English

See https://github.com/eobrain/spehl For an example of a project that uses this library.

Have you ever wondered what English would look like if its spelling was actually phonetic. This is an attempt to do so by mapping each phoneme of English to a fixed set of letters, according to the following mapping.

| Phoneme | Spelling | Example, standard | Example, phonetic | Type | |---|---|---|---|---| | AE /æ/ | a | TRAP, BATH, cat, fast, pass, as, that, at, has, an | TRAP, BATH, kat, fast, pas, az, that, at, haz, an | short vowel | | AA /ɑ/~/ɒ/ | aa | PALM, START, car, was, are | PAAM, STAART, kaar, waaz, aar | long vowel | | AO /ɔ/ | aw | THOUGHT, NORTH, water, four, also, all | THAWT, NAWRTH, wawter, fawr, awlsoe, awl | long vowel | | EY /eɪ/ | ay | FACE, say, stain, freight, they, became | FAYS, say, stayn, frayt, thay, bikaym | diphthong vowel | | B /b/ | b | baboon | buboon | stop | | CH /tʃ/ | ch | cheetah, century | cheetu, sencheree | afrukut | | D /d/ | d | deer | dir | stop | | EH /ɛ/ | e | DRESS, bread, many, friend, their | DRES, bred, menee, frend, ther | short vowel | | IY /i/ | ee | FLEECE, sea, people, police, he | FLEES, see, peepul, pulees, hee | | ER /ɝ/ | er | urchin, first | erchun, ferst | | | F /f/ | f | flamingo | fluminggoe | fricative | | G /ɡ/ | g | gazelle | guzel | stop | | HH /h/ | h | hippopotamus | hipupaatumus | aspirate | | IH /ɪ/ | i | KIT, myth, pretty, women, is, his, career | KIT, mith, pritee, wimun, iz, hiz, kerir | short vowel | | AY /aɪ/ | iy | PRICE, try, night, height, by, time | PRIYS, triy, niyt, hiyt, biy, tiym | vowel | | JH /dʒ/ | j | jackal, college | jakul, kaalij | affricate | | K /k/ | k | cat | kat | stop | | L /l/ | l | lion | liyun | liquid | | M /m/ | m | monkey | mungkee | nasal | | N /n/ | n | gnat | nat | nasal | | NG /ŋ/ | ng | anchor, long, among, doing | angker, lawng, umung, dooing | nasal | | OW /oʊ/ | oe | GOAT, slow, toe, also, only | GOET, sloe, toe, awlsoe, oenlee | diphthong vowel | | OY /ɔɪ/ | oi | CHOICE, noise, loiter, boy | CHOIS, noiz, loiter, boi | diphthong vowel | | UW /u/ | oo | GOOSE, new, due, tuna, to, use | GOOS, noo, doo, toonu, too, yoos | long vowel | | AW /aʊ/ | ou | MOUTH, noun, cow, shower | MOUTH, noun, kou, shouer | diphthong vowel | | P /p/ | p | penguin | penggwun | stop | | R /ɹ/ | r | rhinoceros | riynaaserus | liquid | | S /s/ | s | sloth, century | sloeth, sencheree | fricative | | SH /ʃ/ | sh | sheep | sheep | fricative | | ZH /ʒ/ | si | genre, adhesion, allusion, asia, casual, decision | siaanru, adheesiun, uloosiun, aysiu, kasiuwul, disisiun | fricative | | T /t/ | t | tiger | tiyger | stop | | DH /ð/ | th | this, the, that | this, thu, that | fricative | | TH /θ/ | th | thrush | thrush | fricative | | AH /ʌ/ | u | STRUT, son, blood, the, of, a, one, from | STRUT, sun, blud, thu, uv, u, wun, frum | short vowel | | UH /ʊ/ | uh | FOOT, took, good, put, would | FUHT, tuhk, guhd, puht, wuhd | short vowel | | V /v/ | v | vulture, of | vulcher, uv | fricative | | W /w/ | w | walrus | wawlrus | semi-vowel | | HH W | wh | wheat | wheet | | Y /j/ | y | yak | yak | semi-vowel | | Z /z/ | z | zebra, as, was, is | zeebru, az, waaz, iz, hiz | fricative |

Using the library

In a JavaScript module loaded from a web page use

import { convert } from 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/phonate/phonate.js'

In a NodeJS JavaScript module use

import {convert} from "phonate"

Running the Software

Generate phonetic dictionary.

To execute

1. cd to the directory containing this README.md file.
2. Install node (for example by installing nvm and executing nvm use )
3. Install dependencies

   npm install

4. In this directory execute

   npx bajel

5. This will generate a file called phonetic.js with a mapping frem standard Inglish spelling tp phonetic spelling. It then runs an evaluation to see how close the two spellings are to each other, measured by Levenshtein distance weighted by how often the word occurs in English.

Uses The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary.