These tables compare the phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters) that represent vowel sounds across languages that use the Latin alphabet. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language that can distinguish one word from another. A grapheme is the written representation of a phoneme, such as the letters A, E, I, O, U, and Y. As the table suggests, the phonemes of Modern English have strayed the most severely from the standard phoneme-grapheme interpretation found in most other languages that use the Latin alphabet.
While many languages maintain a closer relationship between the written vowels and their corresponding sounds, Modern English has developed a more complex and often irregular system of pronunciation. This divergence is especially noticeable when compared to the more phonetically consistent languages like Spanish or Italian, where vowel sounds closely align with their graphemes.
By presenting both long and short vowel sounds, the table highlights how each language handles the pronunciation of vowels, revealing the extent to which Modern English has deviated from the simpler, more predictable phoneme-grapheme relationships found in languages that have preserved their Latin roots more faithfully.
In response to the irregularities observed in Modern English, Inglish offers a reformed approach that seeks to realign the language’s phoneme-grapheme relationships with those found in other European languages. Unlike English, which has diverged from its Latin roots, many Romance languages such as Spanish and Italian have maintained a more consistent relationship between their written and spoken forms. Inglish aims to restore this logical connection by simplifying English orthography and bringing it closer to the phonetic consistency seen in these languages.
By aligning vowels and consonants more directly with their sounds, Inglish reduces the ambiguity that often plagues Modern English spelling and pronunciation. This reform is particularly focused on making the language easier to learn, read, and write by following a structure similar to the Latin-based phoneme-grapheme systems of other European languages. For example, in Inglish, a letter like A would consistently represent a particular sound, eliminating the unpredictable shifts in pronunciation that occur in English today.
Ultimately, Inglish seeks to modernize English by reintroducing phonetic clarity and predictability, ensuring that its written form reflects its spoken form more faithfully, while drawing inspiration from the languages that have remained closer to their Latin roots.