English-IPA

For centuries, there has been a movement to reform the spelling of English. It seeks to change English spelling so that it is more consistent, matches pronunciation better. (Refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-language_spelling_reform#References) However, the spelling reform has rarely attracted widespread public support due to various reasons.

So, I propose an idea to solve the problem by another way around. Instead of changing the spelling to fit the pronunciation, we may change the pronunciation to fit the spelling. (Refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_pronunciation)

The idea is to give a fixed pronunciation for each of the 26 letters. The most straightforward way is to assign the exact same IPA to each letter. (Refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet). The stress is fixed at one position, and a simple choice is always at the first vowel. For the consonant clusters which are hard to pronounce, we add an optional schwa [ə] to make them easy to pronounce, but the schwa should not change the stress position.

Rules

 * Every character is always pronounced as the International Phonetic Alphabet of itself.
 * The stress is always located at the first vowel.
 * Add an optional schwa [ə] to break consonant clusters, but the schwa should not change the stress position.

Advantages

 * Spelling and pronunciation is always consistent.
 * Need not to republish any English publications.
 * Need not to relearn, because everyone knows the spelling can change his/her pronunciation accordingly.
 * Can be used with the existing pronunciation, as a new English dialect.
 * It may be more close to the ancient English pronunciation.

Classification and Dialects
English - Reform