Today I wrote a fun little tool called SpellCaster that allows you to try spelling English phonetically. I built a prototype of it years ago, but came back to it after reading Why Q Needs U, by Danny Bate. The book covers the history of the English alphabet as well as its arcane spelling rules. I’m sure everyone who has ever learned how to write English in the past 500 years has wondered exactly how this mess was created. And some have gone further and tried to reform it.
While I don’t think spelling reform is going to happen (or urgently necessary) I am a language nerd and the idea of alternative Englishes is fun to think about. You can use SpellCaster to translate standard English into phonetic spellings (including the one I came up with). You can even save and share your alternative spellings!
Using the tool is enlightening since even small changes in spelling can drastically change the size and verbosity of the text. And while phonetic spelling sounds great, in some cases it’s actually less readable (as Why Q Needs U explains).
And of course the phonetic spelling looks completely foreign, even childish. We’re so used to the fact English is hard to learn that we associate “incorrect” spellings with children or non-native speakers. But of course it’s nobody’s fault that it takes years to learn how to spell English – we literally give trophies to kids who can do it!
One last fun thing about SpellCaster. I originally wrote a prototype of it in Python years ago, using the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. But after getting it working I never shared it – the fun was over. But because Danny Bate’s book got me thinking about it again, I tried using Claude to rewrite it as a single-serving web page. After spending 15-20 minutes writing a prompt describing what I wanted, and how to do the translations, I had a working version in 48 seconds. I then continued working with Claude to polish it, add the ability to save and share spellings, and other features. It’s a testament to how lowering the barrier of entry to coding can make things possible. Or just cut out all the boring stuff and focus on the fun stuff.
And it got me to blog again for the first time in 10 years 🤦.