First of all - yes, I have looked at the International Phonetic Alphabet - a massive job of making symbols for all the possible letter sounds that human beings everywhere are capable of. But - it is too complex, too many new symbols, to be a viable alternative for everyday use. But typical of many super brains, they don't think to bridge the gap so that their ideas can make needed changes for the man on the street. What we need is to find something between the IPA and what we now have, in order to make a start to improve our present spelling.

Konsonant changes:

c = k (for kat) or c = s (for centre/ senter)
ch as in choir = kw
soft G = j [for jeneral]
Qu = kw [for kween]
X = ks [eksit] or gz [egzact]
Y is not used as a vowel - [day = daa; why = wii; slowly = sloolee]
Z can be uzed when appropriate - it may be difficult to establish a firm rule, common usage may need to set it in place.
One place it is definetly needed is in replacing beginning x when it sounds as z - e.g. zylofone, although xmas and xray may need some thinking about...

Silent konsonants are usually remnants from original languages - they can be dropped as well - e.g. knife = niif, gnat = nat, pneumatic = newmatik. Strange combinations such as ph, gh, ti can easily be changed...

It used to be a joke that fish could be spelt "ghoti" - gh = f in enough, o = i in women, and ti = sh in station. Q.E.D. [Kyu.E.D?]

Double konsonants can be dropped at the end of words, eg. spel, kik, and when doubled long vowels are established, there will be none needed at all (orl!).

Short vowels appear singly in all cases
These are: a for apple, e for egg, i for in, o for orange, u for up

Long vowels - are the same as the letter name.
A doubled vowel or ending `e' indicates the long sound at present, but there are a lot of exceptions to this rule.
A simplier rule is to use the same vowel twice.
Initially, purely phonetic changes can be made - to/two/too can become tuu
Then the ending `e' can be dropped.
aa for maaz [maze], ee for need, ii for miin [mine], oo for dooz [doze], uu for ruuz [ruse]

I realize that spelling can sometimes disclose the meaning - maal could be mail, or male - but context would make it obvious - "The maal delivered the maal." could only have one sensible resolution, for instance. ...

Other Vowel Combinations not covered by short or long sounds will need to be tabled and standardized.
We have some tricky combinations like the double 'o' which can sound like a double 'u' as in moon; but is different in cool and wood, and is in rule. It is the same also as the 'ou' sound in could; but is different in out, sound etc. This last sound also appears as 'ow' in how, cow; which in other places is sounded as a long 'o' - know, sow (sew)!!! In the word `double', the 'o' is silent - just to really confuse the unwary.

'Ou' in could, is like a short 'or' = cord; but I think we should retain 'ou' for this sound and keeping the 'ow' sound as in how, you then write these words:
could, woud, would, sout, fout, roul, coul, etc
and: muun, tuun (tyuun?), spuun, fuum, buu, etc
then: how, cow, owt, sownd, lowd, hownd, fowl, etc
And: soo, noo, loo, boo, croo, thoo, etc

Vowel/ consonant combinations
We've already seen how 'w' effects a vowel sound - there are other consonants that do this too - notably ar, er (ir,ur) and or.... - with word written as werd, wood becomes word. The ou sound could be standardized as `ow'= sownd, cownt...
Another possibility is using ir and ur which at present sound as `er' ... Eg. ir could be used for air, (h)are, (wh)ere....
"The hair on the hare's ear helped him hear the sounds from here."... would become "The hir on the hir's ear helped him hear the sownds from hear."
The problem of spelling some of our irregular words will be made much easier. Where becomes wir, were becomes wer....

There are many linguistic experts who can get their teeth into these sounds - as long as they take the approach of improvement rather than perfection, we may get somewhere reasonably soon - a few changes at a time, rather than all at once....

Changing ch, sh, and th will be much more difficult in terms of replacing keys - but if we take away the use of `c' as a single letter first, as well as q and x, there will be room for them. The easiest letter formation is to take out the space between them, and simplify this, although X could well be used for ch - as it is in Greek, and perhaps the symbol for theta could be ressurected as well.

The main thing is to get started - there have been so many reports of University students not being able to spell, and with so many people of other languages living amonst us, that it it could well be the optimum time - the sooner the better.

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