Romic alphabet
Encyclopedia
The Romic Alphabet, sometimes known as the Romic Reform, is a phonetic alphabet
proposed by Henry Sweet. It is the direct ancestor of the modern International Phonetic Alphabet
. The alphabet differs from previously proposed spelling reform
s by favoring a return to the sound values of the Roman (and consequently Old English) alphabet instead of retaining irregular elements of modern English. Every sound had a dedicated symbol, and every symbol represented a single sound. There were no capital letters.
The vowels had their English "short" sounds when written singly, and their "long" sounds when doubled:
Sweet proposed creating new letters by rotating existing letters, and in this way no new type would need to be cast:
The IPA letter ⟨ɔ⟩ acquired its modern pronunciation and first use with this alphabet. He resurrected two Anglo-Saxon letters, ash
⟨æ⟩ and eth
⟨ð⟩, and borrowed the Greek letter theta
⟨θ⟩, which had the pronunciations they retain in the IPA. He used ⟨q⟩ for /ŋ/ and ⟨c⟩ for /tʃ/.
Phonetic transcription
Phonetic transcription is the visual representation of speech sounds . The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, e.g., the International Phonetic Alphabet....
proposed by Henry Sweet. It is the direct ancestor of the modern International Phonetic Alphabet
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
. The alphabet differs from previously proposed spelling reform
Spelling reform
Many languages have undergone spelling reform, where a deliberate, often officially sanctioned or mandated, change to spelling takes place. Proposals for such reform are also common....
s by favoring a return to the sound values of the Roman (and consequently Old English) alphabet instead of retaining irregular elements of modern English. Every sound had a dedicated symbol, and every symbol represented a single sound. There were no capital letters.
The vowels had their English "short" sounds when written singly, and their "long" sounds when doubled:
Sweet proposed creating new letters by rotating existing letters, and in this way no new type would need to be cast:
The IPA letter ⟨ɔ⟩ acquired its modern pronunciation and first use with this alphabet. He resurrected two Anglo-Saxon letters, ash
Æ
Æ is a grapheme formed from the letters a and e. Originally a ligature representing a Latin diphthong, it has been promoted to the full status of a letter in the alphabets of some languages, including Danish, Faroese, Norwegian and Icelandic...
⟨æ⟩ and eth
Eth
Eth is a letter used in Old English, Icelandic, Faroese , and Elfdalian. It was also used in Scandinavia during the Middle Ages, but was subsequently replaced with dh and later d. The capital eth resembles a D with a line through the vertical stroke...
⟨ð⟩, and borrowed the Greek letter theta
Theta
Theta is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, derived from the Phoenician letter Teth...
⟨θ⟩, which had the pronunciations they retain in the IPA. He used ⟨q⟩ for /ŋ/ and ⟨c⟩ for /tʃ/.