Traditional Spelling Revised

Traditional Spelling Revised (TSR) is a conservative English-language spelling reform which seeks to apply the underlying rules of English orthography more consistently.^[1] It was created by Stephen Linstead and chosen by the International English Spelling Congress (IESC) as the preferred alternative to English orthography in March 2021.^[2][3]

The English Spelling Society, sponsor of the congress, affords TSR a degree of support and publicity which will be reviewed in March 2025.^[4] TSR has consequently been mentioned several times in the media.^[5][6][7][8]

Changes

TSR is broadly spelt the same as traditional English orthography, but some rules and spellings are applied more consistently.^[9]

'Magic e' rule

Where a single consonant separates a vowel and a silent word final e, the first vowel is 'lengthened'. Unlike the doubling rule, the consonant is not doubled when 'lengthening' is undesired. Instead, the 'magic e' is dropped (unless it indicates soft or hard ⟨c⟩ or ⟨g⟩, then the consonant is doubled).

• e.g. ⟨win⟩ / ⟨wine⟩, ⟨sad⟩ / ⟨sadist⟩, ⟨bit⟩ / ⟨biter⟩, ⟨fun⟩ / ⟨fuming⟩

The graphemes ⟨ar⟩ and ⟨or⟩ do not straightforwardly take on the "lengthened" forms. Instead ⟨-are⟩ represents /ɛər/ and ⟨-ore⟩ is unchanged.

Doubling rule

The doubling rule dictates that when a stressed vowel is followed by a single consonant and another vowel (which isn't 'magic e'), the stressed vowel is 'lengthened'. This can be negated by doubling the consonant between the two vowels, thus keeping the vowel short. Therefore letters are dropped or doubled from traditional spelling.

• e.g. ⟨swim⟩ → ⟨swimming⟩ but ⟨fail⟩ → ⟨failed⟩
• e.g. ⟨accommodate⟩ → ⟨acommodate⟩, ⟨committee⟩ → ⟨comittee⟩
• e.g. ⟨deddicate⟩, ⟨edducate⟩, ⟨perrish⟩

Doubled ⟨g⟩ before ⟨e⟩ may be spelt ⟨dg⟩ or ⟨gg⟩ to indicate whether it is soft or not.

• e.g. ⟨flange⟩ → ⟨flandge⟩, ⟨hanger⟩ → ⟨hangger⟩

There is an exception for the letter ⟨i⟩, which does not lengthen itself unless it is part of the ⟨-ing⟩ suffix.

• e.g. ⟨lipid⟩, ⟨limit⟩ but ⟨wining⟩, ⟨winning⟩

Disambiguation of graphemes

Where graphemes ambiguously represent more than one sound, they are rewritten to be less ambiguous.

• e.g. ⟨ow⟩ represents completely different sounds in the words ⟨low⟩ and ⟨town⟩, so TSR uses ⟨ow⟩ for /aʊ/ and rewrites the other spellings thus: ⟨low⟩ → ⟨lo⟩, ⟨own⟩ → ⟨oan⟩.

Silent letters

Where letters are rendundant to pronunciation, they are removed. This includes uses of word-final e that suggest "lengthening" when there is none (unless it suggests soft c as in ⟨office⟩). The homographs that this creates are distinguished using apostrophes, hyphens or diaereses.

• e.g. ⟨wrong⟩ → ⟨rong⟩, ⟨gnash⟩ → ⟨nash⟩
• e.g. ⟨love⟩ → ⟨luv⟩, ⟨dove⟩ → ⟨duv⟩, ⟨live⟩ → ⟨liv⟩
• e.g. ⟨hour⟩ → ⟨'our⟩, ⟨write⟩ → ⟨'rite⟩, ⟨know⟩ → ⟨'no⟩, ⟨create⟩ → ⟨cre-ate⟩ / ⟨creäte⟩
• e.g. ⟨though⟩ → ⟨tho⟩, ⟨through⟩ → ⟨throo⟩

Importantly, the following spellings are not redundant to pronunciation.

• ⟨easy⟩ not ⟨esy⟩, ⟨high⟩ not ⟨hi⟩, ⟨letter⟩ not ⟨letr⟩, ⟨lie⟩ not ⟨li⟩, ⟨pack⟩ not ⟨pak⟩, ⟨switch⟩ not ⟨swich⟩
• Silent ⟨g⟩ is retained to preserve the long vowel: ⟨benign⟩, ⟨design⟩, ⟨sign⟩
• Silent ⟨gh⟩: ⟨high⟩, ⟨bough⟩, ⟨bought⟩, ⟨eight⟩
• Change ⟨gh⟩ /f/ to ⟨ff⟩: ⟨coff⟩, ⟨enuff⟩, ⟨laff⟩
• Retain ⟨ph⟩ /f/: ⟨phone⟩

Homophones

There are cases in which spellings of homophones will not merge (and therefore not be disambiguated using an apostrophe). Some phonemes have several different permitted spellings, which helps to distinguish homophones visually.

• e.g. ⟨main⟩ / ⟨mane⟩, ⟨buy⟩ / ⟨by⟩ / ⟨bye⟩, ⟨stare⟩ / ⟨stair⟩, ⟨sight⟩ / ⟨site⟩ / ⟨cite⟩, ⟨none⟩ / ⟨nun⟩, ⟨scene⟩ / ⟨seen⟩, ⟨tail⟩ / ⟨tale⟩

Some words are respelt where an alternate spelling can be used instead of an apostrophe. However, neither ⟨or⟩ / ⟨ore⟩ / ⟨oar⟩ nor ⟨pore⟩ / ⟨pour⟩ are differentiated.

• e.g. ⟨bear⟩ → ⟨bair⟩ (to distinguish from ⟨bare⟩), ⟨great⟩ → ⟨grait⟩ (to distinguish from ⟨grate⟩).

New graphemes

Two new letter combinations have been introduced to unambiguously represent /ɑː/ ⟨aa⟩ and /ʊ/ ⟨uu⟩.

Exceptions

The spellings of some common words that do not otherwise comply with the rules of TSR are preserved so as not to drastically change the look of text.^[9] These exceptions, called "sign words" in the documentation, are given in groups, though not all the words in these groups are changed.

• personal pronouns and adjectives: I, you, he, she, we, me, us, they, your, their(s), them
• variations of verbs to be and to have: are, was, were, have, having
• names of numbers: none, once, one, two, four, seven, eleven, twelve, fourteen, seventeen
• days of the week: Monday, Wednesday, Saturday
• months and seasons of the year: January, February, April, July, Autumn
• demonstrative adjectives, pronouns and adverbs including ⟨th⟩: than, that, then, thence, there, these, this, those, thus
• interrogative pronouns beginning ⟨w⟩: what, where, who, whose
• other common words with unusual spellings: the, of, to(day), any(one), (e)very, eye, nothing, some, super, very, with, woman, women, yes, either

Some common suffixes are retained.

• involving /ʃ/: -cean (ocean), -cial (special), -cian (musician), -cient (prescient), -cience (conscience), -cion (suspicion), -cious (spacious), -ssion (passion), -tial (partial), -tient (patient), -tion (nation), -sure, -ed
• involving /ʒ/: -sion (invasion), -sure (pleasure), -sual (casual)

Some common letter sequences, called "sub-groups" are retained even when irregular.

• ⟨-ald⟩ (bald), ⟨-alk⟩ (talk, walk), ⟨-alt⟩ (falter, halt), ⟨ange⟩ (danger, angel), ⟨-aste⟩ (taste, waste), ⟨-ign⟩ (benign, sign), ⟨-ind⟩ (find, mind), ⟨old⟩ (old, gold), ⟨-olk⟩ (folk, yolk), ⟨-ore⟩ (therefore, shore), ⟨-other⟩ (brother, mother), ⟨-ould⟩ (could, would), ⟨war-⟩ (warm, warn), ⟨wor-⟩ (worm, worst).

Proper nouns are kept the same, unless alternative spellings become accepted. Loan words are indicated in italics.

Sound-to-spelling correspondences

Each phoneme has its own spelling patterns.^[9]

Vowels

Phoneme	Lexical set	Grapheme	Examples[10]	Notes
/æ/	TRAP	a	pan, laff[a]
		(au)	aunt	c.f. ⟨ant⟩
/ɛ/	DRESS	e	pen, frend[b]
		(a)	many	By association with ⟨any⟩
		(ai)	again, against	No note in word list
/ɪ/	KIT	i	pin, bisness[c], pritty[d], sistem[e]
		(o, e)	women
/ɒ/	LOT	o	pot, wosh[f]
/ʌ/	STRUT	u	pun, cum[g]
		-other	another, brother
		(o-e)	none, nothing, some
/eɪ/	FACE	a-e	face
		ai	laid, braik[h], gaige[i], baiss[j]
		ei	vein
		eigh	neigh
		-ay	stay
		-ey	they, survey
/iː/	FLEECE	e-e	scene
		ee	feed
		ea	lead	"ea" /iː/ doesn't indicate /eɪ/ or /ɛ/: steak → staik, weapon → weppon.
		(e)	me, he, she, we	Usually /∅/, though /iː/ in monosyllables
		(ei)	either	Can also be pronounced with /aɪ/
/aɪ/	PRICE	i-e	side
		ie	die, iedeäl[k]
		-y	why
		-ye	dye
		-uy	buy
		-igh	sigh
		(aye)	aye	Would be /eɪ/ otherwise. Official respelling unknown.
		(eye)	eye	Would be /iː/ otherwise. ⟨y⟩ and ⟨ie⟩ were suggested then rejected
		(ei)	either	Can also be pronounced with /iː/
/oʊ/	GOAT	o-e	bone
		oa	moan
		-o	banjo	Many ⟨-ow⟩ forms are changed to ⟨-o⟩: low → lo, show → sho.
		-oe	floe
/juː/	DUE	u-e	tune
		ue	due, buetiful[l]
		u-	unit
		ew	few
		eu	Europe	For words of Greek origin only
/ʊ/	FOOT	uu	stuud[m], puuding[n]
		(oul)	could, should, would	Usually /aʊl/
		(o)	woman	Usually /ɒ/
/ɔɪ/	CHOICE	oi	boil
		oy	boy, deploying
/uː/	GOOSE	oo	food, throo[o]
		(u-e)	super	Usually /juː/
/aʊ/	MOUTH	ou	proud
		ow	now, gown
		ough	bough
/ɛər/	SQUARE	air	stair, bair[p]
		-are	bare
		eir	their
		(ere)	there, where	Usually /ɪər/
/ɑːr/	START	ar	star	Double the ⟨r⟩ to change the vowel: ⟨harry⟩. "Harry" and "starry" don't rime.
/ɑː/	PALM	a	bath	Undisambiguated from /æ/
		al	palm
		aa	faather[q], tomaato[r], vaaz[s], draama[t]	Used for British-American differences in pronunciation and ⟨faather⟩
/ɔːr/	NORTH	or	or, for, bord[u]	Double the ⟨r⟩ to change the vowel: ⟨horrid⟩
		(ore)	ore	Kept for contrast in a few words, but mostly respelled ⟨or⟩
		(oar)	oar
		(our)	four	Usually /aʊ.ə/
/ɔː/	THOUGHT	au	fraud
		aw	law, lawyer
		all	call
		al- and implying totality	always	cf. algebra
		augh	daughter
		ough(t)	bought
/ɜːr/	NURSE	er	her	Double the ⟨r⟩ to change the vowel: ⟨herring⟩, ⟨stirrup⟩, ⟨hurry⟩.
		ir	fir
		ur	fur
		(or)	word, work, worship	Usually /ɔː/
/ɪər/	NEAR	-eer	beer
		-ear	hear
		-ere	here
/i/	happY	-y	fairy
		-ie(s)	faries	⟨-y⟩ becomes ⟨-ies⟩ for plurals.
/ə/, /ɪ/	commA	a, e, i, o, u	afraid, defence, invisible, wonnton[v], opus	Schwa. The indeterminate sound in many unaccented syllables. TSR usually retains the graphemes used in TS for these phonemes.

1. "laugh" in conventional spelling
2. "friend" in conventional spelling
3. "business" in conventional spelling
4. "pretty" in conventional spelling
5. "system" in conventional spelling
6. "wash" in conventional spelling
7. "come" in conventional spelling
8. "break" in conventional spelling
9. "gauge" in conventional spelling
10. "bass" in conventional spelling
11. "ideal" in conventional spelling
12. "beautiful" in conventional spelling
13. "stood" in conventional spelling
14. "pudding" in conventional spelling
15. "through" in conventional spelling
16. "bear" in conventional spelling
17. "father" in conventional spelling
18. "tomato" in conventional spelling
19. "vase" in conventional spelling
20. "drama" in conventional spelling
21. "board" in conventional spelling
22. "wanton" in conventional spelling

Consonants

The following table lists the consonants that don't always represent the same phoneme, so /b/, /d/, /h/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /p/, /r/, /t/ and /v/ are omitted.

Phoneme	Grapheme	Examples	Notes
/dʒ/	j	jam
	g	gin	Before /ɛ/, /ɪ/, /iː/, /aɪ/
	dg	edge	Doubled before /ɛ/, /ɪ/, /iː/, /aɪ/
/f/	f	frog
	ph	phone	In words of Greek origin only
/g/	g	gun	Except before /e/, /ɪ/, /iː/, /aɪ/ with no u (c.f. guide)
/j/	y	yet
	i	bastion
/k/	k	kid
	c	cream	Except before /e/, /ɪ/, /iː/, /aɪ/
	ck	flick, socker[a]	Word-finally or doubled
	ch	chemistry	In words of Greek origin only
/ks/	x	exterminate	Treated as doubled (e.g. boxing)
/kw/	qu	queen
/s/	s	sun	Word-initially, before or after /k/, /f/, /p/, /t/, as part of or after the prefixes ⟨dis-⟩, ⟨mis-⟩, ⟨con-⟩ and ⟨per-⟩ or beginning one part of a compound word (homesick)
	ss	hiss
	c	city	Before /ɛ/, /ɪ/, /iː/, /aɪ/
/ʃ/	sh	shed
	c	socially	Before ⟨ia⟩ in some dialects
/tʃ/	ch	church
	-tch	switch
/θ/	th	thing
/ð/	th	bathe	In single syllable words before /ɛ/
	(o)th(er)	other	In ⟨-other⟩ subgroup
/ʒ/	s(ure)	plesure[b]	As part of a common suffix
	si	lesion

1. "soccer" in conventional spelling
2. "pleasure" in conventional spelling

Inconsistencies

"Ch" with /k/ sound

Words of Greek origin are supposed to retain "ch" for /k/,^[9] though these words are respelled in the word list:^[10]

• technique → tecnique
• technological → tecnolodgical

Example text

Gettysburg Address^[9]

Fourscor and seven years ago our faathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceeved in libberty and deddicated to the proposition that all men are creäted equal. Now we are engaged in a grait civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceeved, and so deddicated, can long endure. We are met on a grait battle-feeld in that war. We have cum to deddicate a portion of that feeld, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives, that that nation might liv. It is altogether fitting and propper that we should do this, but in a larger senss we cannot deddicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallo this ground. The brave men, livving and ded, who struggled here, have consecrated it far abuv our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the livving, rather, to be deddicated to the grait task remaining befor us that from these onored ded we take increassed devotion to that cause for which they gave the last fuul mesure of devotion - that we here highly resolv that these ded shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that guvvernment of the peeple, by the peeple, for the peeple, shall not perrish from the erth.