wikipedia -> w-ek-ep-ed-e"u wiktionary -> wi-ikshun-ar-e Daniel Ehrenberg -> Dany-l E'rxnb-rg You can't really glean much of how the system works from those samples, though. I like the simpler is best approach, Daniel -- but take issue with your choice of using strictly English vowel voicings. (E, and :"U" for what would be better as an "a" (far) -- like its written now, incidentally! :) Like I talked about before -- you have to consider the vowels used per language as they vary over different languages, and rate these based on population. In this internationalist sense the sharp "A" sound (cat, bat ) must be **secondary** to the more *widely* understood *softer* "A" sound (bar, car). By widely understood -- take a look at Espertanto -- the phonetics of that language are based on the more common soft vowel sounds -- just as in Spanish. The "o"s dont morph into (ah)'s, the "e"'s dont morph into (ii)'s, etc. Since many languages (inglesh) will allow for flexible sounds, from flat (resembling a different vowel) to soft (moderate) to sharp (extreme), etc -- the idea of a **standard phonetic scheme** is basically premised on *removing that *flexibility so that vowels then become static. This is the counterintuitive part -- most of us think of vowels as flexible, and which way they flex hints at our language origin/bias. How can you tell a Hindi/Arabic/Chinese/German/Spanish accent? (when speaking english) --by their vowel bias. A system, if its going to be usable has to map its vowels according to language use statistics. For example: I see your using the "E" as in a "me" sound, as opposed to a "ben" sound -- for a "me" sound this should be a "mi" -- Example 2:Just as say, Arabic, defaults to an A .... (an Arabic A is often halfway tween an A("cat") and an E("ben") (alef,ba,ta,tha, jiim,h!a, kha, daal,thaal,zai, siin,shiin, saad, daad, taa, vaa, ayn, thayn, fe, q'af, kef, lam, mim, nuun, he, waw, yah So too does English (\inglesh\) defaults to an EE (the letters (ei)(bi)(ci)(di)(ii)(ef)(gi)(eich)(ai)(jei)(kei)(el)(em)(en) (oh)(pi)(kiu)(ar)(es)(ti)(iu)(vi)W(eks)(wai)(zi) If English was an abjad -- most of its words would naturally default to an /i/ sound ("ee"). These languages have a marked bias toward their respective sounds --and as such are unusable in the internationalist task of creating a phonetic scheme. Sincerely, -S- __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

Daniel Ehrenberg wrote: Everyone tries to invent their own phonetic system when they're in their teens. I did. But reinventing the wheel is generally a bad idea. if every dictionary & encyclopedia has its own system, then it is not transferable, and the reader has to relearn for each book they open. Let's stick to something that is universal: IPA / SAMPA.