The ᛒᛟᛒᛟ Spelling System

The Bobo Spelling System is inspired by Quickscript, Deseret, Rune Revival, Stella, Lexical Sets for Actors, and Dr Geoff Lindsey.

This system is an alternative to the Rune School Spelling System, and very much more experimental.

The Bobo System is named after a dog called “Bubba” AKA “Bobo”. The name “Bubba” can be understood as “buh-buh”. And when the name is changed to “Bobo”, it is just understood as “buhw-buhw”.

This system is designed with the idea of getting rid of the schwa all together. Or rather, every major rune vowel has a foot into the center in this system. Based on historic spelling, we use the most appropriate rune.

Eg. “human” is ᛇᚣᚹᛗᚫᚾ (humanity). “chroma” is ᛣᚩᛗᚫ (chromatic).

photo ᚠᚩᚹᛏᚩᚹ or ᚠᛟᛏᛟ photograph ᚠᚩᚹᛏᚩᚸᚱᚫᚠ or ᚠᛟᛏᚩᚸᚱᚫᚠ photography ᚠᚩᛏᚩᚸᚱᛟᚠᛡ or ᚠᚩᛏᚩᚸᚱᛟᚠᛡ obscene ᚩᛒᛋᛇᚾ

The system is designed more around spelling pronunciations:

Spelling Pronunciations of comma: African and Caribbean Englishes tend to be syllable-timed, (as opposed to stress-timed, as other Englishes are) and so they are more likely to have less contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables, and there is much less vowel reduction. As a result, comma tends to be treated as full vowel, whose pronunciation is based primarily around its spelling.

For Example:

with ‹a› spelling: comma [ˈkɒma], around [aˈɹaʊ̯nd]

with ‹e› spelling: latest [ˈleɪ̯tɛst], open [ˈopɛn]

with ‹u› spelling: support [ˈsupot], popular [ˈpɒpjula]

with ‹o› spelling: continue [ˈkontinju], official [oˈfiʃal]

schwa + w = away, aware, await, awake, Hawaii, awards, Lech Wałęsa [ˈlɛx vəˈwɛnsə], getaway, kilowatt, Galloway, microwave, Holloway, beware, Iowa, Ottawa*, Chichewa, Managua, Aiwa,

goat + vowel = oasis, poetic, koala, Joanna, Croatia

System

Our starting point is still the runes and their sounds and Dr. Lindsey’s IPA symbols.

A big part of this spelling system is that it combines STRUT and commA into a single rune (more on that below).

In parenthesis you can see the “shortcut” runes.

Below is the fully condensed and simplfied system.

Comparison with the Rune School system:

Latin:
under the unorthodox post is an analysis
Shavian:
𐑳𐑯𐑛𐑼 𐑞 𐑳𐑯𐑹𐑔𐑩𐑛𐑪𐑒𐑕 𐑐𐑴𐑕𐑑 𐑦𐑟 𐑩𐑯 𐑩𐑯𐑨𐑤𐑩𐑕𐑦𐑕
Rune School:
ᚢᚾᛞᛟᚱ᛫​ᚦ᛫​ᚢᚾᚩᚱᚦᛟᛞᚩᛣᛋ᛫​ᛈᛟᚹᛋᛏ᛫​ᛁᛉ᛫​ᛟᚾ᛫​ᛟᚾᚫᛚᛟᛋᛁᛋ
Bobo:
ᚢᚾᛞᚢᚱ᛫​ᚦ᛫​ᚢᚾᚩᚱᚦᚣᛞᚩᛣᛋ᛫​ᛈᛟᛋᛏ᛫​ᛁᛉ᛫​ᚫᚾ᛫ᚣᚾᚫᛚᚣᛋᛁᛋ

About some choices

ᚢ for STRUT and commA

A big part of the Bobo System is that it combines STRUT and commA into the single rune ᚢ. This is following Geoff Lindsey’s lead, but it’s also following the lead of Kingsley Read, the designer of the Shavian script. In his next script after Shavian (Quickscript), he too combined “up” and “ago” into a single letter.

What we have done in terms of the IPA vowel chart is we have removed ᛟ entirely and expanded ᛖ’s and ᚢ’s territories inward to take up that extra space.

Now we still use the ᛟ rune, but we just don’t give it a full place on the IPA vowel chart. More on that below.

I want a spelling system that makes users feel extremely confident in how they use it. That confidence declines when we introduce a distinction between STRUT and commA.

What about stress?

Dr Lindsey does distinguish between a stressed commA and an unstressed commA, but in Quickscript there is no difference.

In systems that distinguish commA (ə) from STRUT (ʌ), this distinction is often a cheat code for showing where the stress is in a word (strut is stressed while commA is not)

In the Bobo System, when we read “lover” (ᛚᚢᚠᚢᚱ), how do we know which syllable is stressed? Well, just like with Latin English today, there are some rules for determining stress. It’s just not baked into the alphabet itself like it (inconsistently) is with Shavian.

The STRUT phoneme contains both /ʌ/ and /ə/ as valid pronunciations. What this means is that, since ᚢ is STRUT, ᚢ can sound like either of those depending on the context. When it’s stressed it may sound more like /ʌ/ and when it’s unstressed it may sound more like /ə/. Therefore ᛚᚢᚠᚢᚱ can be pronounced as /lʌv.ər/.

English stress timing and stress rules is an intricate thing, but there are predictable behaviors that can be learned. For example, in most cases, a diphthong takes the stress over a STRUT. Eg. away, ago.

ᚢᚹ or ᛟ for GOAT

This phoneme is spelled as ᚢᚹ (STRUT or commA + /w/). GOAT can either be stressed or unstressed. So the rune for its nucleus should also allow for being stressed or unstressed. That rune is commA/STRUT for us ᚢ.

There are 3 major ways to handle the GOAT diphthong. Start with a THOUGHT/LOT vowel, start with a STRUT vowel, start with a commA vowel. Since we combined STRUT and commA into one rune ᚢ, this just won the day.

Some accents even start the GOAT diphthong with a FOOT sound (/ʊw/). This also works as ᚢᚹ because ᚢ is cousins with the FOOT rune ᚣ. They look alike!

ᛟ is the shortcut rune GOAT. Historically, at least in the Elder Futhark, ᛟ had a clear /o:/ sound. When GOAT is monophthongized, it tends to be very close to that sound. So in that sense, this rune would be sort of coming home to its roots.

In the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, the sound for this ᛟ rune was closer to /ø/ or /œ/. It is true that these sounds are used for NURSE in some English accents. So it would make sense to have ᛟ for a shortcut rune for the NURSE vowel too. However, we also see that the South African accent uses /œ/ for a monophthong GOAT. This /ø~œ/ range is also a valid starting point for a GOAT diphthong, as in /œw/.

ᚢᚢᚱ for NURSE

The spelling for the NURSE phoneme is ᚢᚢᚱ. It’s no secret that many accents pronounce NURSE with a STRUT+R phoneme. However, there are even some accents that pronounce the STRUT phoneme itself with a /ɜ/ (the traditional NURSE vowel).

If we think of vowel doubling as having a centering effect, then ᚢᚢ would bring STRUT closer to /ɜ/.

If a user spells NURSE with just ᚢᚱ, it’s okay! That means that they have “lettER” and “NURSE” merged. The spelling system is designed so that phonemes that are close together are also visually alike! However for clarity, we will spell them differently.

Spelling Guidelines

Overall, this system is designed to be as intuitive as possible. A user should be able to spell confidently without consulting a dictionary.

However, we encourage users to reference the Shavian ReadLex, Cube Dictionary, or QuickScript dictionary and base their spellings off of those if they want a better foundation or jumpstart.

When using the dictionaries above, the below key should be helpful for you.

Weak Vowel Merger: commA or KIT

Use the ᚣ rune when in doubt.

Many words like analysis, voyage, and invisible are quite tricky to spell. Do you write them with a KIT, commA, or even a FOOT?

Refer again to the IPA map:

In our system, the FOOT rune ᚣ is not only a middle ground between ᚢ and ᛁ, but the rune itself visually looks like an ᛁ inside of a ᚢ. For this reason, it could be best to spell these sounds with FOOT ᚣ. So if there is a sound that could be either commA or KIT, go with ᚣ.

commA or STRUT

What about “analysis” (ənáləsɪs) vs “unorthodox” (ənóːθədɔks). Two options present themselves.

1. Use bindrunes to show ᚢᚾ as the single self-contained prefix “un-“.
2. Spell “analysis” with a more etymological ᚫᚾ at the beginning. Remember ᚫ has a toe that touches closer to the center of the IPA vowel chart too! And keep in mind that “analysis” has the prefix “ana-“ like in the word “anagram”.

ᚢᚾᚫᛚᚣᛋᛁᛋ ᚫᚾᚫᛚᚣᛋᛁᛋ ᚢᚾᛟᚱᚦᚢᛞᚩᛣᛋ

What about “away” and “oasis”? If not using the shortcut ᛟ, to distinguish between “away” and “oasis”, you would use a bindrune of ᚢᚹ in “oasis” and use ᚢᚹ unbinded for “away”. Similarly, “Halloween” could be spelled with the “ow” as either binded or unbinded ᚢᚹ depending on pronunciation.

lettER or hUrry

A separate phoneme for “fur” is really quite rare in the English world. However, we have saved a place for it in the Bobo System as ᚢᚱ or ᚣᚱ, just in case people want to use it.

A bindrune for ᚢᚱ can be used for “lettER” (/ər/) while being unbinded for “hurry” (/ʌr/?)

KIT or FLEECE

Use the happY rune ᛡ when in doubt.

Syllabic consonants

Write just ᚱ, ᛚ, ᛗ, or ᚾ where you see 𐑼 or 𐑩𐑤, 𐑩𐑯, or 𐑩𐑥.

In most places you see 𐑼 or 𐑩𐑤, it is because there is a glide right before it. We write the glides, so we don’t need to explicitly include the schwas. Only write ᛟᚱ if it represents the suffix -er, or similar.

In many (not all) places where you see 𐑩𐑯 or 𐑩𐑥, you can just right the ᛗ or ᚾ directly without the schwa needed.

Shortcut words

Etymology Spelling?

We recomend a sound-based spelling system because that is the more practical and efficient system. George Bernard Shaw, when he advocated for Shavian, believed in ignoring everything about etymology in such a script because all etymology does is obscure the efficiency of the tool that is the written language. We agree with that sentiment. The number one concern with spelling should be conveying your message simply, clearly, and with as little effort as possible.

However, the system does allow for a more etymology-based spelling if you take into account the fact that each vowel rune has one toe that dips into the center of the vowel chart.

Because we have merged commA into STRUT, you may not want to put ᚢ all over the place as you do in the Rune School system. If this is the case, then you can spell words according to their Strong Form pronunciation and leave the vowel weakening to the knowledge of the reader.

So for example if you want to spell a word or name that has “-son” at the end of it, a sound-based spelling would be “-ᛋᚢᚾ”, while a more etymology-based spelling would be “-ᛋᚩᚾ”. In the etymology-based spelling there, it’s just understood that the ᚩ is reduced towards the center based on stress timing. If users wish to keep stress timing in mind, they may end up using the commA/STRUT rune less and less.

More often than not, if a diphthong is being reduced, you can just remove the glide.

Overall, users are encouraged to write however they feel most comfortable. If that means you put schwas all over the place, go for it!

Bindrunes

It is suggested to use bindrunes for the following letter combinations:

• lettER: ᚢᚱ
• NURSE: ᚢᚢᚱ
• GOAT: ᚩᚹ (if not using ᛟ)
• GOOSE: ᚣᚹ
• START: ᚪᚱ
• PRICE: ᚪᛄ
• MOUTH: ᚪᚹ
• SQUARE: ᛖᛖᚱ
• FACE: ᛖᛄ
• NORTH: ᚩᚱ
• CHOICE: ᚩᛄ
• /v/: ᚠᚠ

Spelling Guidelines

Overall, this system is designed to be as intuitive as possible. A user should be able to spell confidently without consulting a dictionary.

However, we encourage users to reference the Shavian ReadLex, Cube Dictionary, or QuickScript dictionary and base their spellings off of those if they want a better foundation or jumpstart.

When using the dictionaries above, the below key should be helpful for you.

commA or KIT

Use the ᚣ rune when in doubt.

Many words like analysis, voyage, and invisible are quite tricky to spell. Do you write them with a KIT, commA, or even a FOOT?

Refer again to the IPA map:

In our system, the FOOT rune ᚣ is not only a middle ground between ᚢ and ᛁ, but the rune itself visually looks like an ᛁ inside of a ᚢ. For this reason, it could be best to spell these sounds with FOOT ᚣ. So if there is a sound that could be either commA or KIT, go with ᚣ.

commA or STRUT

What about “analysis” (ənáləsɪs) vs “unorthodox” (ənóːθədɔks). Two options present themselves.

1. Use bindrunes to show ᚢᚾ as the single self-contained prefix “un-“.
2. Spell “analysis” with a more etymological ᚫᚾ at the beginning. Remember ᚫ has a toe that touches closer to the center of the IPA vowel chart too! And keep in mind that “analysis” has the prefix “ana-“ like in the word “anagram”.

ᚢᚾᚫᛚᚣᛋᛁᛋ ᚫᚾᚫᛚᚣᛋᛁᛋ ᚢᚾᛟᚱᚦᚢᛞᚩᛣᛋ

What about “away” and “oasis”? If not using the shortcut ᛟ, to distinguish between “away” and “oasis”, you would use a bindrune of ᚢᚹ in “oasis” and use ᚢᚹ unbinded for “away”. Similarly, “Halloween” could be spelled with the “ow” as either binded or unbinded ᚢᚹ depending on pronunciation.

lettER or hUrry

A separate phoneme for “fur” is really quite rare in the English world. However, we have saved a place for it in the Bobo System as ᚢᚱ or ᚣᚱ, just in case people want to use it.

A bindrune for ᚢᚱ can be used for “lettER” (/ər/) while being unbinded for “hurry” (/ʌr/?)

KIT or FLEECE

Use the happY rune ᛡ when in doubt.

Syllabic consonants

Write just ᚱ, ᛚ, ᛗ, or ᚾ where you see 𐑼 or 𐑩𐑤, 𐑩𐑯, or 𐑩𐑥.

In most places you see 𐑼 or 𐑩𐑤, it is because there is a glide right before it. We write the glides, so we don’t need to explicitly include the schwas. Only write ᛟᚱ if it represents the suffix -er, or similar.

In many (not all) places where you see 𐑩𐑯 or 𐑩𐑥, you can just right the ᛗ or ᚾ directly without the schwa needed.

Shortcut words

Etymology Spelling?

We recomend a sound-based spelling system because that is the more practical and efficient system. George Bernard Shaw, when he advocated for Shavian, believed in ignoring everything about etymology in such a script because all etymology does is obscure the efficiency of the tool that is the written language. We agree with that sentiment. The number one concern with spelling should be conveying your message simply, clearly, and with as little effort as possible.

However, the system does allow for a more etymology-based spelling if you take into account the fact that each vowel rune has one toe that dips into the center of the vowel chart.

So for example if you want to spell a word or name that has “-son” at the end of it, a sound-based spelling would be “-ᛋᚢᚾ”, while a more etymology-based spelling would be “-ᛋᚩᚾ”. In the etymology-based spelling there, it’s just understood that the ᚩ is reduced towards the center based on stress timing. If users wish to keep stress timing in mind, they may end up using the commA/STRUT rune less and less.

More often than not, if a diphthong is being reduced, you can just remove the glide.

Overall, users are encouraged to write however they feel most comfortable. If that means you put schwas all over the place, go for it!

Bindrunes

It is suggested to use bindrunes for the following letter combinations:

• lettER: ᚢᚱ
• START: ᚪᚱ
• NORTH: ᚩᚱ
• SQUARE: ᛖᛖᚱ
• NURSE: ᚢᚢᚱ
• FACE: ᛖᛄ
• PRICE: ᚪᛄ
• CHOICE: ᚩᛄ
• GOOSE: ᚣᚹ
• MOUTH: ᚪᚹ
• GOAT: ᚢᚹ (if not using ᛟ)
• /v/: ᚠᚠ

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