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72 GU I D E to Y E L L OW S P R I NG S | 2O22 – 2O23 “lie” becomes “ly” and “sigh” would be “sy.” Given the difficulty of differentiating the sounds of “s” and “z,” it’s no surprise that Wright spells that word “surprize.” There are 14 new letters — symbols — incorporated into Wright’s alphabet, to accommodate the full range of spoken sounds. There are five symbols, for example, representing th five dif- ferent “o” sounds. There is the standard letter O; there is a slanted O with a stripe through it; and there is a backward C, a U, and a double-U. If that seems complex, it’s only because it’s new, Wright said, adding that he believed that in 50 years, his alphabet, or one like it, will be standard English. Toward that end, Wright planned to publish his invention, after refining it by testing its usage with small groups of people. One such group, elemen - tary students from the Antioch School in Yellow Springs, visited Wright’s office, to try out his new way of spelling. The letter the students sent to Wright requesting the visit showed they are ready for the change. They wrote: “May we please see your new alfabet sistom?” The roots of Wright’s alphabet stem from child- hood. His father was an English professor who spent 30 years reading student compositions full of mis- spelled words. Rod Wright lis- tened as his father declared: “English spelling has got to be reformed!” Wright went on to study languages extensively. Functionally fluent in French and Chinese, he served as a French-to-English inter- preter during his tour with the Army in Korea. He obtained master’s degrees in Words you can spell— ROD WRIGHT’S ALFABET By AMY HARPER From February 1986 In the 1980s, villager Rod Wright invented an alphabet, and a new way of spelling words. Make that: alfabet. That’s how Wright would spell it. The other way, he said, just doesn’t make sense. English spelling’s confusing and frustrating, contradictory complexity, Wright told the News in 1986, is one reason why 25% of the United States population is function- ally illiterate. “Our spelling system,” he said, “does not work. It is a barrier to reading.” Wright wanted to change that with a new alphabet. He developed it on his job as a technical editor, correcting and rewriting engineering language for clarity and readabi l ity, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Wright said the problem with the English alphabet is that it tries to express 40 sounds with only 26 letters. Wright’s alphabet has 40 let - ters, one for each sound. “All you have to do is memorize the letters and the sounds they represent,” Wright explains. “Then you can spell anything.” His alphabet, Wright said, is simple. English is bewilder- ingly complex. There are too many obscure rules — lack of consistent rules — for com- bining letters into sounds. The words “rough,” “though” and “through,” for example, all end with the same four letters — but each word is pronounced very differently. “If you squaw the word ‘mough,’ how would you pronounce it?” Wright asks. No such ambiguity plagues Wright’s alphabet. “Rough” is spelled “ruf,” and “though” is spelled “tho,” and “through” is spelled “thru.” Other Wright spellings: “Peace” is “pees,” “mellow” is “melloe,” “flight” is “flyt.” To dispense with the need to remember troublesome “rules” for spelling such as “i before e except after c,” Wright’s alphabet turns “receive” into “receev” and “believe” to “beleev.” Confusion over “ie” and “y” word endings, and what to do with “gh,” is dispelled by Wright’s spelling system: THE VILLAGE MEDIATION PROGRAM OF YELLOW SPRINGS MEDIATION IS A PLACE FOR... Addressing conflict Productive conversation Making decisions Gaining clarity Saying what you need to say Working things out MANY PEOPLE USE MEDIATION... Neighbors Landlords & Tenants Separated parents Family members Young people Co-workers The Village Mediation Program assists organizations by providing facilitators for meetings, consultation on options for addressing a dispute or training in conflict resolution skills. CONTACT THE VILLAGE MEDIATION PROGRAM: 937-318-1542 • mediation@yso.com • www.yso.com/mediation Dedicated to providing peaceful and productive methods for addressing conflict to Village and Township residents for FREE . sexual ua expression es sexual s identity Peterson & Associates Clinical Consulting Specialists Publications: Clinical Director: Dr. Frederick Peterson 937-479-0008 www.DocPeterson.com Docpete1000@aol.com docpete1000@aocom The Gender Revolution& New Sexual Health Peterson, Bley & Frabotta; Cognella Academic Press, 2020 Sex &Gender: Current Clinical Concepts &Practices Peterson & Bley, editors; Professional Resource Press, 2023