World Orthography

The World Orthography (WO) is an alphabet and transcription system based on the Africa Alphabet and the International Phonetic Alphabet. In Daniel Jones’s 1948 Difference between Spoken and Written Language, an adaptation of WO for English is given with the letters a b c d ð e ə f g h i j k l m n ŋ o p r s ʃ t θ u v w x y z ʒ. The capitals of ð, ə, ŋ, ʃ, θ, and ʒ are: Ð (shaped like Ƌ), Ə, Ŋ (shaped like large ŋ), Ʃ (shaped like sigma Σ), Θ, and straight-bottomed Ʒ (shaped like reversed sigma).

World Orthography
Script type	alphabet
Period	Invented 1948
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Examples

English sample from Jones 1948:^[1]

Ðis paragraf ʃouz hwot Iŋgliʃ luks laik in wən form ov Wərld Orθografi. It wil bi noutist ðat it iz not posibəl tu yuz for pərposəz ov speliŋ ən egzakt reprezənteiʃon ov ði spic ov eni wən Iŋgliʃ-spiikiŋ gruup, bət ðat veiriəs adapteiʃonz hav tu bi meid in ordər tu rendər ðə speliŋ yuzəbəl bai ool sekʃonz ov ði Iŋgliʃ-spiikiŋ wərld. For instans, it iz probabli advaizabəl tu meik ði leter ə du dyuti for ði saund ʌ as wel az for ði saund ə, in akordans wið ði spiic ov meni in ði Norθ ov Iŋglənd and in Amerika hu du not distiŋgwiʃ ðiiz saundz. Laikwaiz it wil nou daut bi faund konviinien tu rait moust ov ði ənstrest ə-saundz wið ðeir prezənt speliŋz, sins ðei sou ofən ʃou releiʃonʃips tu aðər wərdz, az in pedant, pedantik, provident, providenʃal, meθod, meθodikal. Əgein it wil oolmoust sərtenli bi faund advanteijəs tu introdyus ə sərten nambər ov “wərd sainz” tu denout ʃort komon wərdz wið veiriabəl pronənsieʃion, for instəns a, ði, bi, mi, ʃi, du, tu, hu. A limited nambər ov wərdz wud hav oltərnativ speliŋz, e.g. pas, paas, grant, graant, soolt, solt, agein, agen, wið, wiθ.

In Normal English:

"This paragraph shows what English looks like in one form of World Orthography. It will be noticed that it is not possible to use for purposes of spelling an exact representation of the speech of any one English-speaking group, but that various adaptations have to be made in order to render the spelling usable by all sections of the English-speaking world. For instance, it is probably advisable to make the letter ə do duty for the sound ʌ as well as for the sound ə, in accordance with the speech of many in the North of England and in America who do not distinguish these sounds. Likewise, it will no doubt be found convenient to write most of the unstressed ə sounds with their present spellings, since they so often show relationships to other words, as in pedant, pedantic, provident, providential, method, methodical. Again, it will almost certainly be found advantageous to introduce a certain number of 'word signs' to denote short common words with variable pronunciation, for instance a, the, be, me, she, do, to, who. A limited number of words would have alternative spellings, e.g. pass, pass, grant, grant, salt, salt, again, again, with, with."

See also

• Africa Alphabet
• Latin-script alphabet
• International Phonetic Alphabet
• Lepsius Standard Alphabet