Subphonetic Alphabet

We break down the phonetic spectrum in and 4x8 matrix as follows:

  b  z  d  g

  v  j  dh q   (frictive)

  p  s  t  k   (voiceless)

  f  c  th x   (voiceless frictive)

  m  l  n  ng  (glide)

  w  y  r  h   (semi-vowel)


  o  e  i  a   (short-vowel)

  oo ee ii aa  (long-vowel)

If we ignore voice, we can reduce this to:

  b/p  z/s   d/t    g/k

  v/f  j/z   dh/th  q/x    (frictive)

  m    l     n      ng     (glides)
 
  w    y     r      h      (glides)


  o    e     i      aa      (short)

  oo   ee    ii     aa     (long)

Use a single apostrophe as the diaretic marker for short vs. long vowels.

  b/p  z/s   d/t   g/k

  v/f  j/z  dh/th  q/x    (frictive)

  m     l     n     ng    (glides)

  w     y     r     h     (glides)

  o/o'  a/a'  e/e'  i/i'  (short/long)

Now we number our fingers

  0 - thumb
  1 - index
  2 - middle
  3 - ring
  4 - pinky

And the chart:

      0    1     2     3     

  0   b/p  z/s   d/t   g/k

  1   v/f  j/z  dh/th  q/x    (frictive)

  2   m     l     n     ng    (glides)

  3   w     y     r     h     (glides)

  4   o/o'  e/e'  i/i'  a/a'  (short/long)

We can type:

  20 34 03   10 04 03 13 14 23

   T  O  M    S  A  W  Y  E  R

On a QWERTY keyboard we could do something like:

  RIGHT HAND

        [<]  [l]   [;]   [']     

  [<]   b/p  z/s   d/t   g/k

  [k]   v/f  j/z  dh/th  q/x    (frictive)

  [l]   m     l     n     ng    (glides)

  [;]   w     y     r     h     (glides)

  [']   o/o'  e/e'  i/i'  a/a'  (short/long)


  LEFT HAND

        [c]  [f]   [d]   [s]     

  [c]   b/p  z/s   d/t   g/k

  [f]   v/f  j/z  dh/th  q/x    (frictive)

  [d]   m     l     n     ng    (glides)

  [s]   w     y     r     h     (glides)

  [a]   o/o'  e/e'  i/i'  a/a'  (short/long)

It's difficult to use the thumbs for anything but the spacebar on a QWERTY keyboard. So qwerty is not as ideal as a simple ergnomic finger board.

On a Phone