Hi,
no idea where DfES got the chart from, though the selection of values for
the graphemes can only proceed along so many mutually compatible pathways.
I've seen similar ad hoc transcription systems used in language textbooks
for languages other than English for years, and they never seem to differ
from each other very much. Though that doesn't necessarily make them easy to
interpret...
As for some of the points you raise, Tom, in Standard Southern British
English <o> is a rounded back open vowel (close to rounded cardinal 5 in the
IPA chart) which your accent probably doesn't have. Similarly the DfEs
system distinguishes between the (short) schwa at the end of words like
'letter' and the NURSE vowel (long mid unrounded vowel, for many speakers
kind of long schwa) as in 'nurse, berg, third, heard, herd'. The use of <oe>
for the SSBE 'load' diphthong is a little confusing to me as a literate
adult at first sight, but these digraphs presumably code the orthographic
practice of representing that diphthong (and others) by vowel_consonant_e as
in 'code, mode, rode', which might make the transition to standard
orthographic literacy easier.
You should bear in mind that the system is not designed to replace faulty
(but pan-dialectal) English spelling conventions, but to aid the acquisition
of literacy in the standard orthographic system.
Mark
Mark J. Jones
Department of Linguistics
University of Cambridge
http://kiri.ling.cam.ac.uk/mark/
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----Original Message Follows----
From: Tom Zurinskas <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Tom Zurinskas <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: What has DfES wrought
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 18:32:41 +0000
I got to the site below throught the Linguistic Association of GB web site,
but they apparently did not beget the DfES phoneme/grapheme chart below.
Does anyone know who did? It is very close to truespel. How is it used?
Tom Z
site
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/literacy/948809/nls_phonics028004intro.pdf
click on the above
brings you to the National Literacy Strategy for year one students
ref Dfes (Department for Education and Skills -UK) 0280-2004
"Playing with Sounds: a Supplement to Progression in Phonics"
Page 15 has the table "Consonant Phonemes and Their More Usual Graphemes."
A comparison with truespel below shows only 7 differences.
DfES truespel
/b/ ~b baby
/d/ ~d dog
/f/ ~f field, photo
/g/ ~g game
/h/ ~h hat
/j/ ~j judge, giant, barge
/k/ ~k cook, quick, mix, Chris
/l/ ~l lamb
/m/ ~m monkey, comb
/n/ ~n nut, knife, gnat
/ng/ ~ng ring, sink
/p/ ~p paper
/r/ ~r rabbit,wrong
/s/ ~s sun, mouse, city, science
/t/ ~t tap
/v/ ~v van
/w/ ~w was
/y/ ~y yes
/z/ ~z zebra, please, is
/th/ ~th then
/th/ ~thh (1) thin
/ch/ ~ch chip, watch
/sh/ ~sh ship, mission, chef
/zh/ ~zh treasure
/a/ ~a cat
/e/ ~e peg, bread
/i/ ~i pig, wanted
/o/ ~aa (2) log, want
/u/ ~u plug, love
/ae/ ~ae pain, day, gate, station
/ee/ ~ee sweet, heat, thief, these
/ie/ ~ie tried, light, my, shine, mind
/oe/ ~oe road, blow, bone, cold
/ue/ ~ue moon, blue, grew, tune
/oo/ ~oo look, would, put
/ar/ ~aar (3) cart, fast(regional)
/ur/ ~er (4) burn, first, term, heard, work
/or/ ~or torn, door, warn (regional)
/au/ ~au haul, law, call
/er/ ~? (5) wooden, circus, sister
/ow/ ~ou (6) down, shout
/oi/ ~oi coin, boy
/air/ ~air stairs, bear, hare
/ear/ ~eer (7) fear, beer, here
Truespel is better on the differences above because:
(1) Identifying the th's is necessary. The truespel way is best.
(2) The letter "o" is two confusing to be used alone as a grapheme.
(3) The "ah" sound is ~aa in truespel so ~aar is an extension.
(4) The sound ~er is spelled "er" over 8 times as many t
(4) Is /er/ the dropped "r" sound in "er"? If so it's ~eu in truespel.
(5) The grapheme "ou" for that sound is twice as prevalent as "ow".
(6) Truespel uses ~eer which is a consistent extension of ~ee.
The marvelous thing here is that this British phonetic design
and the USA design of truespel are practically identical.
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