A Proposed International Alphabet

By John Antonakos

In the past hundred years, some fifty international languages have been devised. But what was first needed was an international alphabet. Such an alphabet is needed for a number of reasons. First, it is needed for international communication. An international traveler knowing this alphabet would be able to instantly determine his location by reading signs written with the alphabet. Second, it would make language learning easier since language books would be written with this alphabet. And third, it would make reading and spelling easier for everyone.

The proposed alphabet must meet the following conditions: (1) it must be phonetic, (2) it must have a reasonable number of symbols, (3) it must have simple symbols, and (4) it must be acceptable to as many of the world’s people as possible. The thirty-letter international alphabet presented here meets these criteria.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781546266266

John Antonakos

John Antonakos is a retired electrical engineer who holds degrees in physics and electrical engineering. He was employed as an electrical engineer for over forty years, thirty-two of which were with the United States Army at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. He has always been interested in history, biography, language and philosophy, and has read widely in these fields. Being of Greek background, he is especially interested in exploring his roots. Because of these interests he has written the following books: Noted Greeks of Antiquity, Noted Greeks of the Middle Ages, The Greek American Community of Essex County, N.J., The Maniates of Newark, N.J., The Greek Handbook, A Compendium of World Classical Literature, A Proposed International Alphabet, English Spelling and Pronunciation Guide, and Life’s Objective.

Book preview

© 2018 John Antonakos. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  10/31/2018

ISBN: 978-1-5462-6627-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-6626-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018913024

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Introduction

I The Need for an International Alphabet

II The English Alphabet

III The European Alphabets

IV The European Sounds

V Deriving an International Alphabet

VI The Proposed International Alphabet

VII The Problems Encountered with an International Alphabet

VIII The Universal Adoption of the International Alphabet

About the Author

Introduction

The first signs of writing appeared as pictures painted on walls of caves during prehistoric times. These were the first attempts of man to record what he sensed and thought. With the passage of many centuries, these pictures reached a climactic point with the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians and the pictographs of the Chinese. The symbols of these people represented whole words and ideas. Still later came the Semitic writing of the Hebrews and Arabians, whose symbols represented syllables. Finally, as the art of writing spread to Europe, Greek and Latin scripts evolved whose symbols, for the most part, represented individual vowels and consonants. But even though today the majority of the world uses alphabets based on the latter two mentioned alphabets, many of the letters of these alphabets are incompatible with each other.

It has only been