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chrideedeespellian is an idea for an alternative system of spelling English that I came up with when I was much younger (not necessarily as something I intended to actually use, just because I felt like it). It's intended to be a more regular version of English's current spelling rules. It uses the ordinary English alphabet plus two extra letters: ě, which is always silent, and ǐ, which represents the vowel in words spelled with ing. The name of the spelling system, chrideedeespellian, can also be spelled chrideedeespellianně in order to show the new letter.
I don't know where the original description of this is, so this is how I remember it; the original may be different. However, I'm still trying to stay true to the original; there are some things I might change if I were making this today.
This system is entirely based on my own dialect of English. That means that it does not distinguish the vowels in lot, cloth, thought, and palm (since I pronounce them all the same); it assumes that r at the ends of syllables is pronounced as a consonant; and it assumes that words like tune don't have a y sound. It also considers the vowel at the beginning of about to be the same as the vowel in jump.
Each vowel sound is represented by either a single letter or two letters in a row (a digraph). Each single letter has two sounds: a short sound, and a long sound. The vowel uses its long sound when followed by a single consonant letter and then another vowel letter (including ě); otherwise, it uses its short sound.
| Sound | Before consonant-vowel | Elsewhere | End of a word | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | IPA | Examples | One syllable | Multiple syllables | ||
| Short | /æ/ | apple | 〈a〉 | |||
| /ɛ/ | end | 〈e〉 | ||||
| /ɪ/ | in | 〈i〉 | ||||
| /ɑ/ | off, awful | 〈o〉 | 〈aw〉 | |||
| /ʌ/, /ə/ | under, about | 〈u〉 | 〈uh〉 | 〈a〉 | ||
| Long | /eɪ/ | ate, marry, merry, Mary | 〈a〉 | 〈ai〉 | 〈ay〉 | |
| /i/ | even, here | 〈e〉 | 〈ee〉 | 〈y〉 | ||
| /aɪ/ | ice | 〈i〉 | 〈ie〉 | |||
| /oʊ/ | oboe, north, force | 〈o〉 | 〈oa〉 | |||
| /u/ | uber, tune, balloon | 〈u〉 | 〈ue〉 | |||
| Always digraphs | /ʊ/ | book | 〈oo〉 | |||
| /oɪ/ | oil | 〈oi〉 | 〈oy〉 | |||
| /aʊ/ | out | 〈ou〉 | 〈ow〉 | |||
| Always before /ŋ/ | sing, making | 〈ǐ〉 | ||||
The consonants 〈b〉, 〈d〉, 〈f〉, 〈h〉, 〈j〉, 〈k〉, 〈l〉, 〈m〉, 〈n〉, 〈p〉, 〈r〉, 〈s〉, 〈t〉, 〈v〉, 〈w〉, 〈y〉, and 〈z〉 are pronounced as they are typically pronounced in English. Other consonants and digraphs:
〈wh〉 may optionally be used to spell the sound in the question word which (if one distinguishes it from the magical person witch).
When a single consonant appears between two vowels, if the first vowel is a short vowel, then the consonant is doubled. If the consonant was originally 〈k〉, it becomes 〈ck〉.
When multiple consonants appear between two vowels, if the first vowel is a long vowel, then the long vowel is spelled as a digraph.
Consonants used at the end of a word are spelled differently depending on the type of the last vowel:
However, there are exceptions:
| Sound | After short vowel | After long vowel | After always-digraph | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /k/ | 〈ck〉 | 〈kě〉 | 〈k〉 | |
| /f/ | 〈ff〉 | 〈fě〉 | 〈f〉 | |
| /g/ | 〈g〉 | 〈g〉 | 〈g〉 | Long vowels are spelled as digraphs before /g/. |
| /dʒ/ | 〈dgě〉 | 〈gě〉 | 〈gě〉 | |
| /l/ | 〈ll〉 | 〈lě〉 | 〈l〉 | |
| /s/ | 〈ss〉 | 〈cě〉 | 〈cě〉 | |
| /v/ | 〈vě〉 | 〈vě〉 | 〈vě〉 | Long vowels are spelled as digraphs; the 〈ě〉 in this case doesn't make the vowel long. |
| /z/ | 〈zz〉 | 〈zě〉 | 〈z〉 | |
| /b/ | 〈b〉 | 〈bě〉 | 〈b〉 | Non-exception for comparison |
| /kt/ | 〈ct〉 | 〈ct〉 | 〈ct〉 | Non-exception for comparison |
Syllabic r (/ɚ/), as in letter and nurse, is spelled 〈ěr〉; likewise, syllabic n and m (like in open and bottom) are spelled 〈ěn〉 and 〈ěm〉, respectively. Syllabic l (/l̩/) is spelled 〈lě〉 at the end of a word or before a suffix, and 〈ěl〉 elsewhere.
The suffix s (plural nouns, possessive nouns, singular present-tense verbs, contraction of is and has) is spelled 〈ěs〉 if it's pronounced as a separate syllable, and 〈s〉 otherwise. The suffix ed (past tense, past participle) is spelled 〈ěd〉. These spellings are only used if the form is regular (e.g., slept is 〈slept〉, not 〈sleppěd〉; says is 〈sezz〉, not 〈ses〉).
When adding a suffix starting with a vowel to a word ending in 〈ě〉, the 〈ě〉 is dropped, except after 〈g〉. If there is no 〈ě〉, but it ends in a short vowel followed by a single consonant, the consonant is doubled.