phonetic spelling : Java Glossary

English spelling is a bit of a disaster. The problem is English borrowed from so many other languages: Latin, French, Norse, Dutch, German, Anglo-Saxon… There is no consistent set of rules for how pronounce a given string of letters. This causes terrible problems for people trying to use English as a second language, not to mention first graders. Other languages such as Spanish and Esperanto are not nearly so chaotic.

There have been many attempts to create a phonetic spelling system for English. Some use new alphabets. None have ever caught on. I suspect the one that catches on may grow gradually out of text speak using our traditional alphabet. It may also grow out of a set of common autocorrects — words you type that are automatically expanded into correct spellings, since the original shorthand will be more familiar than the expanded spellings.