Mapping Phonemes to ASCII

We want to devise a mapping from sounds or phonemes to ASCII letter (ASCII letter character), where each distinct phoneme maps to a different ASCII letter.

Should we run our of letters, we might use punctuation, but then they will not be available for punctuation purposes.

Some principles:

• Upper case letters always stand for special sounds:

  • J stands for Spanish j: alternative X (as in the International Alphabet)

  • D for English initial th as in "there", T for the first sound in "theatre"

  • uppercase vowels stand for long or tense versions: fIl for "feel"

• x stands for sh

• z stands for voiced s, as in "zero"

• g stands for /g/, as in "got"

• j stands for a French g/j sound, as in "pleasure" (plej0) though 'G' or 'Z' would be better, and let j represent a i consonant.

• y stands for French u or German ü, a labialized i sound (upper case Y stands for long ü)

• in Arabic and other Semitic languages, uppercase consonants are emphatics.

  Use an apostrophe to represent a glottal stop ('allah)

  Or shouldn't we keep the apostrophe for stress? (mac 0'dU = much adoo)

• labial e (German ö), what about "oe", or "0"? We've run out of letters now and we do need a letter (or a letter diagraph) to tell between short and long ö

• What about the initial in "gene" or the ll in Spanish "calle"? Use a diagraph ("dG" or "dZ")?

• schwa or week vowel e, "0"? I would favour a non-letter like 0

• w stands for consonant w

• Optional and options in square brackets: share: xe0[r], cotton: kot[0|i]n