Traditional Spelling Revised (TSR) is an English-language spelling reform
alternative to the semi-regular conventional English orthography (EO). TSR is a relatively conservative scheme. It seeks to identify the underlying rules of EO but to apply them more consistently, thereby reducing the number of irregularities that must be memorized. TSR makes it possible to predict pronunciation from spelling, if not always the reverse. Words are only respelled when they cannot be brought within the rules.
TSR was approved by the International English Spelling Congress (IESC) in March 2021 as the preferred alternative to EO. The English Spelling Society, sponsor of the Congress, is affording TSR a degree of support and publicity. During the current review period (five years), no major changes will likely happen. However, on the basis of comments received, it is possible there may be some modest modifications during that period.
TSR has been mentioned in the media.
What TSR retains
TSR uses the standard Latin alphabet, most of the letters and combinations of letters in TSR are pronounced in the same way as in EO (English orthography), and with the same stress.
To a large extent, the rules are preserved:
(Magic e) The letter e at the end of a word is not pronounced, but changes the pronunciation of other letters (lengthening the vowel). This happens in combination (vowel + consonant + e) – for example, in the word like. (Doubling rule) If a monosyllabic word ends with the combination short vowel + consonant, then when an ending (for example, -ed, -ing) is added to the word, the consonant is doubled. Examples: swim turns to swimming, but: fail turns to failed, because here the vowel is not short. In polysyllabic words, if a stressed vowel is followed by one consonant + another vowel, the previous vowel is usually lengthened: sad / sadist, set / scenic, bit / biter, fun / fuming.
If in EO a letter or letters can denote more than one sound, the rules for predicting pronunciation are usually preserved and systematized. Also, some suffixes and other common combinations that do not fully comply with the basic rules of EO, but unambiguously determine pronunciation, are preserved from EO.
Entirely retained (despite discrepancy with TSR rules):
personal pronouns and adjectives: I. you, he, she, we, me, us, they, your, their(s), them; variations of verbs to be and to have: are, was, were, have, having; names of numbers, days of the week, months and seasons of the year; demonstrative adjectives, pronouns and adverbs: than, that, then, thence, there, these, this, those, thus; interrogative pronouns: what, where, who, whose.
A few common words are also preserved
the, of, to(day), any(one), (n)either, nothing, some, woman, women, yes.
What TSR changes
In TSR, the spelling of a word changes from EO if it either does not conform to the basic rules (EO or TSR) or is ambiguous. The main categories of changes are listed below.
Fix the incorrect application of the Doubling rule. Example: accommodate → . To indicate the place of stress, in some cases, a consonant is deliberately doubled in the middle of a word: ex. deddicate, edducate, perrish. Correcting the incorrect application of the rules for the pronunciation of the letter s - it is pronounced as /s/ (not /z/) in the following cases: at the beginning of a word (e.g. snake); before or after the letters /k/, /f/, /p/, /t/ (e.g. clicks, cliffs, clips, its); as part of the prefixes dis- or mis- (e.g. dismay, misrule); after the prefix con-, per- (e.g. consent, persistent); in compound words consisting of two full-fledged words like homesick, ransack.
If the above conditions are not met, then s can be doubled to preserve the /s/ sound, for example: miss, mass, missing, or the spelling of the word can be changed to match the pronunciation. Some consoles can be separated by a hyphen to provide the /s/ sound, for example: re-send, co-signatory. In other cases, s is usually pronounced /z/.