Argues that a fast and effective writing system need not stay close to the phonemic detail of speech, and offers shorthand systems as examples of this. Some proposals for spelling reform are briefly evaluated in the light of this evidence. (HOD)

Objective data on the relative frequency of occurrence of the multifarious phoneme-grapheme correspondences of English, which the author dealt with in an earlier book, Relative Frequency of English Spellings, are applied to the learning of reading. The target audience includes the educator, the textbook author/publisher, and the classroom teacher.…

To achieve its purpose, an initial teaching orthography (i.t.o.) should be as simple in form and substance as possible; it should be phonemic rather than phonetic. The 40 sounds distinguished by Pitmanic shorthand and some provision for schwa can serve as a basic code. The symbols can be derived from either of two major sources--standardizing the…

Lecture given before the Annual Conference and Course on Reading (23d, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa., July 10-21, 1967).

Humorous treatment of the subject. (SP)

Presents case that English is not as unsystematic as it appears nor is it a severe obstacle to learning for both native and nonnative speakers by describing the ideographic, syllabic, and alphabetic writing systems. Suggests teachers need a greater awareness of the nature of the English writing system and how to teach it. (BK)

This paper seeks to define the relationship between speech and writing as two separate media within language, and suggests the use of the term translation to describe moving from one medium to another. Such a view acknowledges the independence of speech and writing, the possibility of translation in either direction, the possible untranslatability…

Two criteria for a phonemic notation--assignment of symbols to sounds and the influence of purpose--were discussed. Also presented were three purposes of a phonemic notation: (1) as an initial teaching medium, (2) for an intermediate stage or stages of phonemic spelling reform of English, and (3) for an ultimate phonemics spelling reform. Data of…

Part of a series of materials in Hupa and English, this speller was developed by adult Hupas studying their native language for use by elementary students also studying the Hupa language. The speller begins with a Hupa Unifon alphabet chart giving all of the symbols used to reproduce the most simple version of the sounds in the Hupa language.…

This report on the Conference on Navajo Orthography, held in Albuquerque, New Mexico on May 2-3, 1969 constitutes a summary of the discussion and decisions of a meeting which was convened by the Center for Applied Linguistics under contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to agree on an orthography for the Navajo language. The immediate purpose…

Reponses of poor, average, and good spellers at different age levels to a phonemic segmentation test containing nondigraph pseudowords and to an experimental spelling test containing exception, ambiguous, regular, and pseudowords suggested that the average and good spellers made fewer and more phonetically accurate errors than the poor spellers.…

A great deal of time could be saved in all grades and for all content areas if a truly phonic alphabet were developed. This alphabet would have only one symbol for each sound and only one sound for each symbol so that beginning readers could learn to pronounce any word they could see and spell any word they could pronounce correctly. Such an…

Explored the notion that children's difficulty in reading is a sign of a general inability to selectively attend to parts of perceptual wholes. Children and adults classified triads of spoken syllables and visual objects. Classification of speech was related to reading and spelling ability, but not to classification of visual stimuli. (BC)

Some differences between Standard English (SE) and "Black English" (BE) have important consequences in communication of messages. The authors cite as an example the "habitual" function of the finite verb "be" which has no equivalent in SE. They point out that "simplification" of the English of the Bible may result in a "translation" which is…