User:Cosmopolitanism

I am a cosmopolitan world enthusiast and a believer that all humans belong to one community that is based on a set of moral principles that govern the main aspects of our lives. Education and information should be freely available to everyone. In a cosmopolitan society, no one is judged based on their race, sex, appearance, origin, nationality...etc. People are only judged based on their contribution to the society and to the greater good.

I got involved in Wikipedia recently because I am passionate about the subject of a universal alphabet/orthography that could help in making our world more cosmopolitan. Following suggestions by users of our project and contact with Wiktionary, I set up this page and added a question to Beer Parlour including the below suggestions. Feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Wikibet: A simplified version of the International Phonetic Alphabet for Wiktionary and Wikipedia?

It is very useful that Wiki entries show the pronunciation of the foreign words, names, locations...etc using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and a listening button.

However, most people are not familiar with the IPA. Reading previous discussions on Wikipedia, it is estimated that less than 1% only of native English speakers are familiar with the IPA. My experience corroborates this statement.

In addition, it is very difficult to learn or repeat the pronunciation of a foreign word using the listening feature if you are not already familiar with the phonemes of the foreign language. This is because many phonemes in foreign languages don't have equivalent in English.

As a result and inspired by Wikipedia, we launched a collaborative project called the Spell As You Pronounce Universal alphabet project SaypYu. The aim is to spell words from all languages using a simplified version of the IPA which could make it easier for everyone to pronounce and learn foreign words. This could be used by readers who are not familiar with the IPA because SaypYu is more informative and phonetic than arbitrary language-specific romanisation systems and pronunciation respelling. SaypYu could also be used to pronounce words from English and other Latin-based languages given that different European languages pronounce the same letters differently (i.e. X in Portuguese is equivalent to SH in English and to CH in French).

SaypYu has 24 letters only and its purpose is comprehension. Obviously, it is not as accurate as the IPA, but it is much easier to learn and it is more consistent across languages than alternative systems that are currently used. SaypYu is not an alphabet as much as an internationally-consistent and phonetic orthography.

We view SaypYu as a standardised approximation of pronunciation for foreign languages. Because it is standardised, if everyone applies it consistently over a long period of time, one day, native speakers would get used to more easily understanding this 'inprecise' but standardised international accent.

Here are some examples:


 * English: COUGH PLOUGH THOUGH THROUGH would be spelled in SaypYu as follows: KOF PLAW DHOW THRU


 * French: the word for CAT in French is CHAT. Using SaypYu, it would be SHA


 * Italian: the word for BYE in Italian is CIAO. Using SaypYu, it would be TSHAW


 * Greek: the word for GOOD EVENING in Greek is καλησπέρα. Using SaypYu, it would be KALISPERA


 * Arabic: the word for WORD in Arabic is كلمة. Using SaypYu, it would be KALIMA. Also, كلام would be KALAAM


 * Chinese: the word for HELLO in Chinese is 你好. Using SaypYu, it would be NIHAW

Given Wikipedia's mission in making knowledge available freely to everyone, we are wondering if it is a good idea to use SaypYu’s standardised and simplified orthography when showing how foreign words are pronounced in Wiktionary and Wikipedia?

We could show this spelling in addition to the IPA's transcription under a separate heading. If the Wiki community wishes, we are ok if such a heading has reference to Wikipedia (i.e. Wikibet, WikiAlphabet, WPA, Wiki Phonetic Alphabet...etc), without any reference to SaypYu or to us as we are not doing this project for profit.

If such an initiative is approved, it could be easily implemented using a bot.

I am new to Wikipedia so I hope that the format and outline of this suggestion is appropriate.

Additional Background on SaypYu

The Spell As You Pronounce Universal alphabet project (SaypYu – pronounced Sipe-You) is a collaborative project that aims to build a list of words from all languages spelled phonetically using a simplified version of the International Phonetic Alphabet. All of the 24 letters of the SaypYu alphabet are taken from the standard Roman alphabet, with the exception of the letter schwa ‘ɘ’, which is essential for English and many other languages and which could be represented using the asterisk sign * for the ease of typing on a standard keyboard. The letters C, Q and X have been removed because these could be replaced by their phonetic equivalents: K and/or S.

The simplified phonetic spelling of words would enable everyone to more easily pronounce foreign names, brands, food, words..etc.

Unlike Esperanto, SaypYu involves phonetics only and does not require the learning of new vocabulary.

Unlike the attempt of George Bernard Shaw to reform English spelling, this project does not aim at reforming spelling. Instead, users can switch from one spelling system to another back and forth with a press of a button depending on what better suits them at a particular moment.

Unlike the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), whose purpose is to be very accurate and as a result has over 100 letters and 50 diacritics, the purpose of the SaypYu alphabet is comprehension. This is the reason we can afford to have a fewer number of letters as it is easier to pass the test of comprehension than to pass the test of accuracy. In addition, because the IPA has such a large number of characters it is not practical for everyday use. Naturally, the level of accuracy and comprehension using SaypYu would vary from one language to another – it is highest for English and other Latin-based languages and lowest for certain Asian and tonal languages.

Cosmopolitanism (talk)