The EL Phonetic System

The Feature (details are revised May 2005) Phonetic Organs and Linguistic Technical Terms (revised July 01, 99)
Vowels ( revised Feb. 07, 2000)
Consonants (revised June 2005)
Consonant Table (new April '03, revised Nov. '04)
Diacritics ( Additional Symbols to Change an Original Phoneme or Other Functions )(revised June, 2005)
Phonetic Brackets and Usage
Examples of Phonetic Writing

(N.B.) Sometimes the number of the base in the phonetic section is used.
{ } holding plural numbers is a base overlay whose elements are the bases.
Refer to the EL bases chart

The Feature

Why?
It is to keep the regularity of phonetic rule.
English alphabets and Chinese characters were originally considered for both meanings and sounds,
but the sound of a meaning is a thing to be changed in history.
They both don't work correctly as phonetics any more.

What is the EL phonetics for?
It is for correctly showing how to pronounce names/proper nouns beyond cultures.
Also it helps linguistic studies, learning foreign languages, vocal arts and even medical study,
such as: in comparing types of snoring problems; helps deaf people to imagine a vocal sound
as an action of their vocal organs.
This system is not as simple as the English Alphabet. It is not a good method for sending messages,
but is more correct, and visually understandable for a phonetic transcription of speech
or any human vocal sounds.

Do we need another set of bases for phonetics, besides the definition bases?
No, the EL phonetics uses 50 bases among the entire 90 notations.
Usually you use the definition system, and when you need to express sounds such as names,
you use phonetics distinguished by putting them between phonetic brackets }.
Using these brackets, you also can distinguish types of phonetics or kinds of names:
see the phonetic brackets section.

► Differences between the EL phonetics and International Phonetic Alphabets (IPA)

The EL phonetics has learned a lot from IPA to show only vocal sounds.
In that sense, the EL classification way of sounds is based on IPA.
But the details and the structures are different because EL is rationalized by its compounding system.
You see some IPA technical words for descriptions; sometimes EL words have a wider reach for their ability.

Not only for global communications:
IPA was made for languages in the world. The EL phonetics is for any kind of human oral sounds.
IPA records the sound that the ears accept; EL shows how to reproduce an oral sound.

Easy to memorize phoneme-bases:
IPA is made abstractly, but an EL base for a basic vowel or a consonant is a simplified shape of
the main physical organ for its pronunciation or the direction/movement of the air stream for the sound.

E.g.:
The main lips sound [ p ] is shown by , illustrated 'lips' that you use to pronounce [ p ].

Similarly shaped bases work for similar phonemes or similar functions:
A pair of similar consonants has similar shaped symbols:
as and share voiceless [ p ] and voiced [ b ] in the same ways of bilabial plosive.
Not only for easy memorization, using similarly shaped pairs of characters makes typing
with the keyboard easier, sharing a key for each pair of bases.

Easy to memorize the additional notations/diacritics:
The shape of a diacritic to change the manner of articulation in a base overlay,
such as to make the tongue position/the main place to create the sound inner or outer
and the opening larger or smaller, is the same to the definition base that shows
the similar meaning to its phonetic function.
Then you recall the function naturally through an EL diacritic.

Overlay system for the expression of phonemes:
EL standard phonemes are shown as a base;
other phonemes are shown each as a base overlay of plural phonemes
or a phoneme(s) and a diacritic(s).
By this way, only 50 bases can cover all global sounds, distinguishing more than IPA.
The IPA system doesn't combine phonemes and needs four times more notations than EL.

*The Korean HAN-GWR has the compounding system too,
but it is for a combination of consonant and vowel to show a syllable.
Also the phoneme bases are not enough for global usage.

Time order:
The EL phonetic is also written from the left to the right following the time order as IPA is.
However, since the system is for showing how to reproduce sounds,
sometimes EL phonetic writing is different from IPA.

E.g.
is for [ h ]; is for [ a ] (the alphabets in [ ] are IPA), but [ ha ] is not , but , because of the time order of pronunciations. Try pronouncing [ ha ] without preparing the [a ]-mouth at the same time for [ h ]. You can't.

( compounded with (nasal sound) + (glottal stop) is
for the sound often written "hmm" in English;

(the combination of [ p ],  [ s ], and [ t ]-tongue stop) is for "psst" in a cartoon.

Like these examples, when you need to ready plural phonemes at the same time,
all necessary symbols are compound on top of each other.

Have you heard the Mongolian " Khoomei" kind of throat singing,
which has plural tones at a time, like a duo alone?
After learning the EL phonetics, try this way:
; you might be able to make this curious voice!