This page presents an alternate form of the WLM spelling
system, which I am for the moment calling WLM2s, the 2s standing for
"two schwa". I am in the process of deciding whether to declare
WLM2s to be the official form of WLM, or possibly, to present it as an
acceptable alternate form. Perhaps the end result could be a
hybrid of the two, accepting some but not all of the differences.
If you believe WLM to be interesting, and have an opinion on whether
WLM2s is an improvement, I urge you to E-mail me (see the bottom of the
page for the address) and tell me so. I can't ignore your opinion
if you don't give it to me!
The major differences between WLM and WLM2s are as follows:
WLM uses the letter i for the schwa except at word beginning and word end. WLM2s uses both i and o. i is used when the sound is the "indistinct i", a short i resembling a schwa, or when it is conventionally spelled with the letter e or i. The letter o is used in other cases. The purpose of this change is to make the spelling of certain words more natural. For example, the WLM spellings surkis, sabitahjh and kitastrify would become surkos, sabotahjh and kotastrofy in WLM2s. I note that difference 3 below causes some schwas to be spelled out before liquids in WLM2s where they are omitted in WLM. These schwas are always spelled with o.
WLM uses the letter o for the long o sound, as in smok and motivayt. Since WLM2s uses
the o as a schwa, it spells the long o with the digraph oa: smoak, moativayt. At the end of a
word, such as zeero or medo, a plain o is still used,
since the schwa is always spelled with a at word end. The ending
o is not changed when a plural or past tense ending is added, even if
ambiguity results, as in foatoz
and fahlod. (To prevent
ambiguity, perhaps an apostrophe, or even an e, could be inserted after
the o. But if we're going to do that, why not just use the oa
digraph to start with?)
The handling of syllabic liquids in WLM2s is different, and tends to use the apostrophe rather than the letter h as a marker. This will be further explained later, but for now, here are some examples.
TS |
WLM |
WLM2s |
quorum |
kworhm |
kworom |
agony |
agnhy |
agn'y |
opera |
ahprha |
ahpr'a |
difference |
difrhns |
difr'ns |
professional |
prifexnl |
profexn'l |
poisoner |
poynhnr |
poyzn'r |
flamingo |
flmhingo |
flomingo |
veterinarian |
vetrhneiriyn |
vetr'neiriyn |
In addition to these major differences, there are the following minor
changes to WLM2s:
WLM2s uses -ebl and -ebility, not -ibl and -ibility, for the TS suffixes -able/ible and -ability/ibility: wurkebl, lejebl, feezebility.
WLM2s uses -ment rather than -mhnt for the TS suffix -ment, as in payvment, argyment, eistablixment.
In addition to its major changes in the handling of
syllabic liquids, WLM2s allows the liquids m and n to be juxtaposed
without an intervening h. Thus, WLM2s spells the WLM woomhn and venhm as woomn and venm.
Unlike WLM, WLM2s distinguishes the cases of ending rl
where the l is not syllabic (kurl)
from ones where it is syllabic (skwurol).
Explaining how either WLM or WLM2s handles syllabic
liquids is a big job, because the situation with these sounds is so
complicated. Spelling system developers like myself could save
themselves a lot of trouble if we weren't so attracted to the idea of
leaving out those unnecessary vowels. Unfortunately, leaving them
all out leads to horrible ambiguities, and we have to figure out which
words we can omit the vowels from, and what to do about the ones where
we can't.
When I speak of syllabic liquids, I'm talking about cases
where a liquid sound (l, m, n or r) comprises the only vowel in a
syllable, or cases where the vowel is a schwa followed by a
liquid. Phoneticists distinguish these two cases, but I am unable
to tell the difference between them, and so I use the term "syllabic
liquid" to refer to both. I'll probably go to hell for it, I
guess. What I'd like for either form of WLM is to just leave the
schwa out from these sounds, writing letr
for <letter>, and kmplayn
for <complain>. Would they were all that easy! The
archtypical problem word is <forum>. We can't leave out the
vowel here: form is a
different word. A long process of analysis leads to the following
conclusions:
It is safe to leave out the vowel before a liquid if
the preceding sound is a non-liquid consonant, and the liquid is either
word-final, or followed by a non-liquid consonant. Thus, we can
write: katl, knsidr, prseev.
It is safe to leave out the vowel when the liquid is
either word-final or followed by a non-liquid, even in the case where
the preceding sound is a liquid consonant, provided the first liquid is
not l or r, or the second liquid is not m or n. Thus, we can
write: kulr, winr, kaml.
In WLM2s, we can also write hyuemn,
denm. However, in WLM2s, we
consider the case of r followed by syllabic l unsafe. In WLM, we
write korl, while in WLM2s
this spelling is not permitted. Basically, the WLM rules imagine
that the words <swirl> and <squirrel> rhyme (swurl and skwurl), while the WLM2s rules
assume they do not (swurl and skwurol). It would be
unambiguous for a liquid to follow itself without an intervening
letter, as in mmoriyl, kann
or teirriez, but in both
versions of WLM, we insist on separating them, due to the very
different use of double letters by traditional spelling. WLM2s
has momoriyl, kanon and teireriez for the words above.
The cases we have left are words where a syllabic liquid
is followed by a vowel, like <colony> or <ferocious>, or
where an unacceptable liquid sequence occurs, like <solemn> or
<coronation>. Some unpleasant words have several
troublesome liquids in a row, like <aluminum> or
<foreigner> or <phenomenally>. WLM spells words like
these by using a silent letter h as a marker. The words in the
previous sentences are spelled kahlhny,
frhoxus, korhnayxn, sahlhm, eluemhnhm, forhnr and fnhahmhnlhy in WLM. The exact
rule is hard to describe, because sometimes the h follows the syllabic
liquid (frhoxus) and sometimes
it precedes it (korhnayxn).
The WLM2s rules are slightly easier to understand. When a
syllabic liquid is followed by a vowel or another syllabic liquid,
WLM2s uses an apostrophe to separate the two, as in fr'oaxus, aluemn'm and fn'ahmn'ly. In any other
situation involving a syllabic liquid, a vowel is written, o before l,
m or n, or e before r. Thus, for the other troublesome words
above we have kahlony, sahlom,
koronayxn and foron'r.
One of the benefits of this particular scheme is that the spelling of
words is not usually changed when we add suffixes to them, as in the
case of fn'ahmn'n, fn'ahmn'l
and fn'ahmn'ly, or profexn, profexn'l and profexn'lizm.
When spelling a troublesome word, we start at the
right-hand side and process the word right-to-left, adding a vowel or
apostrophe at the rightmost troublespot. For instance, in
<foreigner>, the -nr sequence is all right, and it is only when
we hit the -rn that we get into trouble. Note that once we add a
vowel, the spelling of all or part of the word preceding may be
resolved. In <zeppelin>, once we realize that the ending
must be spelled -'n, we have no trouble deciding what to do with the
-el-: zepl'n. (The word
<aluminum> is trickier than the others; you might think that the
spelling aluemnm would be
acceptable, but it is ambiguous because you can't tell whether the n is
intended to be syllabic or not. In this case, an apostrophe must
be inserted between the n and m to mark them as syllabic: eluemn'm.) I consider this to
be a strong advantage for this part of WLM2s: I have not yet found an
informal way to describe exactly how to insert the h's into troublesome
words such as these with WLM. (A balancing disadvantage is that
WLM2 uses the apostrophe in a number of different ways, and it is more
complicated to figure out whether it needs to be pronounced or not.)
To illustrate the effect of these changes on an extended text, the
table below gives the text of the song "Desolation Row" (words and
music by Bob Dylan) in both systems. The changes are not so many
as to make the appearance radically different, but as you may notice,
most verses have changes in a fair number of lines.
Dhay'r
selinq postkardz ev dhi hanqinq Dhay'r payntinq dhi pasportz brown Dhi byuety parlr iz fild widh saelrz Dhi surkis iz in town Hir kumz dhi bliend kmhixnhr Dhay'v gaht him in a trans Wun hand iz tied tu dhi tietrop wawkr Dhi udhr iz in hiz pantz And dhi riht skwahd dhay'r restles Dhay need sumweir tu go Az Laydy and Ie look owt tnhiet Frum Deslhayxn Ro |
Dhay'r
selinq poastkardz ev dhi hanqinq Dhay'r payntinq dhi pasportz brown Dhi byuety parlr iz fild widh saelrz Dhi surkos iz in town Hir kumz dhi bliend km'ixn'r Dhay'v gaht him in a trans Wun hand iz tied tu dhi tietroap wawkr Dhi udhr iz in hiz pantz And dhi riht skwahd dhay'r restles Dhay need sumweir tu go Az Laydy and Ie look owt tn'iet Frum Desl'ayxn Ro |
Sindrhela,
xee seemz so eezy "It taykz wun tu no wun," xee smihlz And pootz hur handz in hur bak pahkitz Bety Dayvis stihl Now in kumz Romiyo, heez moninq "Yu bilawnq tu mee Ie blheev" Dhen sumwun sez, "Yu'r in dhi rawnq plays, mie frend Yu'd betr leev" And dhi only sownd dhat'z left Aftr dhi ambylhns'z go Iz Sindrhela sweepinq up Awn Deslhayxn Ro |
Sindr'ela,
xee seemz so eezy "It taykz wun tu no wun," xee smihlz And pootz hur handz in hur bak pahkitz Bety Dayvis stihl Now in kumz Roamiyo, heez moaninq "Yu bilawnq tu mee Ie bl'eev" Dhen sumwun sez, "Yu'r in dhi rawnq plays, mie frend Yu'd betr leev" And dhi oanly sownd dhat'z left Aftr dhi ambylons'z go Iz Sindr'ela sweepinq up Awn Desl'ayxn Ro |
Now
dhi muen iz awlmost hidn Dhi starz ar bigininq tu hied Dhi forcn-telinq laydy Haz eevn taykn awl hur thinqz insied Awl iksept for Kayn and Aybl And dhi huncbak ev Notra Daym Eivry.bahdy'z maykinq luv Or eils ikspektinq rayn And dhi Good Smheiritn, hee'z dresinq Hee'z getinq redy for dhi xo Hee'z go'inq tu dhi karnivl tnhiet Awn Deslhayxn Ro |
Now
dhi muen iz awlmoast hidn Dhi starz ar bigininq tu hied Dhi forcn-telinq laydy Haz eevn taykn awl hur thinqz insied Awl iksept for Kayn and Aybl And dhi huncbak ev Noatra Daym Eivry.bahdy'z maykinq luv Or eils ikspektinq rayn And dhi Good Sm'eiritn, hee'z dresinq Heez getinq redy for dhi xo Heez go'inq tu dhi karnivl tn'iet Awn Desl'ayxn Ro |
Now
Ofeelya, xee'z 'neeth dhi windo For hur Ie fiyl so efrayd Awn hur twenty-seknd burthday Xee awlredy iz n old mayd Tu hur, deth iz kwiet romantik Xee weirz n ihrn vest Hur prifexn'z hur rilijn Hur sin iz hur lieflesnes And dho hur iez ar fiksd epahn Noha'z grayt raynbo Xee spendz hur tiem peekinq Intu Deslhayxn Ro |
Now
Oafeelya, xee'z 'neeth dhi windo For hur Ie fiyl so efrayd Awn hur twenty-seknd burthday Xee awlredy iz n oald mayd Tu hur, deth iz kwiet roamantik Xee weirz n ihrn vest Hur profexn'z hur rilijn Hur sin iz hur lieflesnes And dho hur iez ar fiksd epahn Noha'z grayt raynbo Xee spendz hur tiem peekinq Intu Desl'ayxn Ro |
Ienstien,
disgiezd az Rahbn Hood Widh hiz memrhyyz in a trunk Pasd dhis way n owr ego Widh hiz frend, a jelus munk Now hee lookd so imakylitly frietfl Az hee bumd a sigrhet Dhen hee went awf snifinq draynpiepz And risietinq dhi alfibet Now yu wood naht think tu look at him But hee wuz faymus lawnq ego For play'inq dhi ilektrik vihlin Awn Deslhayxn Ro |
Ienstien,
disgiezd az Rahbn Hood Widh hiz memr'yyz in a trunk Pasd dhis way n owr ego Widh hiz frend, a jelus munk Now hee lookd so imakylitly frietfl Az hee bumd a sigr'et Dhen hee went awf snifinq draynpiepz And risietinq dhi alfobet Now yu wood naht think tu look at him But hee wuz faymus lawnq ego For play'inq dhi ilektrik vihlin Awn Desl'ayxn Ro |
Dahktr
Filth, hee keepz hiz wurld Insied ev a ledhr kup But awl hiz seksles payxntz Dhay ar trie'inq tu blo it up Now hiz nurs, sum lokl luezr Xeez in carj ev dhi sihnied hol And xee awlso keepz dhi kardz dhat reed "Hav Mursy awn Hiz Sol" Dhay awl play awn dhi penyywisl Yu kan hir dhem blo If yu leen yur hed owt far inuf Frum Deslhayxn Ro |
Dahktr
Filth, hee keepz hiz wurld Insied ev a ledhr kup But awl hiz seksles payxntz Dhay ar trie'inq tu blo it up Now hiz nurs, sum loakl luezr Xeez in carj ev dhi sihnied hoal And xee awlso keepz dhi kardz dhat reed "Hav Mursy awn Hiz Soal" Dhay awl play awn dhi penyywisl Yu kan hir dhem blo If yu leen yur hed owt far inuf Frum Desl'ayxn Ro |
Ekraws
dhi street dhay'v naeld dhi kurtnz Dhay'r getinq redy for dhi feest Dhi Fantm ev dhi Ahprha In a purfikt imij ev a preest Dhay ar spuen-feedinq Kasnhova Tu get him tu fiyl mor exoord Dhen dhay'l kil him widh self-kahnfidns Aftr poyzn'inq him widh wurdz And dhi Fantm'z xowtinq tu skiny gurlz "Get owt ev hir if yu don't no Kasnhova iz just bee'inq punixd for go'inq Tu Deslhayxn Ro" |
Ekraws
dhi street dhay'v naeld dhi kurtnz Dhay'r getinq redy for dhi feest Dhi Fantm ev dhi Ahpr'a In a purfikt imij ev a preest Dhay ar spuen-feedinq Kasn'oava Tu get him tu fiyl mor exoord Dhen dhay'l kil him widh self-kahnfidns Aftr poyzn'inq him widh wurdz And dhi Fantm'z xowtinq tu skiny gurlz "Get owt ev hir if yu doant no Kasn'oava iz just bee'inq punixd for go'inq Tu Desl'ayxn Ro" |
Now
at midniet awl dhi ayjntz And dhi suepr.hyuemhn krue Kum owt and rownd up eivry.wun Dhat noz mor dhan dhay du Dhen dhay brinq dhem tu dhi faktrhy Weir dhi hart-etak mixeen Iz strapd ekraws dheir xoldrz And dhen dhi keiriseen Iz brawt down frum dhi kaslz Bie inxoorhns men hue go Cek tu see dhat nobahdy iz iskaypinq Tu Deslhayxn Ro |
Now
at midniet awl dhi ayjntz And dhi suepr.hyuemn krue Kum owt and rownd up eivry.wun Dhat noz mor dhan dhay du Dhen dhay brinq dhem tu dhi faktr'y Weir dhi hart-etak moxeen Iz strapd ekraws dheir xoaldrz And dhen dhi keiroseen Iz brawt down frum dhi kaslz Bie inxoorons men hue go Cek tu see dhat no.bahdy iz iskaypinq Tu Desl'ayxn Ro |
Prayz
bee tu Neero'z Neptuen Dhi Tietanik saelz at dawn Eivry.bahdy'z xowtinq "Wic Sied Ar Yu Awn?" And Eizra Pownd and T. S. Eiliyt Fietinq in dhi kaptn'z towr Wihl klhipso sinqrz laf at dhem And fixrmen hold flowrz Bitween dhi windoz ev dhi see Weir luvly murmaydz flo And nobahdy haz tu think tue muc Ebowt Deslhayxn Ro |
Prayz
bee tu Neero'z Neptuen Dhi Tietanik saelz at dawn Eivry.bahdy'z xowtinq "Wic Sied Ar Yu Awn?" And Eizra Pownd and T. S. Eiliyt Fietinq in dhi kaptn'z towr Wihl kl'ipso sinqrz laf at dhem And fixrmen hoald flowrz Bitween dhi windoz ev dhi see Weir luvly murmaydz flo And no.bahdy haz tu think tue muc Ebowt Desl'ayxn Ro |
Yes,
Ie riseevd yur letr yestrday (Ebowt dhi tiem dhi dornahb brok) Wen yu askd how Ie wuz du'inq Wuz dhat sum kiend ev jok? Awl dheez peepl dhat yu mencn Yes, Ie no dhem, dhay'r kwiet laym Ie had tu ree.eraynj dheir fays'z And giv dhem awl enudhr naym Riet now Ie kan't reed tue good Don't send mee no mor letrz no Naht enles yu mael dhem Frum Deslhayxn Ro |
Yes,
Ie riseevd yur letr yestrday (Ebowt dhi tiem dhi dornahb broak) Wen yu askd how Ie wuz du'inq Wuz dhat sum kiend ev joak? Awl dheez peepl dhat yu mencn Yes, Ie no dhem, dhay'r kwiet laym Ie had tu ree.eraynj dheir fays'z And giv dhem awl enudhr naym Riet now Ie kan't reed tue good Doan't send mee no mor letrz no Naht enles yu mael dhem Frum Desl'ayxn Ro |
To comment on this page,
e-mail Alan at wyrdplay.org