The IRM Spelling System

IRM (Improved Readability Minglish) is a system for transcribing English.  It is mostly, but not entirely, phonemic, and has been designed to look not too alien to readers of standard English.  I regard IRM as an essentially completed project; this document describes version 1.10, current as of 7/17/2004.

This document is in three parts.  The first is an informal overview of IRM, the second is an algorithmic description of how to transform a text into IRM, and the third is several samples of transcribed text.  There are two appendices, the first concerning the handling of dialectal and foreign sounds not covered by the main document, and a second discussing IRM's history.

Part 1 - Informal Overview

• It uses more traditional spellings for the "ch", "sh", "zh" and "ng" sounds than WLM.  It uses x and q in the traditional English way.
• Schwas and unstressed short vowels are usually replaced by the corresponding vowel from the traditional spelling.
• Consonant doubling is used after stressed short vowels to indicate the stress.
• IRM is much more restrained in its handling of syllabic liquids than WLM, resulting in fewer rules but more ambiguity (and sometimes longer spellings).
• -s is always used to mark plurals.  This introduces significant complications to avoid too much ambiguity.
• The long vowels (other than long "a") are abbreviated at the ends of words.
• The spelling of common prefixes and suffixes is standardized, even if it does not exactly represent the pronunciation.
• Homonyms of function words (articles, pronouns and common adverbs and prepositions) are given distinct spellings for clarity.
  

Basic Spelling

Most of the consonants of English are represented exactly as you would expect.  Here is a table of the IRM consonant spellings that might need explanation:

Notes:

1. ce is used to spell the s sound only under certain conditions, as described below.
2. ck and dj are used in place of kk and jj respectively.  See Step 2 below.

Here is a table of the vowels, diphthongs and other combinations of IRM.  For reasons to be explained shortly, no spelling is shown for the schwa sound.

Notes:

1. These spellings are used only at the end of a word.
2. This spelling is used only at the end of a word, or before a w.
3. This spelling is used only at the end of a one-syllable word.
4. This spelling is used only at the end of a word with two or more syllables.
   

Additional conventions

In order to make things more readable for readers familiar with English spelling, IRM sometimes modifies the spellings that would be obtained from just substituting the letters and letter combinations above for their sounds.  Here is an informal and incomplete description of the modifications:

1. The schwa or any other unstressed short vowel sound (a, e, i, o, oo or u in the above table) is replaced by the corresponding letter in the traditional English spelling.  An exception is that a schwa-r combination is always spelled er (or r as described in Rule 4).  Another exception is that a schwa at the end of a word is always spelled a.
2. The above rule makes the spelling of many words ambiguous, that is, you can't tell exactly how to pronounce them from the spelling.  To alleviate this, any stressed short vowel (other than oo) followed by a single consonant (not part of a digraph) has the consonant doubled.  This is not sufficient to make the spelling of all words phonemic, but it helps a lot.  No consonant is doubled in a one syllable word, except for s (see Rule 7.
   
3. When a long vowel ending in e (ae, ee, ie, oe or ue) is followed by another vowel, the e of the digraph is replaced by an apostrophe.  If the following vowel is a schwa followed by a liquid, the schwa is dropped as described in Rule 4.  Examples: ka'oss, kre'aet, ki'oety, po'etry, du'ett, bri'r, kazhyu'l.  In combinations where a schwa is usually spoken, an apostrophe should be used only if the vowel is indicated in the traditional spelling; otherwise, the schwa should just be dropped.  For instance:  requier, fael, tuel (contrasting with li'r, betra'l, and richu'l).
4. In many cases, a syllabic liquid, or a schwa-liquid combination, is spelled without indicating any vowel sound, as in bottl, wundr, kazzm and happn.  This takes place at the ends of words (see Part 2 of this document for exceptions), and, for m and n, after the letter k at the start of a word.
5. The plural ending is always spelled -s, regardless of its pronunciation. The possessive ending is spelled 's as well.  However, contractions of iz or haz end with z to match the verb spelling.  Thus, the English word <Bill's> may be spelled Bil's or Bil'z, depending on whether the context is "Bil's lunch" or "Bil'z eeting".  For verbs, the past tense ending is always written d, regardless of its pronunciation.
   
6. When a word ending in a long vowel from which the ending e was dropped is inflected, the e returns.  When ing is added, rule 5 replaces the e with an apostrophe.  For example: deni, denied, denies, deni'ing.  When a word ending in y is inflected, the y does not change, and no apostrophe is used.  For example: kairy, kairyd, kairys, kairying, hevvyer, hevvyest.  When a one syllable word ending in a short vowel followed by a single consonant not part of a digraph is inflected, the consonant is doubled before ing, er and est, or if a schwa is inserted.  Examples: hopping, hottest, kisses, patted (but lafs, hugd).
7. The use of -s as a plural ending introduces more ambiguities, for instance, the words <once> and <ones> would be spelled the same, even though they are pronounced differently.  For this reason, when it occurs at the end of a word, the s sound is respelled when necessary to avoid misunderstanding.  It is respelled as ce except following a stressed short vowel or aw, when it is respelled as ss.  Examples:  glance, horce, fawlce, twiece, mowce, kloece, reduece, furnace, lawss, gess.  The e of ce disappears before the -ing ending, but not before other endings.  For instance, danced, dances, dancing, niecer, niecest.  Similarly, the e disappears from ce when appending a suffix starting with -i, as in advurcity.
8. Common prefixes and suffixes are always spelled the same way, regardless of their traditional English spelling.  For instance, "-able"/"-ible" is always spelled -abl, as in luvvabl and deduktabl.  A full list (except for the ones I've forgotten) is in Part 2.
9. Homonyms of English function words are generally spelled differently for clarity.  A full list (so far) is in Part 2.

Part 2 - A Formal Description

The following is an algorithmic description of how to spell a word in IRM, based on its pronunciation (as encoded in strict MCM) and its English spelling.  I realize that the level of formality and detail here may make this somewhat hard to read, but this is the best way I know to be precise.  Besides, in my work persona I'm a software guy: I tend to think in algorithms.

IRM is produced from strict MCM by a series of transformations.  Some transformations replace schwa (3) characters of the MCM with corresponding characters from the traditional English spelling, or make use of the traditional spelling of common affixes.  (See my MCM Reference if you need information on MCM.)

For regularly inflected words, the transformations are first applied to the root word, and then the inflections are handled as described in Step 9.  This applies to plural-like words (<jeans>, <scissors>, but not <rabies>), and to -ed words derived from nouns (e.g., <muscled>, <freckled>, <spirited>, but not <crooked>).  Also, sciences like <physics> and <economics> are treated as plurals.  Similarly, for words including common affixes, the transformations are first applied to the root word, and then the affixes are applied as described in Step 10. This may produce a different result than if the word were processed as a whole.

In compound words, the parts are generally spelled separately and the results combined.  A hyphen can be used to separate the parts if this combined spelling is inconsistent with the actual pronunciation.

If it happens that a sequence occurs which appears to contain a digraph, but where the letters of the digraph should be pronounced separately, a hyphen should be inserted, as in ex-hael or un-graetful.

Homonyms of very frequent words generally are spelled uniquely, to avoid confusion.  These words are listed at the end of this section.

MCM encodes capitalization by an initial period.  The process described below ignores this period.  When the process is complete, if an initial period is present, it is removed and the IRM word is capitalized.

Step 1:  Make the following replacements in the MCM transcription:

The transformations of L, M and N are simply for the purpose of making later steps easier to describe.

Notes:

1. See Appendix 1.
2. D can be transcribed as th rather than dh for familiarity at the cost of accuracy.
   

Step 2:  Make the following replacements at the ends of words:

Notes:

1. ee is replaced by e at the end of a one-syllable word, and otherwise by y.
   

In the case of a few homonyms of very common words, these replacements do not occur.

The changes of o to ah and a to aa also occurs preceding the letters h and w.

When a word with an -e, -i, -o or -u ending is a component of a compound other than the last, the ending e is restored (or replaced by an apostrophe if the following word starts with a vowel).

Step 3:  The following sequences are respelled:

The starred transformations may be optionally skipped to avoid the unfamiliar sequences.  The -ks/-nks/-gz transformations do not occur when the last letter is a plural marker.  Also, the -ks transformation is not performed for an "-ics" word formed by adding an "-s" to an adjective ending in "-ic", as in sivviks and fizziks.  Also note that the x transformations are not performed when the component sounds are contained in more than one part of a compound word.

Step 4:  If a stressed single letter vowel is followed by a single consonant and a vowel (or the end of a word), the consonant is doubled, unless it is an q, r, h, j or k.  A j is replaced by dj instead of doubling it; similarly, k is doubled as ck.  This step is not performed in a single syllable word, unless the consonant is s.

Step 5:  If a long vowel (ae, ee, ie, oe or ue) is followed by another vowel (including 3), the second e of the first vowel is replaced by an apostrophe.  However, if the long vowel is followed by a schwa and a liquid, instead the schwa is dropped if it is not implied by the English spelling, as in fier and stael.

Step 6:  The combinations 3l, 3m, or 3n may be replaced by l, m, and n respectively under the following circumstances.  In the same circumstances, the sequence er (resulting from the Step 1 transformations) can be replaced by r.

• When preceded by a consonant in the last syllable of a word.  However, an m or n replacement is not made when it follows a liquid, except for n following m, as in woomn.  Also, the schwa is not removed when it would cause there to be a double consonant, as in mirer or kanon.  (At this step, the latter is still spelled kan3n; the 3 is not removed until Step 7.)  An apostrophe resulting from Step 5 is treated as a consonant for purposes of this step.
• For m or n, when following a k in the first syllable of a word.
• For n, as part of the endings "-ance", "-ancy", "-ant", "-ence", "-ency" or "-ent", when a cononsant precedes the implied schwa.  (See Step 10 below.)
• For r and l, when following the diphthong ow or oy, if no schwa is implied by the English spelling.
• For l following r, whenever the schwa is not implied by the standard spelling, e.g. kurl, but squurel.

Step 7: Any remaining 3 or other unstressed short vowel is replaced by the corresponding vowel from the standard English spelling.  If the corresponding vowel is a digraph or trigraph, the vowel most closely matching the pronunciation is used.  If the matching vowel is pronounced as oo, then u is used as the vowel.  Exceptions:  3r/R is always replaced by er.  (This takes place in Step 1.)  A 3 at the end of a word is always spelled a.  If the substitution of a for 3 would produce the sequence aw, then e is substituted instead.  If the substitution of o for 3 would produce either ow or oy, then u is substituted instead.  If the substitution of a for 3 would produce the sequence ah, then o is substituted instead.  In the words <today>, <tonight>, <tomorrow> and <together>, the first vowel is rendered as u, to correspond to the stressed pronunciation.

Step 8:  An ending s which is not a plural marker is replaced as follows:

• ce - if following a liquid, an a (which will always represent a schwa), or a long vowel other than aw
• ss - if following aw
  

Note that an ending s is not altered in the sequence ss, or following any non-liquid consonant.  For instance, the word traditionally spelled <collapse> is kolaps in IRM.  Also note that the rules for pluralization (see Step 9) make it unnecessary to change an -s after a schwa with a spelling other than a.  The word prommis cannot be the plural of a word spelled prommi (perhaps spelled <promeye> in traditional spelling), as its plural would be prommies.

Step 9:  When the source word is an inflection of some other word, the inflection is added without modifying the root spelling any more than absolutely necessary.  A word ending in a single e, i, o or u (not part of a digraph) is inflected as though the implied e was present.  An -ing inflection is added without modifying any preceding vowel or syllabic liquid, but possibly applying Step 5.  (However, when -ing is added to a word ending in ce, the e is dropped.)  However, the final consonant of any one-syllable word with a single vowel letter is doubled.  An -er or -est suffix drops the e if following a vowel, unless an e was dropped from ee, ie, oe or ue at the end of a word, in which case an apostrophe is used.  (Note that the comparative -er prefix is not shortened to a single r, except when preceded by an apostrophe.)  The plural suffix is always written as s (or es) at the end of a word, whether pronounced as "s" or "z".  When pluralizing a word ending in y, the y is not changed (e.g., bownderys).  Similarly, a past tense d is always written as d, even if it is pronounced as "t", and an ending y is not modified (e.g., studdyd).

Step 10:  Certain very common affixes have standard spellings:

Symbols in parentheses in the table above indicate letters which are optionally present, based on the normal IRM spelling rules.  Affixes shown with an asterisk call for the application of Step 5 after combination with the affix.  When step 5 is applied to a word in which the "ee" sound is spelled as y, the result is spelled y' rather than e', as in sairemoeny'l.

Other notes:

1. If this suffix is preceded by y, the y remains unchanged.
2. The spelling is chosen to match the pronunciation.
   
3. This spelling is used even if the pronunciation would call for an er spelling.
4. This spelling is used even if the vowel in the prefix is indistinct.
   

Also note that when a suffix starting with -e or -i is appended to a word ending in ce, the extraneous e is dropped.

These spellings may also be used in words that closely resemble words with these affixes, even if the root form does not exist, e.g., detrimnt, vi'lnce, loensm.  If the application of this rule would create a double letter, a hyphen is inserted, e.g., un-no'ing.  However, the ree- spelling is not used (unless accurate) for words which do not have a "do again" meaning, or a relationship to such a word.  Similarly, the pree- and proe- spellings should not be used for words words where the suffix does not have the standard meaning, such as prefer or propoez.

Common words

The following common words (and their homonyms) are rendered as shown here, rather than by application of the rules above.

The wh spellings for words above are used even if the wh is not used for other words.

Part 3 - Examples

Here are two samples of IRM, the first the traditional first paragraph of H.G. Wells' "The Star" (see here), and the second a transcription of a pop song by Dire Straits.  (Truth to tell, song lyrics are my usual transcription material.)

The star

It wuz on dhe furst dae uv dhe nu yir dhat dhe anowncemnt wuz maed, awlmoest siemultaene'usly frum thre obzurvatorys, dhat dhe moeshn uv dhe plannet Neptuen, dhe owtrmoest uv awl dhe plannets dhat weel abowt dhe sun, had bekumm vairy irattik.  A retardaeshn in its velossity had bin suspekted in Desembr.  Dhen a faent, remoet spek uv liet wuz diskuvvrd in dhe reejn uv dhe perturbd plannet.  At furst dhis did not kawz enny vairy graet exietmnt.  Si'ntiffik peepl, howevvr, fownd dhe intellijnce remarkabl enuff, eevn befor it bekaym noen dhat dhe nu boddy wuz rappidly gro'ing larjer and brieter, and dhat its moeshn wuz quiet differnt frum dhe ordrly progres uv dhe plannets.

Industre'l Dizeez

Because this example is a pop song, I've left out most of the punctuation, in the style of rock lyrics everywhere.


Worning liets ar flashing down at Quollity Kntroel
Sumboddy thrue a spannr and dhae thrue him in dhe hoel
Dhair'z ruemrs in dhe loeding bae and anghr in dhe town
Sumboddy blu a wissl and dhe wawls kaem down
Dhair'z a meeting in dhe bordruem, dhae'r tri'ing tu traece dhe smel
Dhair'z leeking in dhe woshruem, dhair'z a sneek in Pursonell
Sumwair in dhe koridr, sumwun wuz hurd tu sneez
"Goodnes me, kood dhis be Industre'l Dizeez?"

Dhe kairtaekr wuz kruesified for sleeping at hiz poest
Refyuezing tu bi passified, it'z him dhae blaem dhe moest
Dhe wochdawg got raebeez, dhe forman'z got dhe flees
Evrywun'z knsurnd abowt Industre'l Dizeez
Dhair'z pannik on dhe swichbord, tungs ar tied in notts
Sum kum owt in simpathy, sum kum owt in spots
Sum blaem dhe mannajmnt, sum dhe employees
And evryboddy noes it'z dhe Industre'l Dizeez

Dhe wurk force iz disgusted, downs tuels, wawks
Innosnce iz injrd, expire'nce just tawks
Evrywun seeks dammajes, evrywun agrys
"Dheez ar klassik simptms uv a monnetairy squeez"
On ITV and BBC dhae tawk abowt dhe kurce
Filossofy iz yuesles, the'ollojy iz wurce
Histery boyls oevr, dhair'z an ekkonommiks freez
Soese'ollojists invent wurds dhat meen Industre'l Dizeez

Doktr Parkinsn deklaird "I'm not serpriezd tu se yu hir
Yu'v got smoekr's kawf frum smoeking, bru'r's druep frum drinking bir
I doen't noe how yu kaem tu get dhe Betty Daevis nees
But wurst uv awl, yung man, yu'v got Industre'l Dizeez"
He roet me a preskripshn, he sed "Yu ar depressd
I'm glad yu kaem tu se me, tu get dhis awf yur chest
Kum bak and se me laeter, next paeshnt pleez
Send in anudhr viktm uv Industre'l Dizeez"

I go down tu Speekr's Kornr, I'm thundrstruk
Dhae got fre speech, toorists, poleece in truks
Tue men sae dhae'r Jeezus, wun uv dhem must be rawng
Dhae got a proetest singr, he'z singing a proetest sawng
He sez "Dhae wont tu hav a wor so dhae kan keep us on owr nees
Dhae wont tu hav a wor so dhae kan keep dhaer fakterys
Dhae wont tu hav a wor tu stop us bi'ing Jappaneez
Dhae wont tu hav a wor tu stop Industre'l Dizeez
Dhae'r poynting owt dhe ennemy tu keep yu def and bliend
Dhae wawnt tu sap yur ennerjy, inkarseraet yur miend
Giv yu Ruel Britanya, gassy bir, paej thre
Tue weeks in Espanya and Sundae strip teez"
Meenwhiel, dhe furst Jeezus sez, "I'l kyoor it suen
Abollish Mundae morning and Friedae aftrnuen"
Dhe udhr wun'z owt on hunghr striek, he'z di'ing bi degrees
How kum Jeezus gets Industre'l Dizeez?

Appendix 1

My dialect of English does not distinguish <marry> from <merry>, nor <whale> from <wail>.  The sequence aar may be used to represent the "arr" sound of <marry>, and wh may be used to represent the initial consonant of <whale>, if desired.

A few English words are pronounced with non-English sounds.  The most common of these sounds may be represented as follows:

(The tilde and umlauts are best used as diacritical marks: kontretãh, Göta, Klair da Lün.  However, they may also be used as separate marks within a word, as shown above, if more convenient.)

Appendix 2

Previous changes

Version 1.10 of IRM introduced the following changes from version 1.00:

• The rules for doubled consonants were clarified to cover doubing of the last letter of a word.
• The rules for -ce were clarified to indicate that <guess> is spelled gess, not gece.
• The alternate spellings of like, might and mine were changed from liehk, mieht and miend to liik, miit and miind.
  

Version 1.00 of IRM introduced the following changes from version 0.90:

• The list of common words and their homonyms was considerably expanded.
• Support was added for dialects which distinguish the "arr" sound and/or the "wh" sound.  Support was added for spelling some foreign sounds.

The evolution of IRM

I consider IRM to be a failure.  The use of doubled consonants to show stress obscures word relationships in words like bottany and botannical or anonnimus and annonimmity.  It works well enough for short words, but is clumsy at best for the enlarged vocabulary of technical or scientific writing.  Further development of IRM has ceased, unless I change my mind on this point, or discover some technical means of lessening its severity.

Nevertheless, one could contemplate minor improvements to IRM.  The remainder of this section repeats the discussion of such improvements from the previous version of this document, with one or two other items added before abandonment of the project.

IRM is incompatible with British English (RP), primarily due to its failure to distinguish the broad "a" sound from the short "o".  This issue could probably be remedied by spelling the broad "a" as ah.  Possibly other adjustments would be required.  Probably no significant change in the use of r would be needed; the traditional handling of this issue seems to work well enough.

It occurs to me that using -sc in place of -ce has some advantages, notably the ability to avoid the mutation of -ce to -ci.  Examples:  horsc, mowsc, spiesc, wunsc, juescy, reduescing, replaescabl, disgraescfl.  -sc is of course not pronounced as /s/ in TS, but the suggestion of -sce is strong enough that I think this change would work.

The decision to contract m3n to mn at the end of words is very new.  I may regret it.  It does make the handling of the "-ment" suffix more consistent, however.

I'm not completely happy with the diacritic solution to foreign vowels.  But the diacritics are probably better than introducing new unnatural digraphs that would be rarely used.  I considered kontretonh, Geota and Kleir de Leun, but these spellings don't appeal.

Using -s to mark all plurals complicates things enormously.  It forces me to use -ce (or some other convention) to mark words ending in -s which are not plural, and to add extra e's when pluralizing words ending in a single vowel.  I may yet change my mind on this, even though using -z for plurals will surely make most texts significantly stranger looking.  (I must admit that -ce is itself pretty strange upon occasion.)

I'm considering spelling the "oo" vowel with a w.  While this increases the oddness factor, it allows me to treat this vowel like all the other short vowels, and lets me spell words with an unstressed "oo" more accurately, e.g., porkywpien instead of porkyupien.  On writing it down, this really doesn't seem all that much of an improvement.

It's unnecessary to double a consonant to show stress in a two syllable word where the other syllable is spelled as a solitary l, m, n or r.  That is, ladr would do as well as laddr.  But keeping the doubling makes texts more consistent, and is worthwhile for that reason.  So I probably won't change my mind about this again.

The fact that r's are not doubled is an anomaly.  Even though it is not necessary to do this, I may want to add it, just to make the system more consistent.  There is also the issue that an unstressed 3r is always spelled er, rather than using the vowel of the traditional spelling, as with all other sounds.  This gets in the way of easy recognition of some related words, like admier and admerabl.  But so far, I haven't thought of a way to fix this.

Perhaps I should get rid of the ngh trigraph, and just use ngg instead.  This system already has plenty of double letters in it, after all.  And when the sequence ngh is used in TS, the sound is virtually always a soft ng, as in <dinghy> and <gingham>.

Not contracting the comparative suffix to -r (so that I write kolder, not koldr) was a very close decision.  I find that when I write in IRM I naturally leave the e out.  I may well change my mind (again) on this one.

To comment on this page, e-mail Alan at wyrdplay.org