrillyon" July 13, 2008] | quadrillyon |
| quintillion | quintillyon |
| septillion | septillyon |
| sextillion | sextillyon |
| trillion | trillyon |
| zillion | zillyon [offered March 17, 2008, with "zillyonair"] |
| -INGLE GROUP [Firewall...] (If the pattern is consistent, it's not very important to change it, tho this would be nice to do for clarity. The only problem arises when the -ingle is not final but midword (ringlet, ringleader, wingless). I know of no exceptions to the hard-G pronunciation when the sequence i-n-g-l-e is final.) | |
| bingle | binggle |
| commingle, comingle, co-mingle | comminggle or cominggle |
| cringle | cringgle |
| dingle/berry | dinggle/berry |
| immingle | iminggle or imminggle |
| ingle/nook, ingleside | inggle/nook, inggleside |
| intermingle | interminggle |
| jingle | jinggle |
| mingle | minggle |
| shingle/s | shinggle/s |
| single | singgle |
| surcingle | surcinggle |
| swingle | swinggle |
| tingle | tinggle |
| triangle | trianggle |
-INGO/-ANGO GROUP: binggo, dinggo, flaminggo, gringgo; contanggo,
fandanggo, manggo, quanggo, tanggo (contrast "presto chango"). (Low priority,
since the pronunciation is almost always consistent.)
| -IVE GROUP (all of this group could be changed to drop the final-E; the selection below is only indicativ(e), not exhaustiv(e). | |
| abortive | abortiv |
| active, inactive | activ, inactiv |
| descriptive | descriptiv [Fishin...] |
| destructive | destructiv |
| detective | detectiv |
| effective | effectiv |
| inactive | inactiv |
| perspective, introspective | perspectiv, introspectiv (or, clearer for non-hative speakers of English) introespectiv |
| punitive | punitiv |
| restrictive | restrictiv |
| -OCK GROUP | |
| block/buster | blok/buster |
| bock | bok |
| brock | brok |
| clock | clok |
| cock/tail, -roach (Food Friday or Wine Wensday) | cok/tail, -roach |
| crock | crok |
| deadlock | dedlok [GreenD...] |
| dock | dok |
| flock | flok |
| frock | frok |
| hock | hok |
| jock/-ey | jok/-ky |
| knock | nok |
| lock | lok |
| mock | mok (unless "mach" is revised to "mok") |
| pock/-marked | pok/-marked or /-t |
| rock | rok |
| shock | shok |
| sock | sok |
| stock | stok |
| wok (Food Friday) | wok (use as model) |
| -OGUE GROUP (Since many of these are widely accepted variants, it might be simplest to present them as a group on a single day. I doubt most are worth a day apiece.) (As at 3/28/10, dialog, pedagog, ideolog, and vogue have been used.) | |
| analogue | annalog |
| catalogue | cattalog |
| epilogue | eppilog |
| monologue | monnolog |
| prologue | prolog |
| prorogue | proroeg or proroag (comments?) |
| synagogue | sinnagog |
| travelogue | travvelog |
| -OLD / -OLT GROUP (comments?) | |
| behold/en | behoeld/en, behoald/en |
| bold (boldface, embolden, etc.) | boeld [Clap...], boald |
| bolt | boelt, boalt (used, as "boalt", on May 12, 2015) |
| cold | coeld [Clap...], coald |
| colt | coelt, coalt |
| fold/er (billfold, blindfold, centerfold, enfold, foldout, etc.) | foeld/er, foald/er |
| gold/en | goeld [Clap...], goald/en (offered March 31, 2011) |
| hold | hoeld [Clap...], hoald |
| manifold | manifoeld, manifoald |
| marigold | marigoeld, marigoald |
| mold/ing, molder | moeld/ing [Clap...], moald/ing; moelder, moalder |
| old, older, oldest | oeld, oald; ~er, ~est |
| smolder | smoelder or smoalder |
| sold | soeld [Clap...], soald |
| told | (Offered as "toald" on August 11, 2011.) |
| volt | voelt, voalt |
| withhold | withhoeld, withhoald |
| -ORE GROUP | |
| bore | bor |
| core (Food Friday) | cor |
| gore | gor |
| ignore | ignor |
| lore | lor |
| pore / pour | por / paur (comments?) |
| sore | sor |
| spore | spor |
| store | stor |
-OS/-OES GROUP: There are many words ending in O that do not, or do not have to, take an -ES in the plural (see this helpful discussion: http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Teach/English-plurals.html). This is especially common with words taken from Spanish or Italian (taco, grotto), and since English is borrowing more and more words from Spanish, the plural of words ending in O are likely to become more and more inconsistent, especially if people cannot readily tell whether a word derives from Spanish or Italian - e.g., tornado, which does ultimately derive from Spanish, albeit twisted in form, but has been in English so long (since about 1560) that its plural is generally anglicized to -OES. SSWD can recommend that all plurals of words ending in O should take -OES.
-OUS GROUP: -OUS ENDINGS might all be changed to -US.
| -OVE- (SHORT-U SOUND) GROUP | |
| glove | gluv |
| hover | huvver (alternative pronunciation hov.er mililtates against this) |
| love/-r | luv/ver |
| shovel | shuvvel (offered February 13, 2006) |
| -OV(E)- (LONG-U SOUND) GROUP to -uve or -oove or even -oov (comments?) ["Prove" group changed to "pruve", August 23, 2005, which see.] | |
| approve | apruve (used, August 23, 2005) |
| disprove | dispruve (used, August 23, 2005) |
| improve/ment | impruve/ment (used, August 23, 2005) |
| move | muve or moove |
| movie | muvie or muvy or moovy or muvee |
| prove | pruve (used, August 23, 2005) |
| reprove | repruve (used, August 23, 2005) |
-OW GROUP There are two common pronunciations for words with
-ow in them, one long-O (bow, barrow, blow/n, glow, grow/n, know/n,
low, mow, marrow, morrow, slow, sow, tow, tomorrow, etc.), the
other the OU-sound (bow, cow, endow, how, now, plow, powwow,
sow, howl, etc.). Which, if either, should be changed? OW can
be seen as a clear rendering of the long-O sound plus a W-glide, so perhaps
that group should not change. OW is not, however, a clear rendering of the
OU-sound, so perhaps all those should be replaced by OU or, if final, OUW.
This is a large class of words, and it may not be worth doing anything with
them unless people learning English perceive a real problem. I'm not sure
it's that troublesome. But if it is, only one subgroup need be reformed to
make clear that the other group is pronounced differently. Which, if either,
should it be? Comments?
| -OWER GROUP (comments?) | Compare "powwow"; contrast "borrower", "slower" |
| bower | bowwer / bouwer / bour / bouwer |
| cower | cowwer / couwer / cour / couwer |
| dower/y | dowwer / douwer / douwer |
| firepower | firepowwer [Cal...] / firepouwer / firepouwer |
| flour / flower (Food Friday) | flowwer / flouwer / flouwer |
| glower | Offered as "glower" on 1/8/11. |
| horsepower | horsepowwer [Cal...] / horsepouwer / horsepouwer |
| hour | owwer / ouwer / ouwer |
| lower (to glare, sullenly) | Offered as louwer, May 15, 2011. |
| power | powwer / pouwer / pouwer |
| shower | (Offered as "shouwer" on February 5, 2011.) |
| tower | (Offered as "touwer" on February 6, 2011.) |
| waterpower | waterpowwer [Cal...] / waterpouwer / waterpouwer (comments on which approach is better?) |
| -OWN GROUP | |
PRONOUNCED "OUN" |
|
| brown | broun |
| clown | cloun |
| crown | croun |
| down | doun (and its many derivatives, e.g., dounrite [Cal...], dounward, hoedoun, lowdoun) |
| drown | droun |
| gown | goun |
| frown | froun |
| renown | renoun |
| PRONOUNCED LONG-O: This is a very problematic group, since all but one are irregular pasts of verbs ending in -OW (blown, flown, grown, known, mown, thrown, sown, shown, unbeknown, unknown), so all these would have to be reformed, or in the alternative all words ending in -OW pronounced OU would have to be reformed (how, now, cow, endow, etc.). Plainly if one group is reformed, the other does not have to be, since it will be a default for its pronunciation. (Comments?) | |
| -UCK GROUP | |
| buck | buk |
| duck (Food Friday) | duk |
| huckleberry (Food Friday) | hukleberry |
| huckster | hukster |
| luck | luk |
| muck | muk |
| pluck | pluk |
| shuck | shuk |
| snuck | snuk [fishstick...] |
| struck | struk |
| suck | suk |
| truck | truk |
| tuck | tuk |
| yuck | yuk (variant) |
| -UFF GROUP | |
| bluff | bluf |
| buff | buf |
| cuff | cuf |
| duff | duf |
| fluff | fluf |
| gruff | gruf |
| guff | guf |
| huff | huf |
| muff | muf |
| puff | puf |
| ruff | ruf (but "rough" was offered as "ruf" on June 25, 2004) |
| scuff | scuf |
| snuff | snuf |
| stuff | stuf |
| -Y ENDING (PRONOUNCED AS LONG-I) GROUP: Most words of
more than one syllable ending in -Y take a long-E sound in their last syllable
(clipped-vowel speakers tend to pronounce it short-I). Words of one syllable
ending in -Y usually take the long-I sound. But there is a class of words
of more than one syllable in which the -Y takes its full long-I sound. Perhaps
we should eventually conform all these words, of one syllable or multiple
syllables without distinction, to a single spelling for the final vowel sound.
There are at least three ways to respell that ending: -IE (as in present pie, belie, and hogtie), -YE (as in rye and goodbye), and -IY, a new spelling suggested to me by a spelling reformer from Japan, on the model of -AY. One can see the same principle, a long vowel followed by a Y-glide, in some -EY words (such as abbey, barley, cockney, key, tourney, whiskey), tho other -EY words sound in long-A (they, hey, convey, obey), . The sample words below are respelled all three ways so you can consider how they would actually look. ("By" is not shown, because how to deal with it is a very complicated issue, inasmuch as it has three homophones, "bye", "buy", and "bi".) |
|
| ally | noun: allie or allye or alliy; verb: alie or alye or aliy |
| apply | aplie or aplye or apliy |
| cry | crie or crye or criy |
| decry | decrie or decrye or decriy |
| deny | denie or denye or deniy |
| dry | drie or drye or driy |
| fly | flie or flye or fliy |
| fry | frie or frye or friy |
| imply | implie or implye or impliy |
| multiply (verb) | multiplie or multiplye or multipliy |
| my | mie or mye or miy |
| ply | plie or plye or pliy |
| pry | prie or prye or priy |
| rely | relie or relye or reliy |
| reply | replie or replye or repliy |
| shy | shie or shye or shiy |
| sky | skie or skye or skiy |
| sly | slie or slye or sliy |
| spry | sprie or sprye or spriy |
| supply | suplie/supplie or suplye/supplye or supliy/suppliy |
| rely | relie or relye or reliy |
| reply | replie or replye or repliy |
| try | trie or trye or triy |
| why | whie or whye or whiy |
| wry (offered as "ry" on October 29, 2005) | rie or wrye or riy |
| -FY SUBGROUP | |
| amplify | amplifie or amplifye or amplifiy |
| electrify | electrifie or electrifye or electrifiy |
| humidify | humidifie or humidifye or humidifiy |
| qualify | qualifie or qualifye or qualifiy |
| simplify | simplifie or simplifye or simplifiy |
| testify (and many, many more) | testifie or testifye or testifiy |
Should we even attempt to reform this category of word? If so, does any of the three approaches above do the trick? -IE is already a common ending, pronounced long-E (or, among clipped-vowel speakers, short-I) showing, among other things, the diminutive: cookie, kiddie, doggie. It has other uses, e.g., rookie, newbie. Is changing -Y to -IE any clearer than leaving it -Y? And what about the present progressive ending -ING? Would we simply add it to the -IE (trieing, electrifieing), or change the IE to Y, which would return us to what we now have (trying, electrifying)? Is -YE too cumbersome to be accepted, or would the clarity gained make such a trivial lengthening welcome? In the progressive, the most common present practice is simply to drop a final-E and add -ING, as would give us again what we now have: crying, flying. But there are exceptions, in which a final-E is retained before the -ING is added: dyeing, eyeing, hogtieing. If we use -IY, the -ING could simply be added after the Y: deniying, amplifiying. But what do we do about third-person singular? Deniys, amplifiys? or denies, amplifies (which requires a rule to drop the Y and add -ES, akin to the present rule, drop the Y and add -IES). Perhaps we don't need to reform one-syllable words (cry, try, fly) if there are no exceptions to the long-I pronunciation. Are there any exceptions? If not, we can leave one-syllable words ending in -Y and reform only words of more than one syllable. (Comments?)
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here for today's suggestion.
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so far.
Click here for the principles that govern the
selection of words.
Click here for a list of words rejected for
this project because of those principles.
Please send comments and suggestions to Fanetiks@aol.com.