[In 2002, SSS members desided, by ballot, that the membership shoud determin the house stile to be uzed in SSS documents. Propozals wer invited. The ballot form stated: "It should be clear that the House Style is not the official scheme of the SSS, it is just a way to show to the public outside that we can agree on at least a few respellings".]
REZULTS OF THE MEMBERSHIP BALLOT FOR A HOUSE STILE.
APROVED PROPOZALS. March 2004. Zé do Rock.
Heer ar the rezults of the membership ballot. We'l soon start making a list of werds and chek if the rules ar cleer and if thair ar no flaws. In case we find sum, we mite ask the membership agen about sum deetales.PRINSIPELS.
PR1) Reformd spelling wil not be compulsery. Whoevver prefers an unreformd (TS) spelling (in wun werd or in his/her hole riting) may continnu to uze it. So if it is desided that we spel "wen" for TS when, if ennybody ses "hwen" s/he can spel "when".PR2) We cannot spel 2 werds the same way if the pronunsiation of both is difrent (put and putt).
PR3) In case of dout thair wil be alternativ forms.
PR4) Propper Names and thair derivvativs remane az they ar, but derivvativs ar speld with loer case (England, english).
PR5) We keep root werds wen suffixes ar added or compounds ar bilt. For exampel, we spel "slite" for "slight", so we spel "slitely" insted of "slightly". However, if the conservation of the root werd woud be misleeding for the pronunsiation, we chanje it (for instense givving "acommodate" but "acomodation").
PUNCTUATION.
PU1) We only uze upper case (cappitals) for propper names, sentense beginnings, abreviations and wotevver the uzer thinks it's werth cappitalizing. Eg Pete and Mary went to Scotland on munday, wile i vizzited IBM with Her Majesty.PU2) Apostrofys ar cut if the most likely way to pronounse the rezulting werd is the rite wun and no ambiguity is cauzd, eg oclok, didnt, cant, for o'clock, didn't, can't. But: i'd, i'm, u'r (=you're).
CUTS.
CU1) We cut redundent letters. The most likely way to pronounse the rezulting werd shoud be the way the werd is actualy pronounsed, thus no "ho" for "who", no "com" for "comb" or "come", etc. If thair ar 2 contradicting patterns for a sound, we don't cut: eg most E's folloed by a singel consonent and nuthing else ar short (bed, beg, bet), but most ER's ar pronounsed /3r/ (her, per), so we don't cut "there" to "ther" (it becums thair ennyway, but thats the prinsipel).CU2) Cut dubbel consonents wen they'r not folloing a short stressd vowel and preseeding anuther vowel, (eg acommodate, acuze, bel). But leev LL after A or U with a sound uther than the usual short vowel sound az in 'annul, dul(l)', eg all, ball, full, pull.
CU3) Cut the suffix -ally to -aly (eg realy, actualy) and -cally to -cly (eg basicly, publicly)
NCU1) In morfeme boundrys we keep the dubbel consonent if both sub-werds ar felt az havving a meening, eg unnessesery, unnatural, teemmate but inate, inoccuus for innate, innocuous.
CU4) U can drop the shwa optionaly in the TS combination short vowel + consonant + (shwa letter) + L or R + vowel, eg evry, intrest, travling.
CU5) Wen a shwa is reprezented by a digraf, we spel 'e': serten, mounten. But the ending -OUS becums -US (famus, seerius).
CU6) Drop silent L in COULD/SHOUD/WOULD - coud-shoud-woud
CU7) TS "you" becums "u".
NCU2) TS-ending "ure" remanes "ure", eg mesure, plesure, pressure, future.
SHORT STRESSD VOWELS.
SV1) The tipical stressd short vowel sounds of "a, e, i, o, u" shoud be reprezented by thoze vowel letters, with dubbel consonent folloing them if a vowel follows the consonent to avoid the majic "e" efect: plad, matter, annimal, sed, setting, hedded, silly, pritty, wimmen, yot, yotting, studdy, rubber, cumming for "plaid, matter, animal, said, setting, headed, silly, pretty, women, yacht, yachting, rubber, coming".NSV1) We don't dubbel befor sillables with -IC, -ITY, -OJY, eg economic, political, gravity, ideolojy.
NSV2) No dubling takes plase wair the consonent has a pronunsiation wich is not domminent for that letter, eg, desisions, natural, not desissions, nattural.
NSV3) We don't dubbel J, Q, or X, eg project, liquid, boxer, exept wen TS "dubbels" it (usualy with a digraf), eg DJ in adjectiv. But X isnt dubbeld in enny form, and this is exelent.
NSV4) The dubbel for K is not KK but CK (backing, ducking).
NSV5) Americans rime "bother" and "father", but we don't spel TS werds that hav "a" with "o" (thus bother, but father, art, etc).
SV3) "Y" (stressd or not) is replased with "I", exept wen it has a function (yet, silly, layer). Sistematic, dinamic.
LONG VOWELS.
LV1) The long vowel sounds "a, i, o" ar speld with "a, i, o" and an "e" after the consonent, if this sound is only folloed by wun consonent: make, bate, bite, brite, code, bote.LV2) Stressd /i:/ az in "he" is speld "ee", eg leen, eest for lean, eest. But keep singel E wen TS has singel e: be, he, me, she, the, we, and befor anuther vowel, eg theory. Ferthermor we don't respel unstressd long "e" and long "i", unless at the verry end of a base werd. Thus no "reeset" for "reset".
UTHER VOWELS.
UV1) /3r/ and /@r/ (shwa) az in "were", "over" - spel "er", eg her, after.UV2) /@nt/ is speld "ent", eg atendent, evident, /@ns/ is speld "ense", eg ballense, expeeriense.
UV3) The sound /Er/ az in "air, there" is speld AIR: air, bair, dair, thair.
UV4) Final unstressd /i/ or /i:/ az in "belly" - spel "y", eg simply, history, coffy, taxy, apostrofys. But "taxi" for "taxy" is alowd.
UV5) The sound /aU/ az in "out" - spel "ou" befor a consonent inside a root werd, eg out, doun, and "ow" in uther cases, eg cow, plow.
CONSONENTS.
CO1) The sound /f/ as in "for" - spel "f", eg from, enuf, laf, fone.CO2) Spel soft g with j: larj, jentel.
CO3) The sound /k/ az in "king" - spel "k" befor "e", "i" and "y", eg keep, kik, kemical, keltic and at the end of wun sillable root werds and thair derivvativs, eg bak, backing. Spel "qu" for /kw/, eg quite, question, quire (also for choir). Spel "x" for /ks/ or /ksh/, eg box, axident, anxius but root werds don't merj with inflections, eg books, soks, inflection, action (not boox, sox, axion, etc). Spel "c" in uther cases, eg came, fact, basic.
CO4) The sound /s/ az in "so" - spel "s", eg senter, just, notis, but "ss" at the end of a root werd if TS has "ss", eg less, across, and "se" after a digraf or a consonent, eg goose, house, sense.
CO5) We shoud uze "sh" wen TS has "ch" for /sh/: "parashute"
CO6) For /z/ az in "zebra", spel "z", eg lazy, eezy, az, but keep "s" for inflections, eg cars, she sels, Bobs house. And keep "x" for /gz/ eg example, exalt.
INVERSIONS.
IN1) The endings -LE and -RE ar speld the "rite" way, eg appel, aker for apple, acre.NIN1) The unstressd suffixes "able/ible" ar speld "able": capable, possable.
Comments and questions may be sent to the House Stile comitty wich is revewing the ballot outcum:
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