"Fransin" simplified orthography for French

[Philip Newton]

On 11 February 2017 at 23:57, Michael Everson <everson at evertype.com> wrote:
> The words “je” /jə/ and “jeu” /jø/ do not rhyme.

I was more surprised by the merger of the "é" and "è" sounds myself.

I've got the impression before that at least somem French speakers
consider shwa and /ø/ to be more or less allophones - I don't think
that an orthography that merges them would be confusing to a native
speaker not literate in the standard spelling who was taught such a
merged orthography.

> This looks completely aspirational. Is it used by anyone?

Something similar is in use here, called "l'ortograf altêrnativ", and
has been for quite a while (my bookmark is from 2007):

http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=2496,3086502&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

If the proposers of Fransin have not talked to them yet, it might be
worthwhile doing so and seeing whether that orthography might inform
theirs. (For example, whether one might profitably add "ê" for the "è"
sound.)

That Montreal page was created for similar reasons: to reach people
who speak French but have difficulty reading standard French spelling
for whatever reason.

Cheers,
Philip
-- 
Philip Newton <philip.newton at gmail.com>