r/conorthography

Many people have a negative gut response to the use of Ə in English spelling reforms. It's a crazy reaction, really, considering that Ə is the most common vowel in spoken English.

My strident contention is that any spelling reform worth its salt has to account for Ə. The current iteration of my Regùler İŋglish system relies on a three-part solution: U, Er and 'dropped Ə.'

For single-syllable words, U denotes ʌ (?) - up, brunt, tuf - unless the Ə is followed by R, in which case it is denoted by Er - erth, fern, berd, bern. (For clarity, ɛr is denoted by Err - errer, berrie.)
For multi-syllable words, U denotes Ə - upreeshiaet, suspishn, recugnyz - unless it is followed by a double consonant, in which case, U reverts to ʌ - utter, luvviŋ, unnkynd.
Where the U(Ə) can be eliminated without causing confusion, it is 'dropped' - cnect (not cunect), tripl (not tripul), peesz (not peesuz).
(Note that Ue, Ù and Ü each represent other phonemes, bluez, ùnuform and püsh, respectively, and that a terminal U denotes Ue.)

So, İ wil prudùs dh rekwyerd sampl in order tu demunstraet hao dh U=Ə sistm wercs in practus. Hapulie, it ternz aot, ucaezhnz weir their iz a need for dubbl consununts ar les dhan Ù myt thiŋc. Sum werdz, such az 'unnùzhùul,' taek a bit ov getiŋ ùsd tu, no daot, but it's umaeziŋ hao ëzulie it beginz tu flo, wuns Ù spend a bit ov tym reediŋ and rytiŋ widh dhis sistm.

Hot tips? Sjeschunz?

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u/KahnaKuhl — 3 days ago

▲ 66 r/conorthography+1 crossposts

The reason is simple, my conscript Western Script is an abugida but I used modified Roman alphabet to write it.

u/JuliusDalum — 7 days ago

▲ 46 r/conorthography

u/BeautifulPurple8367 — 10 days ago

▲ 1 r/conorthography

A faithful Russian romanisation.

This is my attempt at a Russian romanisation, in which I tried to have a unique latin letter for every unique cyrillic letter. In theory, one can then simply perform the substitutions and have a latin system that works precisely the same as the cyrillic system. I'm taking this approach because I don't know enough about Russian to atttempt spelling reform.

https://preview.redd.it/v7jl8vi2mo0h1.png?width=838&format=png&auto=webp&s=bcb14896d3611a56037954b2fef06c3a08bdc63a

Sample text:

Все люди рождаются свободными и равными в своём достоинстве и правах. Они наделены разумом и совестью и должны поступать в отношении друг друга в духе братства.
Vse lúdi roždaútsá svobodnìmi i ravnìmi v svoóm dostoinstve i prabax. Oni nadelinì razumom i sovestjú i dolžnì postupatj v otnošenii drug druga v duxe bratstva.

Съешь же ещё этих мягких французских булок да выпей чаю.
Swešj že eşó ètix mágkix francuzskix bulok da bìpey çaú.

Notes:

The vowels are organised into four categories: hard unmarked (a o u), hard marked (è ì), soft unmarked (e i), and soft marked (á ó ú).

The fricatives and affricates are organised into three categories: alveolar, retroflex, and palatal. The alveolars are the base forms, the retroflexes are formed by addition of a caron, and the palatals are formed by addition of a cedilla.

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u/terrortara — 1 day ago

▲ 25 r/conorthography

u/Fearless-Answer-3509 — 10 days ago

▲ 8 r/conorthography

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u/h_nouar — 11 days ago

▲ 3 r/conorthography

English Diacriticmaxxing

RULES
Consonants are doubled after stressed vowels to indicate that they are short. If a diacritic needs to be placed on a doubled consonant, it only needs to be placed on the first consonant.

Stressed vowels without a diacritic before a consonant cluster are assumed short.

UNSTRESSED DEFAULT VOWELS

<A a> [ə] as in abôv

<E e> [ə] as in dĩet

[i] as in prėti

<O o> [ow] word finally as in cargo or before final <s z> as in tangoz. [ə] otherwise as in attom.

[ə] as in circumstanç

STRESSED DEFAULT VOWELS

<A a> [æ] when short as in catt, [ej] when long as in mat.

<E e> [ɛ] when short as in pett, [i] when long as in çen.

[ɪ] when short as in pitt, [aj] when long as in bit.

<O o> [ɒ] when short as in pott, [ow] when long as in ton.

[ʌ] when short as in cutt, [ju] when long as in mut.

STRESSED RHOTIC DEFAULT VOWELS

<Ar ar> [ɛɚ] as in far.

<Arr arr> [ɑɹ] as in arr.

<Er er> [ɪɚ] as in mer.

*<*Err err> [ɚ] as in herr.

<Ir ir> [ajɚ] as in fir.

<Irr irr> [ɚ] as in ẇirr.

<Or or> [ɔɹ] as in mor.

<Ur ur> [juɚ] as in the British pronunciation of ur.

<Urr urr> [ɚ] as in urrbãn.

THE TILDE

<Ã ã> [ej] as in xampãn.

<Ãr ãr> [ɛɚ] as in vãriaxon.

<Ẽ ẽ> [i] as in bẽ.

<Ĩ ĩ> [aj] as in mĩ.

<Ĩr ĩr> [ajɚ] as in vampĩr.

<Õ õ> [ow] as in sõ.

<Ũ ũ> [ju] as in ũ.

THE LINE

<A̍ a̍> [æ*] as *in** y**e̍a̍.

*<*E̍ e̍> *[*ɛ] as in ye̍a̍.

<I̍ i̍> [ɪ] a*s in** ***wi̍þót

<O̍ o̍> *[ɒ] as*** ****in cão̍s

<U̍ u̍> [ʌ*] *as in** u̍ndo̊

THE MACRON

<Ā ā> [ɑ] as in fāðer.

<Ē ē> [ej] as in cafē.

<Ēr ēr> [ɛɚ] as in wēr.

<Ī ī> [i] as in maxīn.

<Īr īr> [ɪɚ] as in menhīr.

<Ō ō> [ɔ] as in bōt.

<Ū ū> [u] as in sūper.

<Ūr ūr> [ʊɚ] as in gūrū.

THE GRAVE

<À à> [aj] as in pàēa.

<È è> [aj] as in è.

<Ò ò> [wɑ] as in patò.

<Ù ù> [jə] as in falùr.

THE ACUTE

<Á á> [aw] as in tá.

<É é> [oj] as in Frédian.

<Ó ó> [aw] as in nó.

<Ú ú> [jʊ] as in úranium.

THE CIRCUMFLEX

<Â â> [ʌ] as in Mâgrebb.

<Êr êr> [ɑɹ] as in sêrgent.

<Î î> [æ] as in merîṅ.

<Ô ô> [ʌ] as in sôm.

THE DIAERESIS

<Ä ä> [ɛ] as in äni.

<Ï ï> [ə] as in evïl.

<Ö ö> [ə] as in Möbius.

<Ü ü> [ɛ] as in büri.

THE DOT

The dot makes any vowel pronounced [ɪ]:

<Ȧ ȧ> as in orȧnģ.

<Ė ė> as in Ėṅlix.

<Ȯ ȯ> as in wȯmen.

<U̇ u̇> a*s *in bu̇zi.

THE RING

<Å å> [ɔ] as in ål.

<E̊ e̊> [ow] a*s *in se̊.

<O̊ o̊> [u] a*s *in to̊.

<Ů ů> [ow] as in mův.

THE CARON

<Ǎ ǎ> [ɔ] as in wǎć.

<Ě ě> [ɔ] as in ěnvelõp.

<Ǐ ǐ> [ɔ] as in the American pronunciation of lǐngerē.

<Ǒ ǒ> [ʊ] as in wǒman.

<Ǔ ǔ> [ʊ] as in pǔt.

CONSONANTS

[b] as in boy.

<C c> [s] before <e i y> as in cent, [k] otherwise as in carr.

*<*Ç ç> [s] as in farrç.

<Ć ć> [t͡ʃ] as in* sändwi*ć.

<D d> [d] as in dogg.

<F f> [f] as in fo̊d.

<G g> [d͡ʒ] before <e i y> as in** ginn, [g] othe*rwise** *as in* gas*s.

<Ģ ģ> [d͡ʒ] as in* briģg*.

<Ġ ġ> [g] as in ġirl.

<H h> [h] as in hatt.

<Ḣ ḣ> [x] as in lōḣ.

<J j> [ʒ] as in vijjon.

<K k> [k] as in kappa.

<L l> [ʟ] as in lott.

*<*M m> [m] as in *Memmf***i̍s.

<N n> [ŋ] before hard <c g> and <k q> as in link, [n] otherwise in națral.

<Ṅ ṅ> [ŋ] as in siṅn

[p] as in plaç.

<Q q> [k] as in Qurān.

<R r> [ɹ] as in redd.

<S s> [s] as in stopp.

<T t> [t] as in topp.

*<*Ț ț> [t͡ʃ] as in* qwesțo*n

*<*Þ þ> [θ] as in þink.

<V v> [v] as in vett.

<W w> [w] as in wip.

<Ẇ ẇ> [ʍ] as in ẇićc.

<X x> [ʃ] as in prexxur.

<Y y> [j] as in yess.

<Z z> [z] as in zilofõn.

<Ż ż> [t͡s] as in* pīża*.

SAMPLE TEXT
Consonants arr dôbld after stressd vóelz to̊ indicãt ðatt ðē arr xort. Iff a dĩacriti̍c nẽdz to̊ bẽ plãçt on a dôbld consonant, itt õnli nẽdz to̊ bẽ plãçt on ðe first consonant.

Stressd vowelz wi̍þót a dĩacriti̍c bẽfor a consonant cluster arr asumd xort.

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u/mateito02 — 3 days ago

▲ 14 r/conorthography

I Finally Made the Lazillian Alphabet

u/SnooAvocados3483 — 4 days ago

▲ 20 r/conorthography

I made a greek adaptacion for the slovene language

u/jan123344444444 — 6 days ago

▲ 5 r/conorthography

Here’s a challenge!

Adapt any script (other than Latin or Cyrillic) to write Ubykh. Post your adaptions in the comments.

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u/PhosphorCrystaled — 5 days ago

▲ 32 r/conorthography

I've been playing with this concept for a while, ever since I realized that Devanagari encodes long and nasal vowels as first-class citizens. Existing orthographies for Emilian (none of which is official or standard) use a number of diacritics and/or digraphs to represent these sounds, which is a pity.

Some notes:

/a/ is the inherent vowel.
The virama (vowel-cancelling sign) is implied at the end of a word. A word-final /a/ is written as if it was /aː/, since there are far less word-final /a/s than word-final consonants in Emilian, and there are no word-final (non-nasalized) /aː/s anyway.
I made a mistake in the image, ऒ always represents short /o/.
The alphabet uses some symbols from extended Devanagari, such as ऍ ऎ ऑ ऒ, to represent short vowels that standard (Sanskritic) Devanagari doesn't feature. These symbols are used as little as possible (see below).
Emilian only distinguishes short and long vowels in stressed position. Moreover, it only distinguishes semi-open /ε ɔ/ and semi-closed /e o/ in stressed positions. Therefore, in unstressed positions ए ओ are preferred to ऎ ऒ for simplicity's sake, since there is no ambiguity anyway.
Aspirates are absent in Emilian, thus /f/ is written as फ without a nukta.
व represents /v~ʋ/ between vowels and /w/ elsewhere. In the rare case of an intervocalic /w/ or a non-intervocalic /v~ʋ/, व़ is used instead.
In loanwords from Italian, /ʃ/ is replaced with Emilian /s̠/. In such cases, /s̠/ is spelled श.
Emilian contrasts retracted laminar /s̠ z̠/ with dental apical /s̪ z̪/ (the sybilant versions of /θ ð/). The latter two sounds often correspond to /tʃ dʒ/ in Italian and have thus been spelled with the symbols for /tʃ dʒ/ plus a nukta, i.e. च़ ज़. /z̠/ is spelled स़ due to ज़ having been used for /z̪/.
When nasalized, /ε ɔ/ turn to /εi~æi ɔu~ɒu/. The presence of a nasalization mark on those vowels implies the dyphthongization.
To avoid confusion with vowel nasalization (which is phonemic at least in stressed contexts), nasal consonants are never written with a bindu after a (stressed) non-nasalized vowel.
Emilian makes extended use of apostrophes, which are rendered with an avagraha ऽ in Devanagari.

Sample text:

अव सलूत तॊत! मॅ अम चाम [...] ए अ देस़वॆञ दा मौद्ना। अम प्येस़ दिमॊन्दि लऽएमिल्याँ ए तॊति अल लॆन्ग्वि दल मन्द। क्वस्त कॅ लऽऍ ऊँ तेंततीव एद द्रुवैर उँ अल्फबेत इंद्याँ पर स्क्रॆवेर ला मे बैला लॆन्ग्वा।

Transliterated with the Latin writing system I normally use:

Av salût tót! Mè am ciâm [redacted] e a deṡvégn da Môdna. Am piěṡ dimóndi l'emilian e tóti al léngui dal mànd. Quàst chè l'è un tentatîv ed druvêr un alfabět indian par scréver la mě bêla léngua.

u/lonewalker_nt — 9 days ago

▲ 2 r/conorthography

NLV Alphabet (5/5/2026)

Basic Letters:

Letter	IPA
a	[ a ]
aⁿ	[ ɒ̃ ]
ae	[ æ ]
aeⁿ	[ æ̃ ]
b	[ b ]
c	[ c ~ cç ]
d	[ d ]
dh	[ ð ~ d̪͡ð ]
dl	[ d͡ɮ ]
dz	[ d͡z ]
dzh	[ d͡ʒ ]
e	[ e ~ ɛ ]
eⁿ	[ ẽ ~ ɛ̃ ]
f	[ f ]
g	[ ɡ ~ ɢ ]
gw	[ ɡʷ ~ ɢʷ ]
h	[ ɦ ]
i	[ i ]
iⁿ	[ ĩ ~ ɪ̃ ]
j	[ ɟ ~ ɟ͡ʝ ]
k	[ k ]
kw	[ kʷ ]
l	[ l ]
ll	[ ɫ ~ lː ]
ly	[ ʎ ]
m	[ m ]
n	[ n ]
ng	[ ŋ ~ ɴ ]
ny	[ ɲ ]
o	[ o / (ə) ]
oⁿ	[ ɔ̃ / (ə̃) ]
oe	[ ø ~ œ ]
oeⁿ	[ ø̃ ~ œ̃ ]
p	[ p ]
q	[ q ]
qw	[ qʷ ]
r	[ r ]
s	[ s ]
sh	[ ʃ ]
t	[ t ]
th	[ θ ~ t̪͡θ ]
tl	[ t͡ɬ ]
ts	[ t͡s ]
tsh	[ t͡ʃ ]
u	[ u ]
uⁿ	[ ũ ]
ue	[ y ]
ueⁿ	[ ỹ ~ ʏ̃ ]
v	[ v ]
w	[ w / ◌ʷ ]
x	[ x ~ χ ]
xw	[ xʷ ~ χʷ ]
xy	[ ç ~ xʲ ~ χʲ ]
y	[ j / ◌ʲ ]
z	[ z ]
zh	[ ʒ ]
ⁿ	[ ◌̃ ]

Extra Letters (For other languages):

Letter	IPA
cʼ	[ cʼ ~ c͡çʼ ]
db	[ d͡b ]
ġ	[ ɣ ~ ʁ ]
ġw	[ ɣʷ ~ ʁʷ ]
hw	[ ʍ ~ ɦʷ ]
kʼ	[ kʼ ]
kʼw	[ kʼʷ ]
ḷ	[ ɬ ]
ḷy	[ ʎ̥˔ ~ ɬʲ ]
ṃ	[ m̥ ]
ṇ	[ n̥ ]
ṇg	[ ŋ̊ ~ ɴ̥ ]
nm	[ n͡m ]
ṇṃ	[ n̥͡m̥ ]
ṇy	[ ɲ̊ ]
pʼ	[ pʼ ]
pf	[ p̪͡f ~ p͡ɸ ]
qʼ	[ qʼ ]
qʼw	[ qʼʷ ]
qx	[ q͡χ ]
qxʼ	[ q͡χʼ ]
ṛ	[ r̥ ~ r̝̊ ]
tʼ	[ tʼ ]
tlʼ	[ t͡ɬʼ ]
tsʼ	[ t͡sʼ ]
tshʼ	[ t͡ʃʼ ]
tp	[ t͡p ]
tpʼ	[ t͡pʼ ]
ẇ	[ ɥ ~ ɥ̊ ]
ʼ	[ ʔ / ◌ʼ ]

Number System:

Base 24	Base 10	Prime or Composite
0	0	Neither
1	1	Neither
2	2	Prime
3	3	Prime
4	4	Composite
5	5	Prime
6	6	Composite
7	7	Prime
8	8	Composite
9	9	Composite
A	10	Composite
B	11	Prime
C	12	Composite
D	13	Prime
E	14	Composite
F	15	Composite
G	16	Composite
H	17	Prime
I	18	Composite
J	19	Prime
K	20	Composite
L	21	Composite
M	22	Composite
N	23	Prime

Note: You only used Lowercase Letters, Uppercase Letters are used for Brand Names or used as Digits for my Base 24 Number System

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u/Friendly_Bet6424 — 8 days ago

▲ 12 r/conorthography

French but with Greek letters

I call my script Neo-Gallo-Greek, not simply Gallo-Greek because that one already exists, as it was the Greek-based alphabet used to write Gaulish. Neo-Gallo-Greek takes inspiration primarily from the Karamanlı alphabet, but includes the "tau gallicum" as a nod to Gallo-Greek.

My script is aimed to apply the Greek script to French (here specifically Quebec French) phonological rules.

Sample sentence: ʚ̓γ φρᴕι θιπὶκ τ̇ʚ σετ εἰγκωγπετᾱ̀γς ἠ τ̇ʚ σεθ ἰρεσπωγσαπ̇ιλιτὴ σ’ ἠ λ’ κοὺρ σʚκ̇ωγτ̇ειρ πυπ̇λίκ. (Un fruit typique de cette incompétence et de cette irresponsabilité, c'est le cours secondaire public.)

alphabet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n0o4paeI1GPIrSBn2n1y_S0rWKcd1AoH/view?usp=drivesdk

guide: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CvjO3GecRKrN1Pc5icEcEiF20ZyuhHXL/view?usp=drivesdk

u/No_View3587 — 7 days ago

▲ 1 r/conorthography

Can you show me how do you write these in your spelling reform?

Article 1 of Declaration of Human Rights

Äl hūman bēiŋs ar born free and ēkwal in digniti and rīȝts. Ðey ar endaoed wið reason and konsçienç and şuold açt towards weon aneoðer in a spirit ov breoðerhood.

English sentence that shows all English letters.

Ðe kwik braon fox jumps ōver ðe lāzi dog.

The spelling is based from Western Script my conscript that I made for English and Spanish.

u/JuliusDalum — 14 days ago

▲ 21 r/conorthography

u/Brightsea129 — 14 days ago