The Bobdot Respell System

Bob Boden

March 19, 2005

Introduction


The Bobdot system has a set of characteristics which are unique in a pronunciation guide system intended for the language of Peter Jennings – NBC English. The system represents a new approach to spelling which should allow the teaching of the art of alphabetic reading to children in about three months – in kindergarten – with literature which matches their vocabulary. The resemblance of marked text to TS may be seen in the Late Arrival story below.

  1. Vowel letters and vowel digraphs have both a stressed and unstressed form.

  2. Primary stress in a multiple-syllable word is always apparent.

  3. Voiced and unvoiced 'th's are differentiated.

  4. Consonant letters and digraphs have but one sound.

  5. A word like finger is differentiated from a word like singer – without added letters.

  6. Upper and lower case letters are provided.

  7. No use is made of color, underlining, big and little letters, bold or italic letters.

  8. All required characters are available with the International Keyboard.

  9. Alan Beale's dictionary conversion program is capable of automatically converting any text within the bounds of its 30,000 words.

  10. The Wyrdplay converter can be used to convert articles, stories, etc. into Bobdot.


Nod to TS adepts:

'c' as in 'cat' is used when preceding 'a', 'o', or 'u'.
two forms of 'ou' are provided: ou and ow
two forms of 'oi' are provided: oi and oy
or always has the sound in 'for'
ar always has the sound in 'far'
sh and ch are as in TS

The rules of Bobdot

b c d f g h j k l m n ng (sing) nk (pink) p r s t v w y z

wh, ch, sh, tþ/th, zh – when, chip, ship, tþink/trútþ, then/smúth, mezhur

a e i o u – impakt, contekst, orbit, padlok, chesnut
pat, pet, pit, pot, pup (stress marks not required in single syllable words)

ä ë ï ö ü – enäkt, inëpt, òmït, impöstur, rébütul -- (stressed short vowel)

schwa – (unstressed brief sound of 'u') simpul, ubët, posubul

á é í ó ú – plá, mé, mí, gó, klú

à è ì ò ù – vàcáshun, rèälitè, satìr, invòcáshun, intùïshun
(unstressed long vowel)

'aw' as in outlaw

stressed: 'äw' (unläwful, bècäwz)

'û' as in lûk, wûd, cûd, shûd uncûkt, pûr, tûr

unstressed 'û' = eu: inpeut, outpeut, thrúpeut

'ou' (o + ú) as in out, mound (not used at end of word or preceding a vowel letter)

'ow' (o + ú) at end of word or preceding a vowel letter (cow, power)

stressed: 'öu/öw' (undöutedlè, ulöw)

'oi' (aw + é) as in oil, boil (not used at end of word or preceding a vowel letter)

'oy' (aw + é) at end of word or preceding a vowel letter (boy, royul)

stressed: 'öi/öy' (unöid, unöy)

Rules and conventions

  1. 'a' which precedes 'r' or 'h' = 'o' (car, Panumah)
    stressed: incärsuràt

  2. 'o' which precedes 'r' = 'aw' (or, for)
    stressed: bèför

  3. 'ur' = sound in prospur, muthur, inturn, mólur
    stressed: impürvèus, ulürt, unpurtürbd, urjunt

  4. 'er' indicates the sound in perul, peruscòp
    stressed: intërugàt, impërd, er, vërè

  5. c' is used before 'a', 'o', or 'u' (marked or unmarked) for the sound in <cat> (cap, cop, cut). 'k' is used in all other places for this sound. (kis, kin, kwik)

  6. Where 'n' has the sound in 'sing' the 'n' will be marked, except in the case of an only or final syllable of a word where the 'n' is followed by 'g'. Therefore: sing, siñing, dúing, hañing, hañur, añgur, angst, lawng, hangd

  7. Where 'nk' or 'nc' has the sound in <pink> or <anchor> the 'n' will be marked, except in the case where the 'nk' occurs in an only or final syllable of a word. Therefore: pink, rank, piñking, rañking, Iñcuh, añcur

  8. Where an initial 'ur' precedes a vowel the 'u' will be sounded as a separate syllable (urív, uróz).

  9. 'uh' indicates the 'u' sound at the end of a word or a syllable (túnuh, ìdéuh, huhräs)

  10. sight words: I a the


The consonant system of Bobdot:

bib, cap/cop/cut, dad, fíf, gag, hot,juj, kik, lilè, mom, nan, pop, ror, sis, tot, valv, went, whál, yes, zú/buz


Stress Rules


Rules for noting which syllable has the primary stress:

  1. In a word which has no marked vowels stress is on the first or only syllable.

  2. In a multi-syllable word with one or more marked vowels the stressed syllable is indicated by a vowel marked with dieresis, accent acute, or circumflex, or by the absence of any of these markings, in which case the stressed syllable is the first.

Examples:

humdrum, pat, cat, akshun, undur, pursun (Rule 1)
implí, convursáshun, impursëptublè, kañgurú, tínè, dèsídedlè, sìtáshun, inïshèàt (Rule 2)

simplè, amplifì, banjò  (Rule 2 default)


A Bobdot Sample Text



The Lát Urívul

Bob stróld up the path. Hé wuz lát and wuz cunsïduring hiz alibì. Hé lisund tú the uthur carz in the strét, heding hóm. The dawg, with paw rázd, gréted him at the dor. Molè cûd awlwàz tel when hé urívd. Shé wuz a fátþful kréchur, and the sensitïvitè uv that nóz wuz not a mitþ. The hous wuz kwíet. Hé lûkt doun at the vínul tíl. It cûd stand sum polish but hé wûd rèzïst the impuls tú cumplán.

Hé saw hiz fothur in the garden nir the fens but didn't bothur tú cawl him. Hé wuz obvèuslè prèpëring tú mó the lawn. Hé cûd sé the nábur'z cow in the medò and the dens wûdz bèyönd. It sémd a trivèul matur but hé awlwàz lûkt tú sé if ther wuz enètþing on the kichun tábul. Hiz wíf mít rít a nót. Ther wuz a nú novul ther, probublè hurz. It had a pèkyúlyur simbul on the cuvur. The títul sed sumtþing uböut nûronz. Hé didn't nó whut that wuz uböut but simplè didn't ker.

Hé dèsíded tú rèmúv the lábul now frum the pakij hé wuz kerèing. Hé hópt that Murtul wûd not huhräs him uböut the cawst uv the nú fur cót hé had bawt hur. Hé had a ferlè gûd rèplí. At lést it wuz pád for. And the furst uv the yir wuz awlmòst hir and the er wuz cóld.

Hé found the pápur partlè ópun, óvur a cher. It had ránd in the morning. The pápur awfun got wet. Hé turnd the rádèò on but didn't ker for the siñing.

Hé red uböut the síklòn which had awlmòst hit the sivik sentur. The skí had lûkt tþretning. Hé gáv a sí. Ther wûd hav bin the devul tú pá if the storm had bin wurs. The nolij mád him wins. Hé tþawt, "Wé ar só helples in the fás uv bad wethur." Hé gáv sum tþawt tú sólur powur, but klung tú hiz yúzhúul rigur, which ment discüsing this witþ hiz wíf bèför máking a dèsïzhun. Shé ekspëkted this cunsiduráshun. Hé had bin tþiñking uböut èmürjensè powur and had an ìdéuh. Sum mezhur uv akshun mít bé prúdunt.



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