Hi, I don't usually do "change the alphabet" ideas, but have you ever noticed that in the America Online commercials, the slogan "Want a better Internet?" is pronounced so nasally that all the letters practically sound the same?
First off, all the interior consonants sound alike, so it's more like "wanna benner innernet?". Second, even the vowels are pronounced almost alike, it's the same, non-English, almost francophone nasal vowel, used in place of all the schwa's, short a's, and short e's.
As there's no proper way to represent this sound, I propose a new symbol, "aoln", which is shaped like an AOL logo: a triangle with a circle in the middle of it.
The aoln can be voiced or unvoiced; when voiced, it represents indistinct consonants such as the "n" and "t" in the above phrase. When unvoiced, it gives a nasal tone to a short, schwalike vowel.
In phonetics, I recommend the symbols /_\ and /o\ be used to represent the unvoiced and voiced sounds, respectively.
Hence "Wanna better Internet" could be transcribed as
W/_\/o\/_\ b/_\/o\/_\ i/o\/_\rn/_\-- phundug, Oct 17 2005 Ga http://www.infinite...kMsJuk&p=n#/163;167a highlight from How To Not Speak AOLn [fishboner, Jan 11 2013] Teaching Machines to use aoln http://www.youtube....watch?v=qobhDJ_vEOc [fishboner, Jan 11 2013] I rather imagine that there are well-defined alphabets of symbols to describe regional and slang pronunciation. Have you checked those out for the sounds you describe?-- DrCurry, Oct 17 2005 So, it's a nasalised alveolar tap? Hmm. The North American pronunciation of /t/ is voiced, tapped and lenis and there's a tendency for vowels to be more nasalised than in RP. It's something like the Swahili pronunciation of "r", i think, but nasal? You know, i think you might be onto something here because i really can't think of a phonetic symbol for it. I don't think i'd like a commercial character, though it would be apt.-- nineteenthly, May 01 2009 You have called in aol speak, but it is really a form of speech commonly used by advertisers to convey a feeling of the tired common man who can't be bothered to be articulate in thought or pronunciation.
This is an idea (ie. the system that would denote this form of speech rather than not.), and I have bunned it. I am also laughing hysterically, and so is my sister.++-- fishboner, May 01 2009 //You have called in aol speak// - which is apparently your vernacular, judging by your spelling.-- nineteenthly, May 01 2009 oops, left the misspeller(TM) on-- fishboner, May 01 2009 random, halfbakery