Ellis, Alexander John. “Phonetic Literature,” The Phonotypic Journal, vol. 3, May 1844, pp. 133–144. Available at HathiTrust.

Ellis, Alexander John. “Additions to Phonetic Literature,” The Phonotypic Journal, vol. 3, December 1844, pp. 322–329. Available at HathiTrust.

A.J.E., a contributor to Pitman’s Phonotypic Journal (almost certainly Alexander John Ellis), included among their list of phonetic literature in 1844 a number of attempts at creating phonetic alphabets both in the name of English spelling reform and in the name of creating a universal, scientific alphabet. Many of these works would be listed again near the end of Ellis’s Ƌɛ Esenʃɑls ov Fɷnetics [The Essential of Phonetics] (below).

“History of Phonotypy,” Comstock’s Phonetic Magazine, vol. 1, July 1847, pp. 244–254. Available at HathiTrust.

This anonymous “History of Phonotypy” is an invaluable insight into the breadth of phonetic systems employed by Usonian phonetic alphabets prior to 1847, providing one of the earliest lists of such, though all are normalized into Comstock’s own alphabet rather than reproduced in their original form.

Wheatley, Henry B. “Notes on Some English Heterographers,” Transactions of the Philological Society, 1865. London: Asher & Co. pp. 13–59. Available on HathiTrust.

The earliest summary of works by English language spelling reformers, the opinionated Wheatley enumerates a number of reformers who I otherwise omit due to their not proposing any notable additions to or modifications of the English alphabet itself (usually because of a focus on the use of diacritical marks or digraphs, or otherwise simplifying spelling). It serves as the source of most of the items in the first section of this bibliography, “Early Modern English Phonetic Alphabets” (below).

Krapp, George Philip. The English Language in America, vol. 1. New York: The Century Company, 1925. Available on Google Books.

Krapp’s volume includes a chapter on the subject of “American Spelling,” which highlights the efforts of Noah Webster in reforming the spelling of English words in the United States of America. In the process, Krapp incidentally mentions many failed Usonian efforts at introducing phonetic alphabets during the early republic. Much of the section “Early Usonian English Phonetic Alphabets” (below) owes a debt to his documentation of these efforts on p. 330 of his work.

Balmuth, Miriam. The Roots of Phonics: A Historical Introduction. New York and London: Teachers College Press, 1982.

Balmuth offers a historical study of writing and the English language with an eye towards the development of phonics as a pedagogical discipline. Balmuth not only provides an overview of the development of English spelling and English language dictionaries as part of her work, but also dedicates an entire chapter to the subject of alphabet reform, highlighting several of the most prominent efforts to do so.

Lepore, Jill. A Is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.

While Lepore’s work is more focused on the technological and sociological aspects of meaning-making through the development of new alphabets and efforts at spelling reform in the young Usonian republic than it is a study of phonetic alphabets specifically, it is nevertheless a valuable resource for understanding the alphabetic work of William Thornton and Alexander Melville Bell in particular.

Henry, Gabe. Enough is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Eezier to Spell. New York: Dey Street, 2025.

The latest in a handful of popular histories of English spelling reform targeting the casual reader published over the last several decades, Henry’s Enough is Enuf offers a light-hearted romp through the vicissitudes of English spelling, and, in the process, highlights a number of the efforts discussed below. This all said, Henry’s popularized take ends up somewhat scattershot in practice. Its focus on simplified spelling omits any substantive account of phonotypy, discussing Isaac Pitman almost exclusively in terms of his shorthand and spending more time discussing Stephen Pearl Andrews and August H. Boyle’s Ƌɩ̇ Aŋglɷ Sɑcsun [The Anglo Saxon], the first phonetic newspaper printed in the United States of America, than any of Elias Longley’s work (the latter consisting only of a single throwaway mention of the Ƌɛ Wɛcli Fɷnetic Advocet). In spite of these flaws, Enough is Enuf is an enjoyable read perfect for the casual reader uninterested in the technical details of alphabetic reform.

Smith, Sir Thomas. De recta & emendata linguæ anglicæ scriptione, dialogus. Lutetiæ: Ex officina Roberti Stephani Typographi Regij, 1568. Available at the Internet Archive.

While Smith was not the first English spelling reformer (that honor goes to the 13th century CE author Ormin, who proposed reforms, even at that early stage, in his work The Ormulum), Smith was the first person to propose augmenting the English alphabet to better match its phonology, eliminating digraphs, reintroducing thorn [þ] and eth [ð], making use of the insular g [ᵹ] to represent the voiced post-alveolar affricate /dʒ/, and introducing several other letters.

Hart, John. An orthographie, conteyning the due order and reason, howe to write or paint thimage of mannes voice, most like to the life or nature. [London, Imprinted by W. Seres,] 1569. Available at the Internet Archive.

Bullokar, William. Bullokars Booke at large, for the Amendment of Orthographie for English Speech. London: Henrie Denham, 1580. Facsimile reprint. New York & Amsterdam: Da Capo Press & Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Ltd., 1968. Available at the Internet Archive.

Bullokar’s alphabet stands out as the only one of these early efforts to propose an alphabet entirely in blackletter, rather than the antiqua forms proposed in the works by Smith and Hart (which were otherwise also published in blackletter).

Gil, Alexander. Logonomia anglica qua gentis sermo facilius addiscitur. London: Excudit Iohannes Beale, 1619. Available at the Internet Archive.

Butler, Charles. The English Grammar, or the Institution of Letters, Syllables, and Words, in the English tongue. Oxford: Printed by William Turner, 1633. Available at the Internet Archive.

Wilkins, John, D.D. An Essay Towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language. London: Printed for Sa. Gellibrand, and for John Martyn, 1668. Available at the Internet Archive.

Though primarily focused on his proposal for a Philosophical Language, Wilkins discusses orthography in chapters 10 through 13 of part three, concluding with an English orthographic spelling of The Lord’s Prayer and Apostles’ Creed in an alphabet that includes an early use of a Latin letter ou [ȣ] (then printed using a Greek type) to represent what is now the close back rounded vowel /u/.

Lodwick, Francis. “An Essay Towards an Universal Alphabet,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, vol. 16 (1686), pp. 126–137. Available at HathiTrust.

While Lodwick does not seem to have had type cast of his alphabet, the table at the end of his essay presents the first of a long line of attempts to move beyond Wilkins’ orthography to render all human speech in a single alphabet, which would eventually be realized in the International Phonetic Alphabet (or IPA).

Franklin, Benjamin. “A Scheme for a new Alphabet and a reformed mode of Spelling,” 1768. Printed in Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces. London: Printed for J. Johnson, 1779. Available at the Internet Archive.

The difficulties in confidently ascertaining the upright and capital shapes of the six letters Franklin suggested adopting are noted even by the editor responsible for the casting of type for this first printing, Benjamin Vaughn.

Chambers, Joseph G. “Elements of Orthography; or an Attempt to form a Complete system of Letters,” The Universal Asylum and Columbian Magazine, July 1791, pp. 33–38. Available at the Internet Archive.

Inspired by Franklin’s earlier work, Chambers sought to publish his work in the Columbian Magazine following Franklin’s passing. Chambers’s alphabet is presented only in a single table in the October issue which concluded the serialization of his essay. Chambers would revisit “Elements of Orthography” again in 1812 and 1817 (below).

Thornton, William, M.D. Cadmus: or, a Treatise on the Elements of Written Language. Philadelphia: Printed by R. Aitken & Son, 1793. Available at the Internet Archive.

Thornton and his phonetic alphabet, which was intended to be a universal alphabet in the vein of Wilkins and Lodwick, are among the subjects of Lepore’s A is for American.

Smith, Raoul N. “The Philosophical Alphabet of Jonathan Fisher,” American Speech, Spring/Summer 1975, vol. 50, no. 1/2, pp. 36–49.

Smith’s academic article describes the unique phonetic alphabet of Rev. Jonathan Fisher of Blue Hill, Maine, who hand-wrote an estimated six million words in his alphabet between 1793 and 1845 across various journals, correspondence, and sermons, among other works. Lepore notes that Fisher’s alphabet stands out from other Usonian alphabets proposed before 1812 for its lack of nationalist pretensions.

Ewing, James. The Columbian Alphabet: Being an attempt to new model the English alphabet, in such manner as to mark every simple sound by an appropriate character, thereby rendering the spelling and pronunciation more determinate and correct, and the art of reading and writing more easily attainable. Trenton: Printed by Matthias Day, 1798.

Kneeland, Abner. A brief sketch of a new system of orthography, delineated in an orthographical chart, containing the alphabet and scheme of the new orthographer. Walpole, N.H.: Printed for the author by Nichols & Hale, 1807.

The first of Kneeland’s publications highlighting his new alphabet. Kneeland, a Universalist minister, would further develop and promote this alphabet in his 1825 pronouncing speller and his 1828 periodical Olive Branch and Christian Inquirer (below). Shortly thereafter, Kneeland abandoned Universalism to become a freethinker and, in 1838, the last man to be jailed for blasphemy in the United States of America.

Pelham, William. A System of Notation; representing the sounds of alphabetical characters by a new application of the accentual marks in present use: with such additions as were necessary to supply deficiencies. Boston: Printed for W. Pelham by Munroe, Francis, & Parker, 1808. Available at HathiTrust.

Like Chambers’s work (above and below), but unlike many of the other phonetic alphabets presented here, Pelham’s System was designed to enhance existing English orthography rather than simplifying it. It features a large number of diacritical marks, ligatures, and letter variants to convey phonetic information while preserving the etymological legacy of traditional English spelling.

Chambers, Joseph G. Elements of Orthography; or, an attempt to form a Complete System of Letters. Zanesville: Sawyer & Chambers, 1812. Available on Google Books.

An elaboration of Chambers’s 1791 proposal in the Columbian Magazine (above) with a slightly more idiosyncratic set of type employed for the alphabet. Chambers would revisit the subject one more time in 1817 (below).

Embree, Thomas. Orthography Corrected, or, A plan proposed for improving the English language, by uniting orthography with pronunciation. Philadelphia: Printed by Dennis Heart, 1813.

Blatchley, Cornelius C. A New System of Orthography. About 1815.

This work is listed in John Westby-Gibson’s 1887 work The Bibliography of Shorthand, and is referred to in Blatchley’s letter to M. H. Barton dated 3 August 1830 and published in the 6 June 1831 issue of Barton’s Something New (below). No other record of this publication appears to exist.

Boyle, Samuel. Orthography corrected, and made an accurate guide to pronunciation, by means of a new alphabet, adapted to the English language. Richmond: Printed by Ritchie, Trueheart & Du-Val, 1816.

Chambers, Joseph G. Elements of Orthography; or, an attempt to form a Complete System of Letters. Philadelphia: Dennis Heartt, 1817. Available on Google Books.

The third and final edition of Chambers’s alphabet, previously printed in the Columbian Magazine in 1791 and again in 1812. This final presentation of his alphabet largely resembles the 1812 version and is notable for setting much of the text in the alphabet itself, more fully illustrating Chambers’s intent for the alphabet to be an enhancement to traditional English spelling rather than a simplification.

Duponceau, Peter S. “English Phonology; or, An Essay towards an Analysis and Description of the component sounds of the English Language,” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 1, new series (1818), pp. 228–264. Available at the Internet Archive.

Intending for his analysis of English phonology to lead to improved pronunciation guides for dictionaries, Duponceau only enumerates the letters of his proposed orthography by name. He does conclude his work by suggesting that augmenting the small Greek alphabet with other letters (particularly Cyrillic ones) would likely provide a useful basis for representing his alphabet in print.

Garretson, Isaac. The English Alphabet Corrected. Carlisle, Penn.: Wm. B. and James Underwood, 1818.

This now-lost work was known to Elias Longley, who printed an extract from it in phonotypy along with a short sample text in its alphabet in the 1 March 1850 issue of Ƌɛ Fɷnetic Advɷcat (p. 179 as compiled). Assuming that Longley’s presentation is an authentic representation of Garretson’s work, his alphabet appears to have used inverted letterforms to expand the alphabet to 31 letters in all.

Kneeland, Abner. The American pronouncing spelling book, or, Sure guide to the true pronunciation of the English language. Philadelphia: The author, 1825.

The second of Kneeland’s publications promoting his alphabet, first proposed in 1807 (above), and presented one final time, a few years later, in his Olive Branch and Christian Inquirer (below).

Kneeland, Abner. “A Key to the New System of Orthography,” Olive Branch and Christian Inquirer, 21 June 1828, pp. 81–82. Printed in New York. Available at HathiTrust.

The final version of Kneeland’s alphabet was prepared as a brevier type for use in his 1828 periodical Olive Branch and Christian Inquirer. Previous versions of the alphabet were printed in 1807 and, subsequently, in a pronouncing speller in 1825 (above).

Burnap, U. C., A.M. “The Orthography of the English Language Simplified,” American Journal of Education, May and June 1829, vol. IV, no. 3, 225–237. Available at the Internet Archive.

Barton, M. H. Something New, comprising a new and perfect alphabet containing 40 distinct characters, calculated to illustrate all the various sounds of the human voice. Boston: M. H. Barton, 1833. Available at the Internet Archive.

Barton’s alphabet, a unique design not based on the Latin alphabet, was another Usonian attempt at a “universal alphabet” in the mold of Wilkins and Thornton. Barton, a Quaker by birth, was a heterodox Christian who preached an early version of ecumenism. Barton ingratiated himself with the remnants of the Society of Universal Friends, a Christian sect with Quaker-like theology founded by the Public Universal Friend, and later moved to Boston, where he published Something New starting in 1830. Barton also spent time in Ohio, where a Michael H. Barton was noted as rejected from joining the fledgling Latter Day Saint movement in 1835. In the 1840s, Barton was denounced in William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator by a group of Massachusetts citizens who accused him of abusing his religious identity to engage in spiritual wifery with members of sects ranging from the Cochranites of Maine to Millerite groups in New York and Boston. Barton later denied these claims in the National Anti-Slavery Standard.

Nash, Norman. A New System of Orthography containing the elementary sounds represented by 42 simple characters. Philadelphia: 1836.

Attested by Andrew Comstock as early as his 1846 first edition of his Treatise on Phonology, I have thus far been unable to locate any extant copy of this work, though it appears to be listed in A Checklist of American Imprints for 1836 compiled by Carol Rinderknecht.

Beardsley, Rev. William, A.J. Carter, and Edward Hutava, eds. The Literary Reformer (periodical). St. Louis: 1841.

This periodical was later noted by Andrew Comstock in 1847, but I have thus far been unable to locate any extant copy of it. Several Usonian libraries list its prospectus in their catalogs, however.

Douglas, Lt. Richard, System of Orthography, invented in the year 1818, at Head-Quarters of the Northern Division, Brownsville, Jefferson Co., N. Y. Baltimore: 1843.

Attested by Andrew Comstock in 1847, this work is listed in the “Select List of Unlocated Research Books,” no. 15 (May 1951), published by the Library of Congress, Union Catalog Division, indicating that this work may now be lost.

Antrim, Benajah J. Pantography, or Universal Drawings. Philadelphia: Published by the author, 1843. Available at the Internet Archive.

Rich, Ezekiel. New Project for Reforming the English Alphabet and Orthography. 28th Cong., 1st sess., H. Doc. 28-126 (19 February 1844). Available at GovInfo.

Alphabet reform got the notice of members of the Usonian Congress several times before the Civil War, most notably in the form of this memorial kept as an official document of the House of Representatives.

Hart, James P. Orthography Become Phonography. New Haven, Ct.: 1847. Available at HathiTrust.

Hart’s work begins with a variety of alternate letterforms and diacritical marks that are slowly removed throughout the course of the work, gradually introducing the reader to more traditional English spelling. Comstock’s attribution of an otherwise lost volume entitled The World’s English to a John P. Hart of New Haven the following year suggests a tentative connection between this work and the unattributed volume with a similar title published in New Haven in 1852 (below).

Pulsifer, John S., ed. Phonal Depot (periodical). Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania: 1848.

Pulsifer published several works exploring alternate alphabets for representing English beginning with this periodical, which was noted by Andrew Comstock in 1855 and for which several volumes are accessible in libraries. Pulsifer’s block-shaped “Aubaot” alphabet is also briefly attested in pages 265–267 of the April 1867 issue of the Standard-Phonographic Visitor, edited and published by Andrew J. Graham, available at HathiTrust.

Comstock, Andrew, M.D. A Treatise on Phonology: Comprising a Perfect Alphabet for the English Language, first ed. Philadelphia: E. H. Butler & Co., 1846. Available at HathiTrust.

The first work presenting Comstock’s “Pamphonetic Alphabet,” Comstock would later publish a revised second edition of his treatise with manor alphabetic changes in 1855 (below).

Comstock, Andrew, M.D., ed. Comstock’s Phonetic Magazine (periodical). 1846–1848. HathiTrust has copies of Volume 1 and Volume 2.

Bailey, Keyes A. A Practical Exposition on Phonography; or, Writing By Sound. New York: K. A. Bailey, 1848. Available at HathiTrust.

The World’s English, the Orthographical Unity of Languages, or the True Way of Spelling Words. New Haven: J. H. Benham, 1852. Available at HathiTrust, though sadly in rather poor quality.

Comstock attributes a similarly named work to a John P. Hart, also of New Haven, printed in 1848, but I have not been able to locate any extant copy of this earlier pamphlet. Nevertheless, the similar author name and location of printing suggests a tentative connection between this work and the 1847 volume Orthography Become Phonography by James P. Hart, also printed in New Haven (above).

Comstock, Andrew, M.D. A Treatise on Phonology: Comprising a Perfect Alphabet for the English Language, second ed. Philadelphia: E. H. Butler & Co., 1855. Available at Internet Archive.

This revised edition makes several slight changes to Comstock’s 1846 alphabet (above), though the vast majority is left unaltered.

Pitman, Isaac, ed. The Phonographic Journal (periodical). 1842–1844. HathiTrust has copies of Volume 1 and Volume 3. Volume 2 is, regrettably, not digitized, though select pages relevant to the development of phonotypy are appended as a supplement to Volume 2 of The Phonotypic Journal (below).

Printed using lithography, this Journal, set in Pitman’s shorthand, features a number of Pitman’s early alphabet designs. It was merged into The Phonographic Correspondent in 1845.

Pitman, Isaac, ed. The Phonotypic Journal, later Ƌɩ̇ Fɷnɷtipic Jurnul, Ƌi Fɷn𝽷tipic J𝽻rnul, Ƌɩ̇ Fɷnɷtipic J𝽻rnal, Ƌi Fɷnɷtipic Jurnal, Ƌɛ Fɷnɷtipic Jurnal, and Ƌɛ Fɷnɷtipic Jurnɑl (periodical). 1843–1847. HathiTrust has copies of the misleadingly numbered Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5, and Volume 6, after which it was discontinued in favor of Ƌɛ Fɷnetic Jurnɑl (below).

This journal was originally issued together with Pitman’s Phonographic Journal beginning in January 1843 in order to discuss Pitman’s work in phonotypy with an audience unfamiliar with his shorthand (in which The Phonographic Journal was lithographed), thus explaining the unusual volume numbering scheme. The Journal was renamed in phonotypy in June 1845 alongside Pitman’s announcement of the “completion” of the alphabet, though it continued to be refined until 1847.

Elis, Alecsɋnder Jon [Ellis, Alexander John], ed. Ƌɛ Fɷnetic Jurnɑl [The Phonetic Journal] (periodical). 1848. Available at HathiTrust.

Ellis continued the printing of Ƌɛ Fɷnɷtipic Jurnɑl under this name, which was retrospectively numbered volume 7 following the beginning of the new series of Ƌɛ Fɷnɷtipic Jurnɑl in March of the following year. It is notable for leading off with a summary of the early history of Pitman’s phonotypic fonts as well as a detailed inventory of phonotypic characters to that point, including an extended set of characters covering a number of sounds foreign to English.

Ellis, Alexander John. Plea for Phonetic Spelling; or the Necessity of Orthographic Reform, second ed. London: Fred Pitman, 1848. Available at the Internet Archive.

Elis, Alecsɋnder Jon [Ellis, Alexander John]. Ƌɛ Esenʃɑls ov Fɷnetics [The Essentials of Phonetics]. Lundun [London]: Fred Pitman, 1848. Available at the Internet Archive.

Ellis threw himself into promoting the English Phonotypic Alphabet with abandon throughout 1848 and 1849, including through the publication of this treatise, an enlarged and improved version of his earlier work, “The Alphabet of Nature,” which had been appended to the third volume of The Phonotypic Journal. While intended to demonstrate the extension of the principles of phonotypy to analyze a broader scope of languages, this book is notable for containing in its third appendix a specimen of the fonts of the 1847 English Phonotypic (here, English Phonetic) Alphabet then available from Messrs. Figgins.

Longley, Elias, ed. Phonetic Magazine, later The Phonetic Magazine, Ƌɛ Fɷnetic Advocat [The Phonetic Advocate], Ƌɛ Wɛcli Fɷnetic Advocet [The Weekly Phonetic Advocate], and finally Type of the Times (periodical). 1848–1859. Volume 1 and Volume 2 are available on HathiTrust. Select issues from volumes 3 through 12 are available as digital copies in the Ohio Newspaper Selections collection at Ohio History Connection under the names “Wecli Fonetic Advocet” and “Type of the Times”.

Pitman, 𝽮zɑc [Pitman, Isaac], ed. Ƌɛ Fɷnɷtipic Jurnɑl [The Phonotypic Journal], new series, later Ƌɛ Fɷnetic Jurnɑl [The Phonetic Journal], Ƌɛ Fonetic Jurnɑl, The Phonetic Journal, Pitman’s Phonetic Journal, Pitman’s Journal, and finally Pitman’s Journal of Commercial Education (periodical). 1849–1934. Volume 8, Volume 9, Volume 10, and Volume 11 are among the many volumes available at HathiTrust, all catalogued as “Pitman’s Journal of Commercial Education.”

Pitman restarted his monthly journal in March 1849 to record the progress of spelling reform before renaming the journal upon moving to fortnightly issues in 1850. The Journal returned to using a romanic (non-phonotypic) name in 1852 and, by the early 1900s, had primarily become a forum for discussing stenographic education.

Pitman, 𝽮zɑc [Pitman, Isaac], ed. Ƌɛ Prɛcursur [The Precursor] (periodical). 1850–1853. Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3 are all available at HathiTrust.

Pitman returned to the shorthand lithography of The Phonographic Journal when beginning work on a new version of his phonotypic alphabet in this periodical published in the early 1850s (now occasionally featuring phonetic longhand).

Longley, Elias. American Manual of Phonography. Cincinnati: Longley Brothers, 1855. Available at the Internet Archive.

Smalley, Dan S., compiler. The American Phonetic Dictionary of the English Language. Cincinnati: Longley Brothers, 1855. Available at the Internet Archive.

This dictionary, set in the American Phonetic Alphabet, is notable for its definitions being presented in phonotypy. The dictionary was partly financed from a bequest from the Bostonian Nathaniel Storrs, who had developed his own phonetic alphabet in 1826, presented at the end of a memoir commemorating him at the beginning of the work.

Graham, Andrew J., ed. Graham’s Phonetic Quarterly (periodical). 1856/7. A copy of the 1856 first edition is compiled with a number of stenographic periodicals at Google Books, while the second edition is available at HathiTrust.

A supporter of phonotypy, Andrew Graham used a distinct hybrid alphabet informed by both the forms of Pitman’s 1847 English Phonotypic Alphabet and Longley’s 1854 American Phonetic Alphabet, due to dissatisfaction with the latter.

Lepsius, C. R. Standard Alphabet for Reducing Unwritten Languages and Foreign Graphic Systems to a Uniform Orthography in European Letters, second ed. London: Williams & Norgate, 1863. Available on the Internet Archive.

While Lepsius’s “Standard Alphabet” was recommended for adoption by the Church Missionary Society for the purpose of spreading Christianity in Africa and Asia rather than as a spelling reform for English itself, its design would be highly influential on Ellis’s Palaeotype, and therefore, on the International Phonetic Alphabet, by way of Henry Sweet’s Romic alphabet (all below).

Bell, Alexander Melville. Visible Speech: The Science of Universal Alphabetics. London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1867. Available on the Internet Archive.

Bell’s Visible Speech is among the few alternate orthographies of English that has been the subject of a proposal to the ConScript Unicode Repository, and its scientific presentation of phonetics proved highly influential on later work.

Ellis, Alexander John. On early English Pronunciation, with especial reference to Shakspere and Chaucer, part I, “On the Pronunciation of the XIVth, XVIth, XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries.” London: Published for the Philological Society by Asher & Co., 1869. Available at the Internet Archive.

Though Ellis had largely stepped back from active participation in phonotypic spelling reform in the early 1850s, he nevertheless followed phonotypic developments in the United States of America in the antebellum period, being more favorable to the American Phonetic Alphabet of 1854 than Pitman’s experiments. In the 1860s, Ellis returned to the problem of representing speech in type (previously addressed in his 1848 volume Ƌɛ Esenʃɑls ov Fɷnetics, above), ultimately presenting his new ideas in this work, which first presented his Palaeotype alphabet. The Palaeotype alphabet was influenced not only by Bell’s work with Visible Speech (above) and S.S. Haldeman’s work to establish a universal alphabet (below), but also the work of orientalists like Karl Moritz Rapp, Max Müller, and Karl Richard Lepsius (the last, above) to transcribe the languages of Africa and Asia into an alphabet based on the Latin alphabet.

Axon, William E. A. The Future of the English Language: An Argument for a Spelling Reform (reprinted from the “Quarterly Journal of Science,” for July 1873). London: F. Pitman, 1874. Available at the Internet Archive.

This volume by William Axon advocated for spelling reform based on an 1871 version of Pitman’s English Phonetic Alphabet.

Withers, George. The English Language Spelled as Pronounced, with Enlarged Alphabet of Forty Letters, a letter for each distinct element in the language. London: Trübner & Co., Liverpool: J. Woollard, 1874. Available at the Internet Archive.

Withers was quite critical of Pitman’s changes to the English Phonotypic Alphabet after 1851, and elected to use one based on the 1847 alphabet in this work.

Sweet, Henry. A Handbook of Phonetics. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1877. Available at the Internet Archive.

In this work, Sweet presents his Romic alphabet, based upon Ellis’s Palaeotype (above), together with several letters from phonotypy. This Romic alphabet was the immediate predecessor of the International Phonetic Alphabet (below).

Phonetic Teachers’ Association. “aur rivàizd ælfəbit” [Our revised alphabet], ðə fonetik tîtcər [The Phonetic Teacher], August–September 1888. pp. 57–60. Available at HathiTrust.

This article presents the first version of what would become known as the International Phonetic Alphabet, and is based in part on the Romic alphabet (above).

Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Cambridge University Press, 1999.

While it does not include the latest substantive change to the IPA in the form of the addition of the labiodental flap /ⱱ/, added in 2005, this handbook remains the most comprehensive guide to the use of the modern International Phonetic Alphabet.

Fauvel-Gouraud, Francis. Practical Cosmophonography. New York: J. S. Redfield, 1850. Available on the Internet Archive.

Influenced by the phonography of Isaac Pitman and Hippolyte Prévost, Fauvel-Gouraud’s “typo-phonographic” version of his alphabet is of particular note as a response to phonotypy in particular.

Parkhurst, Henry M. “Ƌɛ Cozmɷfɷnetic Alfabet,” [The Cosmophonetic Alphabet], The Plowshare, June 1853, pp. 111–113. Printed in Boston. Available at HathiTrust.

Parkhurst, like Longley, was one of a number of Usonians who committed themselves to phonotypy prior to the creation of the American Phonetic Council, and his experimentation in The Plowshare included not only proposals for expanding phonotypy with other letters, but also his “Cosmophonetic” alphabet, in which he would intermittently print articles in The Plowshare, as well as in its sister periodical, The Cosmopolitan (printed exclusively in the alphabet). Often critical of the work of the Longley and the Council, Parkhurst never adopted the American Phonetic Alphabet of 1854, preferring instead to retain his own experimental phonotypic font and the Cosmophonetic Alphabet. Parkhurst ultimately abandoned the latter in July 1866.

Sproat, A. D. An Endeavor Towards a Universal Alphabet. Chillicothe, Ohio: A. D. Sproat, 1857. Available on the Internet Archive.

Sproat would continue to labor on phonetic alphabets for another dozen years, concluding with his 1870 pamphlet “Monalpha” (below).

Haldeman, S. S. “Analytic Orthography; an Investigation of the Sounds of the Voice, and their Alphabetical Notation,” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 11, new series (1860), pp. 259–402. Available on the Internet Archive.

Haldeman’s work was highly influential on later efforts on both sides of the ocean, both impacting Ellis’s work on Palaeotype as well as later Usonian spelling reform efforts.

Leigh, Edwin. Pronouncing Orthography. St. Louis, Missouri: 1864. A reformatted photocopy of an edition at the Library of Congress was prepared by Earl Eugene Roth, Jr. in 2010 and is available in the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

Several early education primers and readers using Pronouncing Orthography are also available at the Internet Archive.

Masquerier, Lewis. The Phonotypic Spelling and Reading Manual, applying the thorough principle of writing the English language according to the single sound invariably given to each vowel letter and the single modification of sound always given to each consonant letter. New York: Lewis Masquerier, 1867. Available at the Library of Congress.

Masquerier found both Pitman’s and Longley’s alphabets excessive in the number of letters used, instead preferring to realize the affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/, as well as diphthongs, as digraphs, and employing a set of small letters largely modeled on the capitals.

𐐜 𐐡𐐨𐐾𐐯𐑌𐐻𐑅 𐐱𐑂 𐑄 𐐔𐐯𐑅𐐨𐑉𐐯𐐻 𐐏𐐮𐐭𐑌𐐮𐑂𐐲𐑅𐐮𐐻𐐮 [The Regents of the Deseret University]. 𐐜 𐐔𐐯𐑅𐐨𐑉𐐯𐐻 𐐙𐐲𐑉𐑅𐐻 𐐒𐐳𐐿 [The Deseret First Book]. Salt Lake City(?): 1868. Available at the Internet Archive.

𐐜 𐐡𐐨𐐾𐐯𐑌𐐻𐑅 𐐱𐑂 𐑄 𐐔𐐯𐑅𐐨𐑉𐐯𐐻 𐐏𐐮𐐭𐑌𐐮𐑂𐐲𐑅𐐮𐐻𐐮 [The Regents of the Deseret University]. 𐐜 𐐔𐐯𐑅𐐨𐑉𐐯𐐻 𐐝𐐯𐐿𐐲𐑌𐐼 𐐒𐐳𐐿 [The Deseret Second Book]. Salt Lake City(?): 1868. Available at the Internet Archive.

Of the four volumes printed in the Deseret alphabet before its effective abandonment were these two readers.

Sproat, Amasa D. Monalpha. [Chillicothe, Ohio]: [A. D. Sproat], [1870].

No digital copies of this pamphlet are available, but a small number of library catalogs claim to hold a copy of Sproat’s second work on phonetic alphabets following his 1857 work (above).

Longley, Elias, ed. The Phonetic Educator (periodical). Cincinnati, Ohio: 1878–1885. Volume 1, Volume 5, and Volume 6 are all available at HathiTrust.

Elias Longley continued to use the American Phonetic Alphabet with only minor alterations after the end of the ten-year commitment he had made in 1854, as can be seen in the first few issues of The Phonetic Educator, but even he could not resist the temptation to leave the alphabet alone, given his own aesthetic preferences. In the fourth issue, dated August & September 1878, Longley made several revisions to his version of the phonotypic alphabet, and he continued to occasionally make modifications to his phonotypy in subsequent years.

Knudsen, Carl W. A Plea for the English Demotic Alphabet. South Norwalk, Conn.: C. W. Knudsen, 1880.

While I have been unable to locate a copy of this pamphlet online, several other books prepared in Knudsen’s alphabet for young readers do exist on HathiTrust, including a collection of Aesop’s fables and the gospel of Mark. Knudsen’s alphabet, like Longley’s later modifications to the American Phonetic Alphabet, shows influences not only from phonotypy, but also the Spelling Reform Alphabet (below).

American Spelling Reform Association. Bulletin of the Spelling Reform Association, also Buletin ov the Speling Reform Asoshiashun, Buletin ov dhi Speling Reform Asoshiashun, and Buletin ov dhi Speling Reform Asoshiēshun (periodical). Boston: 1877–1886. Issues between July 1877 and April 1878 featuring the initial development of the Spelling Reform Alphabet are available at the Internet Archive both bound on their own, as well as part of a more complete collection of issues between May 1877 to 1880 or 1881. HathiTrust also has a copy of the latter volume, as well as an isolated copy of an August 1885 issue.

Vickroy, T. R., “A Fonetic English Alfabet,” New-England Journal of Education, vol. 6, 6 September 1877, p. 100. Available at the Internet Archive.

While the American Spelling Reform Association continued to prepare types to help realize the alphabet of the 1876 convention, T. R. Vickroy presented a partial alphabet that attempted to realize its vowel scale. Vickroy, who involved himself heavily in the efforts of the Spelling Reform Association, would later develop another alphabet based on its work, the International Alphabet (below).

Vickroy, T. R. Ɑ Fonetic Furst Redur, Printed in the Alfabet and Speling ɵv [the] Speling Refɵrm Asoshiⱸshun. Cincinnati: Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co., [1878?]. Available at HathiTrust.

Vickroy, T. R., Ph.D., ed. Fonetic Ticher (periodical). St. Louis, Mo.: 1880(?)–1883(?). Volume 2 and Volume 4 available at HathiTrust.

Though nominally an organ of the Spelling Reform Association making use of the Spelling Reform Alphabet, Fonetic Ticher also served as a venue for Vickroy to develop his own alphabet based on the same principles, named the International Alphabet. This attempted to present a more radical reform than that proposed by the Association, reintroducing several phonotypic letters. Introduced with his article “Ɑ Fonetic Alfabet” in the October 1880 issue, Vickroy continued to develop and promote his alphabet into 1883, where the alphabet is presented in its entirety in an appendix.

March, F. A., LL.D. March’s A-B-C Book. Boston: Ginn & Heath, 1881. Available at the Internet Archive.

Spelling (periodical), vol. 1, December 1887 issue. Available at the Internet Archive.

This issue of the Spelling Reform Association’s official magazine, following the termination of Vickroy’s Fonetic Ticher (above), presents a summary of the development and evolution of the Spelling Reform Alphabet into the “Standard Fonetic Alfabet,” which eliminated the transitional letters of the earlier alphabet, thereby reducing the number of additional letters of the alphabet to three.

Mott, John M. Mott’s Phonology and Phonotype: A Text Book. Chicago: John M. Mott & Company, 1902. Available at HathiTrust.

Though efforts to reform English spelling through a one-letter-for-one-sound principle had largely ended with the adoption of amended spelling in the 1880s by the Spelling Reform Association, the 1900s saw a brief revival of efforts to revive the idea for pedagogical purposes, with Mott’s 1902 effort explicitly acknowledging a debt to the 1877 Spelling Reform Alphabet while proposing a number of letterforms unique to Mott.

Report of a Joint Committee Representing the National Educational Association, the American Philological Association, and the Modern Language Association of America on the Subject of a Phonetic English Alphabet. New York: The Publishers’ Printing Company, 1904. Available at the Internet Archive.

As the Standard Fonetic Alfabet was gradually seen to have failed in its aim of improving English orthography, the compromises made in its creation to support the cause of spelling reform increasingly became seen as liabilities when the alphabet was applied to the problem of modeling speech scientifically. In particular, like many of its forebears, the Standard Fonetic Alfabet failed to model the “obscure” vowel /ə/. In addition, the many digraphs in the “post-transition” alphabet were seen as undesirable in a more “scientific” alphabet. As such, this report was prepared, proposing a “Revised Phonetic Alphabet” to address these issues.

“The Third Approach,” Spelling, vol. 2, December 1931, pp. 49–52. Available at HathiTrust.

Though the moribund Spelling Reform Association had been largely supplanted by the newly-founded Simplified Spelling Board in 1906 thanks to funding from Andrew Carnegie, efforts at spelling reform in the United States largely ended with his death in 1920. Nevertheless, both organizations lumbered on in diminished form, publishing one volume of a new magazine entitled Spelling with the assistance of the English Simplified Spelling Society briefly in 1925 before going on hiatus. In 1928, the Spelling Reform Association and Simplified Spelling Board commissioned an entirely new Spelling Reform Alphabet from noted type designer Frederic W. Goudy, returning to the one-letter-for-one-sound principle that had motivated previous efforts while adding the two new vowels introduced in the Revised Phonetic Alphabet. This new Spelling Reform Alphabet has the curious feature of using small letters in a bold weight in place of proper capital forms and was formally presented in print only in this final December 1931 issue of the second volume of Spelling.

Young, Thomas, M.D. “A Description of Articulate Sounds, with Appropriate Characters,” in A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts, vol. 2, pp. 276–278. London: Printed for Joseph Johnson, 1807. Available on the Internet Archive.

Noted by Ellis, this alphabet attempts to unify Latin capital letters with Greek letters in order to define a universal alphabet.

Edmunds, George. The Philosophic Alphabet, with an explanation of its principles, and a variety of extracts, illustrating its adaptation to the sounds of the English language. London: Published by Simpson and Marshall, 1832. Available at HathiTrust.

Latham, R. G. An Address to the Authors of England and America, on the Necessity and Practicability of Permanently Remodelling Their Alphabet and Orthography. Cambridge, W. Metcalfe, 1834. Available from HathiTrust.

While Latham’s work largely avoided use of the new letters he proposed adding due to the cost of casting them for print, it nevertheless featured an early proposal to use a turned v for the open mid-back unrounded vowel /ʌ/ (though Latham preferred to cast a version of ou [ȣ] for that purpose). Latham also proposed importing the turned m [ɯ] from Michele Antonio Vassalli’s Maltese orthography to represent the voiceless post-alveolar fricative /ʃ/, though its only print appearance in an appended note suggests instead the shape of turned m with a long leg [ɰ] for this letter. Latham’s later work was known to Alexander John Ellis and is listed among select works on phonetics in the May 1844 issue of The Phonotypic Journal.

Smart, B. H. Walker Remodelled. A new critical pronouncing dictionary of the English language, adapted to the present state of literature and science. London: Printed for T. Cadell, Strand, 1836. Available on HathiTrust.

An early pronouncing dictionary noted by Ellis, the orthography provided in the prefatory material is intended for that purpose rather than spelling reform.

Thibaudin, Auguste. A. Thibaudin’s proposed original system for a radical, universal & philosophical reform in the spelling of languages. London: Printed for the author, 1842. Available at Google Books.

This pamphlet, noted by both Wheatley and Ellis, like Young’s alphabet (above), falls more in the category of the “universal alphabet” explored by Wilkins, Lodwick and the American “cosmophonographers” of the 1850s than an English phonetic alphabet.

Clark, Thomas. An Attempt at Vocal English; that is, English spelled as spoken, on the principle of every spelling having one sound, and every sound one spelling, and, as far as possible, by means of the common printing types. Aberdeen: Privately printed, 1844.

This work was known to Pitman and Ellis, and part of it was reprinted in the September 1844 issue of The Phonotypic Journal, albeit using Pitman’s phonotypy.

Beniowski, Bartłomiej. The Anti-Absurd or Phrenotypic English Pronouncing & Orthographical Dictionary. London: T. Hatton, 1844. Available at the Internet Archive.

Herschel, J. F. W. “Sound,” sec. 3, “Of the Voice,” Encyclopædia Metropolitana, vol. iv, second division, “Mixed Sciences, Vol. II.” London: Published by John Joseph Griffin and Company, 1849. Available on the Internet Archive.

Noted by Ellis, this article contains a handful of proposed letters to describe English consonants, largely taken from the Greek alphabet.

Tooth, Edwin. “The Imperial Uttersign Alphabet. The intended alphabet of the Anglo-Saxon Race.” Newhall, Burton-upon-Trent: 1881(?).

This broadsheet is briefly discussed in the November 1881 issue of the German-language periodical Zeitschrift für Orthographie, Orthoepie und Sprachphysiologie (pp. 36–7) and is listed in John Westby-Gibson’s 1887 work The Bibliography of Shorthand. No other record of it is known to exist.

Bell, Alexander Melville. World-English: The Universal Language. New York: N. D. C. Hodges, London: Trübner & Co., 1888. Available at the Internet Archive.

Following his work on Visible Speech, Bell turned his efforts towards English alphabet reform, presenting his thoughts on the subject in this 1888 work.

Story, Charles A. The Fonetic Primer. New York City: Published by Isaac H. Blanchard Company, 1907. Available at the Internet Archive.

Eldridge, R.C. A Phonetic Alphabet: Why we need it, What it would do for us, How we can have it now. Niagara Falls, N.Y.: R.C. Eldridge, 1913. Available at the Internet Archive.

While most Usonian spelling reformers had already switched to amended-spelling-based approaches well before they began to place their weight behind the ultimately unsuccessful efforts of the Simplified Spelling Board starting in 1906, some Usonians continued to insist upon the adoption of phonetic-alphabet-based solutions for a number of years following.

Johnston, Sir Harry. Phonetic Spelling: A proposed Universal Alphabet for the rendering of English, French, German and all other forms of Speech. Cambridge: University Press, 1913. Available at HathiTrust.

Though the International Phonetic Alphabet would eventually prevail as the primary alphabet for phonetic transcription used by linguists and phoneticists outside of Americanist schools, it was not so well established by the eve of the First World War that Englishmen did not see it fit to offer their own proposal for such a standard.

Pitman, I. J. The Ehrhardt Augmented (40-sound, 42-character) Lower Case Roman Alphabet: The Reasons and Intentions Underlying its Design Together with a Specimen. London: 1959.

This alphabet would become better known as the experimental “Initial Teaching Alphabet” and saw use through much of the 1960s in England and some parts of the United States of America in an attempt to teach students to read.

Shaw, Bernard. Androcles and the Lion, printed in the Shaw Alphabet with a parallel transcription in traditional orthography. London: Penguin Books, 1962.

This work was the only work of Shaw’s that managed to enter print following a bequest for a contest to create a novel English alphabet following his death. Its creator, Kingsley Read, would go on to create a second version of the alphabet, Quikscript (below), following extended use of the alphabet in handwritten correspondence in the early 1960s.

Paulsen, Vic. Torskript: a practical form of written communication for English-speaking people of all nations. San Francisco, Calif.: Torskript Publishers, 1963.

Downing, John A. The Initial Teaching Alphabet: Explained and Illustrated. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1964.

John A. Downing led studies into the effectiveness of the Initial Teaching Alphabet and introduced readers to his research in this 1964 volume.

Ratz, Margaret S. Unifon: A Design for Teaching Reading. Western Pub. Educational Services, 1966.

Developed by the Chicagoan John R. Malone as part of an effort to develop a universal phonemic code for air travel, Unifon was later repurposed to teach children how to read and was trialed for this purpose in the Usonian Midwest between the 1960s and 1980s.

Read, Kingsley. Quikscript: Its Alphabet and Manual, with a general introduction to reformed alphabetic writings. Worcester, England: 1966. Available on the Internet Archive.

Following real-world use of the Shavian alphabet (above), its creator Kingsley Read created a second version of the alphabet, Quikscript, with an eye towards optimizing its use in handwriting.

Downing, John A. and William Latham. Evaluating the Initial Teaching Alphabet. London: Cassell, 1967.

This volume contains the final results of John A. Downing’s experiments in using the Initial Teaching Alphabet to teach British schoolchildren to read.

Berg, Måns Björkman. “Tengwar — English General Use,” Amanye Tenceli. 2005–2026.

The author J.R.R. Tolkien is well known for the constructed script Tengwar in which his languages Quenya and Sindarin were both written. During his lifetime, however, Tolkien also employed Tengwar to write English in two different modes, orthographic and phonemic, replicating the tension between traditional English spelling and newer phonetic alphabets.

Canepari, Luciano. Natural Phonetics and Tonetics: Articulatory, auditory, & functional. LINCOM Textbooks in Linguistics 13. LINCOM Academic Publishers, 2007.

Canepari, an Italian academic dissatisfied with what he saw as the limitations of the International Phonetic Alphabet, focused his efforts on preparing a vastly expanded version of the alphabet, canIPA, to better model what he called “natural phonetics.” His study of the natural phonetics of English was published in 2016 (below).

Chandrasekhar, Prasanna. Navlipi: A New Universal Script (“Alphabet”) Accommodating the Phonemic Idiosyncrasies of all the World’s Languages, vol. 1, “Another Look at Phonic and Phonemic Classification: Navlipi.” Branden Pub. Co., 2012.

Chandrasekhar, Prasanna. Navlipi: A New Universal Script (“Alphabet”) Accommodating the Phonemic Idiosyncrasies of all the World’s Languages, vol. 2, “Navlipi Companion: A Primer in Linguistics, Phonetic, Phonemic and Writing System with a Difference.” Alternative Book Press, 2013.

Chandrasekhar, dissatisfied with existing Latin orthographies’ tendencies to fail to encode the “particular and unique phonemic idiosyncrasies” of various languages, developed the Navlipi alphabet in order to do so.

Canepari, Luciano. English Pronunciation & Accents: Geo-social Applications of the Natural Phonetics & Tonetics Method, 2nd ed. LINCOM Studies in Phonetics 13. LINCOM Academic Publishers, 2016.

Canepari (about whom see above) applied his understanding of “natural phonetics” to the analysis of the English language in this 2016 volume, making extensive use of his expanded form of the International Phonetic Alphabet, canIPA.

Ager, Simon. “Alternative ways of writing English.” Omniglot: The Online Encyclopedia of Writing Systems & Languages. 1998–2026.

No list of alternative English orthographies would be complete without the many (largely fanciful) efforts collected by Simon Ager since 1998 on the website Omniglot.