Phondot,
a New Approach to Phonics
Welcome
to www.phondot.com!
Phondot
is a revolutionary system for teaching reading to beginning English
readers. The system indicates
pronunciation in English text without requiring that the text be respelled. The
goal of the system is to make English as easy to learn to read as languages
like Italian, Spanish, or Finnish. It should be possible using Phondot to teach
children to learn to read in kindergarten, and thus advance the teaching of
elementary subjects at least one full year.
Phondot
makes no use of traditional diacritics.
Individual letters are coded in a way which makes almost any standard
text as pronounceable as ‘c a t n i p’.
No color is required and marked text is readable on any computer
monitor. The coding scheme is easy to learn
from association with known words.
The
website provides a downloadable 160 page Primer and other examples of phondot
encoded text.
In
addition to the samples of Phondot text, the site provides the Phondot
Converter, an online application which allows you to convert regular English
text, either typed-in or uploaded from your hard disk, into Phondot encoded
text. This can be useful for the
teacher in need of additional teaching materials. Note that you must install the AROBASE fonts to read the converted
output correctly.
Introduction
to the Phondot System:
http://www.phondot.com/phondotpaper2.htm
The
Phondot Primer in two parts – pdf format
The
first part of the Phondot Primer (material for use in teaching reading):
http://www.phondot.com/phondot1.pdf
The
second part of the Phondot Primer (intended primarily for the teacher):
http://www.phondot.com/phondot2.pdf
Index
pages for both parts of the Phondot Primer:
http://www.phondot.com/phondot3.pdf.
Tawnycat
story:
http://www.phondot.com/tawnycat.pdf
The
following lists contain 300 fairly simple words irregularly spelled.
In
the first list the words are unmarked.
In the second the words are
Phondot
encoded.
http://www.phondot.com/300wordsum.pdf
http://www.phondot.com/300wordsmar.pdf
2161
Common Words arranged in lists
The
following lists are both phondot encoded.
Each
list consists of 2161 words arranged in 15 groups.
The
first group has 102 of the most common words.
The next group has
the
next most common words. This
progression continues until
all
2161 words have been shown. Viewing of
the .doc version requires
installation
of the AROBASE fonts
http://www.phondot.com/3kdocuments.doc
http://www.phondot.com/3kwords.pdf
Instructions
for installation of type-fonts:
http://www.phondot.com/font
install.htm
The
eight AROBASE fonts in zip format for download:
http://www.phondot.com/arobasefonts.zip
http://www.phondot.com/phondot-convert.html
The
Phondot Primer in .doc format:
http://www.phondot.com/phondot
one.doc
http://www.phondot.com/phondot
two.doc
The
Phondot Primer in .doc format:
http://www.phondot.com/phondot
three.doc
In the following URL I show all the sounds of vowels and consonants in
English (NBC English). I also show the various sounds which consonants can
represent, as well as a short list of digraphs and some of their sounds. The
second URL shows the same document with Phondot encoding.
http://www.phondot.com/soundsinbrief.doc
http://www.phondot.com/soundsinbriefmar.pdf
The
following systems are unrelated to Phondot but are included here for those
interested
in
the design of respell systems for NBC English:
The
SRS System (minimal respell)
Considerable use is made of existing conventions.
http://www.phondot.com/SRSrules.htm
The
SRS4g System is a rigorous respell system using diacritics. Stress is not shown.
http://www.phondot.com/SRS4g.htm
The
bobdot System is based on the SRS4g system but is unique in that the stressed
syllable
is always apparent. Use was made of some of the bobdot symbology in the
design
of the Phondot Converter.
http://www.phondot.com/bobdotnu.htm
The Bobdot converter:
http://www.phondot.com/Bobdot-convert.html
This
converter produces respelled text with pronunciation indicated by the use of
diacritics. The respelled text is
immediately viewable and is capable of being saved with no requirement for any
special type fonts.
See http://www.wyrdplay.org (by Alan Beale)for a description of other
approaches to the respelling of English.
Robert
Boden
bobjoy4@hotmail.com