THE LOJIKON SYSTEM OF ENGLISH SPELLING (taken from: The LOJIKON )

LOJIKON is an alternative, optional writing system for international use, employing logical and reasonably consistent symbols for consonant sounds. LOJIKON spellings are given in brackets below. Vowels are adjusted occasionally where necessary.

Standard sound-symbol correspondences for consonants

ch will stand for the one sound as in church, and will not be used for the sounds in chemist, machine.

f will replace ph, which usually denotes Greek origin, knowledge of which fact may be interesting but is not essential. Hence telephone
(telefone), philosophy (filosofy).

g will stand for the initial sound in get, but not as in gem, for which j will be used; hence gem (jem).

j will stand for its normal English sound, replacing g, dg; hence gem (jem), judge (juj).

k will replace c, ck, ch where these have the sound of k; hence car (kar), rock (rok), chemist (kemist); also loch (lokh).

qu will be replaced by kw where so pronounced, hence acquit (akwit), quarter (kwarter), queen (kween), quick (kwik), but by just k elsewhere, hence queue (kue), mosquito (moskito).

sh replaces many confusingly different spellings for the initial sound in ship, hence machine (mashine), sugar (shugar), nation (nashon), special (speshal), ocean (oshan), schedule (shedule, or skedule for Americans), conscious (konshous), pension (penshon), passion (pashon), negotiate (negoshiate), Russia (Rushia), Asia (Ashia), luxury (lukshury).

s will supersede c when that has the sound of s; hence ceiling (seiling).

s or z? The frequent use of s for the sound of z can cause confusion. The use of z where so pronounced is suggested, even though it may produce some unexpected results, such as result (rezult), raise (raize), advice (advise), advise (advize), his (hiz). Plurals and possessive forms of nouns, and present tense third person singulars of verbs mostly have a z sound, as in dogs, says, but sometimes they have an s sound, as in cats, talks. In these cases LOJIKON gives simplicity and consistency priority over phonetic spelling, and recommends that all such derived words, including possessives, keep s, rather than changing to z.

th & dh The digraph th will be kept for the sound in thick or thin, but dh will be used for the sound in this or then; hence the (dhe), this (dhis), that (dhat). This change will affect many frequently used words. If used, it should be used consistently.

tu can be replaced by ch where clearly so pronounced. Hence: feature (feachure), picture (pikchure), but tune (tune).

x can be replaced usually by ks, but sometimes by gz where so pronounced; hence box (boks), excess (eksess), exist (egzist), examine (egzamine).

zh will be used for the middle sound in pleasure (pleazhure).

The gh problem This digraph at present occurs intrusively and illogically, and is usually silent. It can be dropped, sometimes along with a vowel in the cluster. Sometimes, however, it will be necessary to substitute a vowel or the consonant f. The following examples illustrate the patterns: sight (siet), night (niet), plough (plou), though (dho), through (thru), thorough (thoro), cough (kof), rough (ruf).

Doubled consonants In the absence of enough vowel signs, consonants are often doubled to show that a preceding vowel is short. Thus we have short and long vowels distinguished in canning: caning, tinny: tiny, comma: coma, supper: super. The context would normally distinguish the meaning of such pairs, but to prevent any ambiguity it is reluctantly recommended that doubling be retained where it serves this function. Elsewhere doubled consonants are simplified, hence accommodation (akomodashon).

Silent consonant letters Like Victorian children, only to be seen but not heard, silent letters abound in the present spelling of English. They need to be dropped, though this may sometimes entail substituting a vowel or doubling another consonant.

b is dropped from debt (det), doubt (dout). It is too late to teach millions in South Asia that plumber rhymes with summer and not with number — they will continue to pronounce the b, so it is best to leave such -mb endings intact.

d is dropped when dg becomes j, hence judge (juj), pledge (plej); also Wednesday (Wenzday).

g is dropped from sign (sien), but not when sounded, as in signature.

h is dropped from honest (onest), honour (onour); heir (eir), ghost (gost), ghastly (gastly).

rh has silent h in English speech, but it can be kept by speakers in South Asia who pronounce it in rhyme, rhythm (rhydhm).

wh has silent h in most English speech, but not in South Asia, and it is therefore kept in when, where, why.

k can be dropped from knave, knee, knife. The word know is used very frequently and would be ambiguous if spelt now or no; the spelling is therefore adjusted to noe; hence also known (noen), knew (nue). The ambiguity of knot (not) is thought to be acceptable, as it is a rarer word.

l is dropped from calm, palm, talk, walk and the vowel adjusted (caam, paam, tauk, wauk).

n is dropped from words like solemn (solem), but kept in solemnity.

p is dropped from words like psalm (saam), psychology (sykolojy).

r is kept, even when it is not pronounced (as frequently in southern English speech). Speakers whose mother tongue is not English are firmly advised to follow those accents such as Scots in both pronouncing and writing the r in words such as far, farm, more, cork.(kork), etc.

s is dropped from isle (ile), island (iland).

t is dropped from often (ofen) and from tch, hence catch (kach).

w is dropped from initial wr, hence write (rite), wrong (rong), and when silent in initial wh, hence who (hoo).