Philosophy:Phonetically Intuitive English
Phonetically Intuitive English (PIE) is an English spelling proposal and a free Chrome browser extension[1] that automatically adds diacritics to English words on Web pages to show pronunciation, intended for English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners to learn correct pronunciations as they browse the Web, and for children in English-speaking countries to learn to read.
Description
The free and open source browser extension uses American English pronunciation data from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary and a one-page scheme also called "Phonetically Intuitive English" (PIE) to mark up English words with diacritics. The project claims that the scheme is designed to be very easy to learn;[2] the satirical magazine Speculative Grammarian questioned the appropriateness of diacritics and overall clarity of the spelling system in a featured article.[3]
Depending on the English level of the user, PIE offers three modes, Full, Lite and Extra Lite, to show diacritics to different extents. The Full mode shows pronunciations to a great detail (such as silent g and h in "light" being marked with a "silence mark"); the so-called Lite mode simplifies the notation (e.g. the silence marks on w, h, y and e will be omitted, as in "low", "she", "bay" and "take"); and the Extra Lite mode further omits all schwa marks (e.g. the second and third a in "Canada" will have no marks).
See also
- Reading education in the United States
- Phonics
- Whole language
- International Phonetic Alphabet
References
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