Guide to Spelling in Postmodern English
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A Spelling For Every Voice.
Postmodern English is written purely phonetically via a method of mapping IPA sounds to Postmodern letters, minus any exponentials (such aspirations or releases) that may be found in the IPA spellings. Because of this, every major unique accent features unique ways of spelling. This is a major feature of Postmodern English, which allows the accent of the person to reflect in their writing. If you were to read an article written by an Irishman, many of the words would be spelled in a uniquely Irish way, yet still understandable in the same way that different spoken accents can still be understood uniformly as English. Spell it as it sounds, and everything becomes clearer.
Doubled Letters Begone.
In Postmodern English, the letters in words are not doubled or repeated (except in the case of sliding vowels, where two of the same letter with different accents are used in a row, or in rare cases where a sound is actually repeated twice in a row). So compared to Standard English, you would write out “Kēmīdīd“ instead of “Committed“, and “Vākum” instead of “Vacuum” in the US Midland accent. Why repeat letters when you don’t need to?
Every Letter Has Purpose.
Every letter must make a sound or serve a function in Postmodern English- silent letters don’t exist. In short, words in Postmodern English are spelled how they are pronounced when spoken in isolation. The outcome is that you write “Kóf” instead of “Cough”, and “Nom” instead of “Gnome”. Save the silence for actual silence.
No More Unnatural Digraphs.
A digraph is when two or more letters in a row are used to represent a different sound than those letters would make on their own. Postmodern English only has two of these: “ts” and “dz”. Compared to other digraphs, these two are completely natural to assume from the combination of t and s and d and z, as IPA t + IPA s = IPA t͡s and IPA d + IPA z = IPA d͡z. The remaining digraphs and other letter pairs accomplishing the same thing in standard English, such as “ch”, “sh”, “ur”, “si”, and “ph”, are replaced in Postmodern English with “ч”, “ҁ”, “ԅ”, “ԏ”, and “f” respectively. Of course, this list is not exhaustive. New letters were put into use versus the usage of existing digraphs due to the majority of the existing ones being phonetically unnatural. For example, IPA s and IPA h coming together to form the diagraph “sh” making the IPA sound ʃ makes little sense given how the two IPA sounds that make up this digraph are completely different from the result. Don’t make sounding things out needlessly overcomplicated.
T? More like D.
A very common feature of many US accents is the tendency to change the “t” sound to a “d” sound when used near the ends of words. Take for example the words “letter”. In the US Midland Accent, this would be written as “lédԅ”, not “létԅ”. However there are exceptions to this practice in rare cases. See “Horse Rider or Horse Writer?” below for more info on this.
When “Tr” Becomes “Чr”.
In many accents of the English language, when something would originally be spelled with “tr”, such as the standard English word “Train”, the “tr” sound becomes “чr” instead. The Postmodern version of this same word would be “Чran”, at least in the US Midland accent. Though not all accents will have this transformation, take a close listen to your own- you might be surprised.
“Dr” Transforms Into “Jr”.
Similarly to the “tr” to “чr” effect, some accents will pronounce the standard English spelling “dr“ as “jr” in Postmodern English spelling. Some examples of this in the US Midland accent are “Jriv” (Drive), and “Jrésīŋ” (Dressing). Say it like it is.
“T” is the New “Ed”
In many cases, words that normally end with K, Ч, or Ҁ when singular will replace the “-ed” at the end with “t” when they use a past tense form that ends with “ed”. This means that “wish” and “wished” will be “wīҁ” and “wīҁt”, in a Postmodern English US Midland accent. Similarly, “switched” in Postmodern English would be “swīчt”. This can also occur with words ending in different letters, so be on the lookout.
To Use X Or Not To Use X?
Even though both “x” and “ks” make the IPA “ks” sound in Postmodern English, they can't be used interchangeably. Instead, “x” is used to indicate this sound when the word is singular, and “ks” is used to indicate this sound at the end of a word when that word is plural, or if it is a verb ending in this sound. This makes it easier for the reader to distinguish singular from plural in unfamiliar words. When the IPA “ks” sound is found anywhere else in a word, “x” is used. In general, the shortest way to spell something out should be used, as long as all of the spelling rules are met. Spelling this out, you get the singular “Bóx” (Box), the plural “Stīks” (Sticks), and the verb “Liks” (Likes). Excellent.
The Powerful Է.
Postmodern English distinguishes the letter “T” from another sound known as a glottal stop. It accomplishes this with the letter “Է”, which represents this glottal stop. This letter looks similar to a “T” because it belongs in words where a “T” would normally be used in standard English, but where the speaker abruptly and briefly cuts off the air flow and sound of their voice instead. Think of it like positioning your tongue to make a “T” sound, but never actually pushing air through to make the sound. In the US Midland accent, this can be seen in words like “Fāūէn” (Fountain), and “Búէn” (Button). Know your Ts and your Էs.
Does it End with S or Z?
When writing in Postmodern English, words can either end with an S or a Z, depending on the accent of the speaker, and the word in question. As an example, you would write “Kāts” (Cats) ending with an S, but would write “Чōrz” (Chores) ending with a Z. Though the ending letter for plural words will vary depending on the accent as mentioned, a general rule of thumb is that singular words ending in F, K, P, T, and Þ will end with an S if plural, and everything else will end with a Z. As always, listening to your accent is the easiest way to figure this out. All ears!
Y is Not a Vowel.
And sometimes Y? Not anymore. In Postmodern English, Y is never used as a vowel. Instead, the actual appropriate vowel is used in its place. This means, for example, that “cherry” in a Postmodern English US Midland accent would be spelled “Чáre”. Not Y, easy as pie.
Horse Rider or Horse Writer?
Postmodern English encounters a small problem at face value in some accents: words previously spelled differently in standard English may be spelled the same in Postmodern English. One case of this is that normally, in a US Midland Accent, both “rider” and “writer” would normally be spelled as “ridԅ”. This can present a problem if context is lacking, however. Take the Postmodern sentence “Ҁe wúz a hōrs ridԅ”. Was she a horse rider or a horse writer? In such cases, the T to D practice of many US accents is negated, so Ts remain as Ts. After this fix, we get “Ҁe wúz a hōrs ritԅ”. It turns out, she was someone who wrote about horses. Thankfully, this problem is rare, and can easily be avoided with some context if the writer choses not to change the spelling.
Unusual But Unique Vowel Combos.
Is it possible that an accented vowel can be somewhere in between the given accented vowels? Of course! Although less common than just needing a standard accented vowel, “slides” between two accented vowels can and do happen in some accents. Sliding means that the speaker smoothly transitions from one vowel to the next, one after the other. One example of this is in the US Inland Northern accent, where it is common to slide between Á and Ā. When sliding between vowels, the start of the slide should be the first letter written, and the end of the slide should be the second. The end result is that “Apple” in standard English would be written as “Áāpōl” in Postmodern English for the US Inland Northern accent. In writing, it is also acceptable to combine the accents of the two As into one accented letter, with the first accent being on top of the second over the letter. So Á + Ā could be written either as “Áā” or as “Ā́“ (although the combination accent letters are not supported by our keyboards due to Unicode limitations). Whenever two of the same letters with different accents are written in a row like this, combining can be done. However, if two different accented letters appear in a row, such as “āū”, both letters must still be written out separately. The power is in the slide.
An Evolving Language.
It's no secret that any spoken language will evolve and change over time. Postmodern English is no different in this regard. Unlike written Standard English, which has remained largely static and unchanged for hundreds of years, Postmodern English writing will change how words are spelled in any particular accent on a regular basis. At least in our public repository of words, the spelling of any specific word in an accent can be contested annually (or more often if necessary). This, of course, is meant to keep any differences between spoken and written English to an absolute minimum. As useful as this is, it takes a continuous effort to maintain a beautifully consistent language. Whoever you may be, join the effort today, so that we might make a better future for our language tomorrow.