Summary of rules for "easy-to-read words

SUMMARY OF RULES FOR THE 9,000 EASY-TO-READ WORDS
These rules apply only (see note below) to this system The system is designed to help beginning readers understand that letters and letter combinations stand for specific speech-sounds. Once they can fluently read this list of carefully selected words, they should be able to advance to more complex words.

These rules are presented here in a slightly different form than they are in the book. Both presentations should be consistent in themselves. At some later date, the presentation will be made uniform on the site and in the book.

1. CONSISTENCY: All words on the 9,000+ list were selected to follow these rules. Words that do not follow these words are not on our list of 9,000+ words except as memory words.

2. MEMORY WORDS: 3% of the words on the list do not follow these rules. (see page 6 in the book)

3. SPEECH-SOUNDS: In this system, every letter and letter-combination has a specific speech-sound. It never varies. (see pages 7 and 107)

4. CVC WORDS: In a CVC word the vowel is a ‘short’ vowel.

5. LETTER-COMBINATIONS: All 2-letter combinations within a 3-letter combination always abandon their individual pronunciations. The pronunciation of the 3-letter combination is always used. The system is partially based on this idea: Letters change their sounds depending on which letters they are near.
Examples follow:
(5.1) "ea" is always a long "e" in the system -- but the long "e" is abandoned in "ear" in favor of /ear/
(5.2) "in" has the speech sound i/n -- but when it is "ine" it is ii/n -- the short 'I' gives way to the long /ii/
(5.3) "all" has a speech sound /all/ as we define it (a triphthong?) -- but when it is in "abnormally" -- it is subsumed into the sound of "ally" which we define as /u.l.ee/
(5.4) "oo" goes from a long "u" in "boom" to a radically different sound in the "ook" in book -- which we write as /uuh.k/ in speech-sound notation.

6. VOWELS ARE SHORT: All vowels are “short” by default. They only become “long” if one of these rules makes them long.

7. LETTER-COMBINATIONS ARE BOSS: When a vowel is part of a letter-combination, it gives up its sound to the sound of the combination.

8. CONSONANTS: Consonants always have regular speech-sounds.

9. CAPITALIZED LETTERS: When capitalized letters are used in acronyms (F.B.I, IOU) or as words (I, OK), the speech-sounds are the names of the letters.

10. BASHFUL “e”: When “e” ends a word that includes another vowel, it is silent: otherwise it says its name -- a long “e”.

11. POSITIONAL RULES: “a”, “e”, “o”, “le”, “ly” and “y” have special speech-sounds when they are in certain positions (see page 7 in the book).
(11.1) ‘a’ ending: Single syllable words -- bra, fa, ha, la, ma, pa, ska -- speech-sound notation: /ah/
(11.2) ‘a’ ending: Longer words -- camera, data, hula, Africa, America -- speech-sound notation: /u/
(11.3) ‘ed’ ending -- armed, barked, mopped, slapped, squirreled -- speech-sound notation: (e is silent)
(11.4) ‘le’ ending -- bottle, dawdle, doodle, wrinkle, giggle, rattle -- speech-sound notation: /u.l/
(11.5) ‘o’ ending -- gecko, go, hello, limo, no, no-no, so, yo-yo -- speech-sound notation: /oo/
(11.6) ‘y’ beginning -- yell, yen, yes, yet -- speech-sound notation: /y/
(11.7) ‘y’ middle -- abyss, hymn, myth, system -- speech-sound notation: /i/
(11.8) ‘y’ ending -- Single syllable -- by, fly, fry, my, ply, pry, why -- speech-sound notation: /ii/
(11.9) ‘y’ ending -- Longer --badly, blurry, bumpy, bunny, sunny -- speech-sound notation: /ee/

12. OVERIDING PATTERNS FOR “INE”: All of these words should be teated as memory words. They are marked as such on the master list in the book.
(12.1) If “ine” starts a word, it does not have the sound /ine/: inedible, ineffable, inept, ineptly, ineptness, inequitable, inequity, inert, inertly, inestimable, inestimably, inevitability, inevitable, inevitably.
(12.2) If “ine” is within the letter combination “inent” it does not have an /ine/ sound: abstinent, continent, continental, eminent, imminent, impertinent, incontinent, intercontinental, pertinent, prominent, subcontinent, transcontinental.
(12.3) If “ine” is within the letter combination “aine” it does not have the sound /ine/: abstained, brained, chained, detained, detainee, drained, entertained, explained, gained, grained, obtained, ordained, pained, plainer, sprained, stained, strained, strainer, trainee, trained, trainer.
(12.4) If “ine” is within the letter combination “oine” it does not have the sound /ine/: coined, enjoined, joined, purloined.
(12.5) If “ine” is within the letter combination “inet” it does not have the sound /ine/, bassinet, cabinet, kinetic, martinet, spinet.

NOTE: Some might claim that it is ridiculous to teach rules that do not cover the entire language, but we counter with the claim that it is a good first step and (we hope) conjecturally efficient. We use the word "conjecturally" because we do not think the concept has developed to the point where the system can be described as "theoretically" efficient. Rome wasn't built in a day.