Random Dotless I Orthography (RDIO) – a simple and clean alternate English orthography with minimalist additions

Ràndım Dotlıs İ Orțogrıfi (RDİO) – ı simpıl ànd klyn oltırnıt İŋgliș orțogrıfi wiț minimılist àdișıns

After having used my other alternate English orthography YAAEO for quite a while, I wondered if there was a way to have the vowel letters represent English phonology accurately without re-adjusting the pronunciation of ⟨A⟩ and ⟨U⟩ as I had done in YAAEO, which was one of my biggest gripes with that scheme. This was the end result, and this of course means giving it a funky new name to distinguish it from the old! I’m just gonna call this the Random Dotless I Orthography, or RDIO for short, since its most prominent feature is the ‘dotless I’ and I’m aware that English spelling isn’t going to be reformed anytime soon, so this is just a fun and random take on how I feel it should be done.

As with YAAEO, the key design principle was efficiency. It uses just 1 additional diacritic-capped vowel letter (À), 1 modded vowel letter (the ‘dotless I’, I/ı) and 5 additional consonant letters (Ț, Ð/þ, Ŋ, Ș and Ż) to complement the existing 26 letters of the alphabet and allow them to be able to cover all of the English phonemes with minimal ambiguity. And a whole bunch of highly opinionated stuff that not everyone might agree with – but we’ll get to that shortly.

Since this shares a lot of principles with YAAEO, most of the text here has been copied over from my YAAEO article.

The problem with other alternate English orthographies

Many of the alternate English orthographies promoted by English spelling reformers have issues that make them more complex:

• SoundSpel uses just the original 26 letters with an emphasis on retaining the existing phonetic English spelling conventions (e.g. ‘all’ to represent /ɔl/), but contains a sizable amount of exceptions to the rules that increase its overall complexity.
• Cut Spelling aims to reduce redundant letters in the current orthography and make it more phonetic to a limited extent, but doesn’t try to re-spell words in a more phonetic manner.
  • It introduces an additional layer of guesswork as unstressed vowels are completely removed – for instance, ‘permanent’ gets re-spelled as ‘permnnt’. When someone sees this, should they pronounce it as ‘permanent’, ‘permnent’ or ‘permnanet’?
  • Also, this system only seems to cater for those who already know how to read the current English orthography.

Many other alternate orthographies have also been published by individuals over the years, most of which have issues of their own:

• Overuse of diacritics – it’s tempting to use diacritics for every single English phoneme not covered by their own letter, liberally sprinkling them across even the most common vowels and consonants. The end result is an unsightly mess that would be troublesome to handwrite easily – I mën, órganäsing it betør wûd bë mâçh mõre ëffectivè. (Admittedly I had fallen into this trap once: see this monstrosity from a few years ago, for instance.)
• Overuse of digraphs and ligatures – on the flip side, one can also try use some familiar digraphs to represent the most common vowels (e.g. the /iː/ sound in ‘see’). The problem with overly using digraphs (and their conjoined cousins the ligatures) is simple: Texts get long and unwieldy pretty quickly – eemajeen eef everytheeng loookd like thees!?! bæd oorgeaniceayshaen!
• Not designed with universal communication in mind – many of them tend to focus exclusively on representing 1 particular English dialect. Those that are based on American accents tend to merge the /ɔ/ sound in ‘not’, ‘lock’ and ‘bother’ with the /a/ sound in ‘father’, while some of those based on non-rhotic accents leave out final -r altogether. This makes them harder to understand for those who are not familiar with the accent of the creator.
• ‘-z’ at the end of words – this one’s probably just me, but let’s be honest: ‘-z’ at the end of wordz can get quite jarring sometimez. Maybe it’s because ‘z’ is the only lowercase letter with sharp angles. Who knows.
• Retention of ‘deviant’ English vowel pronunciation – some of them also preserve the traditional pronunciations of ‘a’ = /eɪ/, ‘e’ = /iː/, ‘i’ = /aɪ/ and ‘u’ = /a/~/ʌ/ that the current English orthography uses. This is rather different from how these letters are actually pronounced in the rest of the world.

For an example of what improper diacritic use can do to the overall appearance of an orthography, one can simply refer to the Restored Latinate Spelling (RLS). To be fair, this is actually one of the better ones out there, being based on a blend of the most widely known English dialects and using the Latin vowels more closely aligned with their original sounds (U = /ʊ/ etc). However, in this author’s opinion, it then makes some questionable letter choices that seem to be more influenced by their availability on the U.S International keyboard layout than whether it actually looks nice to look at. For instance, RLS uses a modded O with a slash ⟨Ø⟩ for the schwa, the most common vowel in English, then uses ⟨Ñ⟩ for /ŋ/ and ⟨Ç⟩ for /ʃ/ – all of these letters stick out like sore thumbs amongst the rest of the Latin letters. The end result is that texts written in RLS look somewhat unsightly to those who are not acquainted with it: as a transcription system for academic use, it would probably work alright – but as an all-purpose alphabet for daily use, it just isn’t suited for the task.

Why I reckon RDIO is better

RDIO aims to overcome the previously mentioned issues by adopting the following principles:

• Minimal additions – RDIO aims to minimise the usage of diacritics and new letters except where needed, with only 7 new letters added to the existing 26 letters of the Latin alphabet: À, I/ı, Ț, Ð/þ, Ŋ, Ș and Ż.
• Represents a blend of British RP and General American – these are the 2 most widely known English dialects, widely understood by many around the world. RDIO preserves the vowel distinctions of the British accent and the final -r’s of the American accent.
• The -s suffix is always written as -s – to minimise the ‘-z at end of words’ jarring effect, I decided the ‘-s’ suffix (as well as final -z in the most common words such as ‘was’, ‘is’, and ‘always’) shall be always written as ‘-s’ no matter how it’s pronounced, significantly reducing the jarring effect without sacrificing too much phonetic information.
• Based on ‘continental’ vowel pronunciation – in RDIO, vowel letter pronunciations more closely correspond with their original values, which are widely used in continental European languages and many other languages that have adopted the Latin script: A = /a/~/ʌ/, E = /ɛ/ or /e/, I = /ɪ/ or /i/, O = /ɔ/ and U = /ʊ/ or /u/. This would make it much easier to comprehend for anyone familiar with a phonemic Latin orthography such as the ones used to write Spanish, Turkish and Indonesian.

Other advantages

• Directly represents long vowels and diphthongs (such as the ‘ay’ sound in ‘say’) with their constituent vowels, not as something else, while also balancing aesthetics with careful use of well-known digraphs.
• A lot of common English words retain their original spellings, such as ‘red’ and ‘hop’.
  • Many other words only differ by a few letters and are easily recognisable: ‘can’ becomes ‘kàn’, ‘simple’ becomes ‘simpıl’, and ‘fire’ becomes ‘faiır’.
• Usually more compact than conventional English orthography – in RDIO, the 11-letter word ‘acknowledge’ becomes ‘àknolij’, which is just 7 letters.
• Easy to type – in my RDIO keyboard (see below), most new letters are located on the left side of the keyboard opposite the Alt Gr key for easy access.
• Easy to typeset – supported by a large variety of high-quality Latin script fonts of all shapes and sizes.
• Where introduced, new letters have been carefully selected to graphically fit in with the existing letters for a clean look.

Disadvantages of RDIO

• Many words will have different spellings (kof kof).
• Requires a new keyboard layout to write the 7 new letters.
• Some words become longer, especially if they have a lot of diphthongs: ‘isolation’ (9 characters) becomes ‘aisoeleișın’ (11 characters).
• The use of the letter ⟨C⟩ in RDIO differs from its normal usage in the current English orthography.
• May suffer from the ‘Turkish I problem‘.
• I’m not exactly sure whether digraphs with dotless I like ‘iı’ and ‘uı’ look nice aesthetically.

Defining the vowel letters

In RDIO, the core Latin script vowel letters have the expected continental pronunciations. The only difference is that capital I now has a dot on top, just like the lowercase I – this is needed to distinguish it from the ‘dotless I’.

• A a = /a/~/ʌ/ (as in ‘fun’ and ‘but’)
• E e = /ɛ/ (as in ‘bed’)
• İ i = /ɪ/ (as in ‘bid’)
• O o = /ɔ/ (as in ‘lot’)
• U u = /ʊ/ (as in ‘foot’ and ‘look’)

The /ɑ/ vowel found in American accents corresponds to /ɔ/ in British RP and does not contrast with /ɔ/, so I’ll consistently refer to it as /ɔ/ from here on.

Things get more interesting for the /æ/ sound in ‘fan’ and ‘band’, and the ‘schwa’ /ə/ in ‘-tion’ and the last vowel of ‘comma’. Both of these vowels are very common and would ideally have their own distinct letters, but because Latin is Latin, some modification would be needed to give each of them a unique letter.

For /æ/, I’ll just put a grave accent on top of ⟨A⟩ since it’s relatively easy to incorporate into running handwriting. This also ensures that words currently spelt with the letter ‘A’ don’t change too much in RDIO, as would be the case if I had used ⟨Æ⟩ instead.

• À à = /æ/ (as in ‘fan’ and ‘band’)

Since I consider the schwa /ə/ to be a distinct phoneme, I felt it would be best to write it with 1 letter. As there aren’t any more vowel letters to pillage already, how could one write /ə/ without just slapping on a random diacritic on an existing vowel?

One could just adopt the schwa letter ⟨Ə⟩ outright. But this would also severely limit my font options as many fonts simply refuse to support ⟨Ə⟩ altogether! (Yes, I know Azerbaijani language uses ⟨Ə⟩, but apparently it wasn’t enough to get all font designers to care much about including ⟨Ə⟩.)

This is where the ‘dotless I’ ⟨ı⟩ comes in. Originally developed for the reformed Turkish language in the late 1920s to replace the previous Arabic-based script after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War 1, dotless I is simple to write and easily blends in with the existing Latin script letters. Yep, this would mean having to deal with the ‘Turkish I problem‘ which causes some software to malfunction unless the locale is set to Turkish. But because it’s so well supported by just about every professional Latin script font and even blends in well with the rest of the Latin script, it’s a no-brainer to pick.

• I ı = /ə/ (as in ‘-tion’ and the last vowel of ‘comma’)

The end result is a 7-vowel system that can then be used to represent the diphthongs and long vowels in an intuitive way:

• Ai ai = /aɪ/ (as in ‘high’)
• Au au = /aʊ/ (as in ‘now’)
• Ei ei = /eɪ/ (as in ‘say’)
• Oi oi = /ɔɪ/ (as in ‘toy’)
• Uı uı = /ʊə/ (as in ‘tour’)
• Yu iu = /ju/ (as in ‘use’)
• Oo oo = /ɔː/ (as in ‘bought’)
• Ou ou = /uː/ (as in ‘pool’. This one’s due to aesthetics: I think ‘ou’ looks nicer than ‘uu’)
• Oe oe = /oʊ/~/əʊ/ (as in ‘dough’. I would have used ⟨Ou⟩ but it already got used for /uː/ above, so this will do)

The /iː/ sound (as in ‘bead’) is another very common vowel without its own letter. Although normally used as a consonant sound, ⟨Y⟩ is regularly used to represent an ‘I’-like sound in normal English spelling – hence, it shall be used to represent this vowel sound. The only exception is when /iː/ begins a word or is right after a ‘Y’ consonant, for which the digraph ⟨İe⟩ shall be used instead, which works fine as no English word contains /ɪɛ/ or something like that. For instance: ‘heat’ -> ‘hyt’, ‘eat’ -> ‘iet’, and ‘yield’ -> ‘yield’.

• İe y = /iː/ (as in ‘bead’)

Rhotic vowels

IPA charts for English often include these phonetic vowel sequences as well. Whereas some alternate orthographies try to give a special symbol to the vowel or imitate the jankiness of normal English spelling, RDIO takes a simpler and far more practical approach: just append an -r at the end. Couldn’t be more simple.

• Ar ar = /aː(ɹ)/ (as in ‘far’)
• Or or = /ɔː(ɹ)/ (as in ‘north’)
• Oer oer = /oː(ɹ)/ (as in ‘force’)
• Er er = /ɛə(ɹ)/ (as in ‘chair’)
• Ir ır = /ɜː(ɹ)/~/ə(ɹ)/ (as in ‘nurse’)
• Ur ur = /ʊə(ɹ)/ (as in ‘tour’)
• İır iır = /ɪə(ɹ)/~/ɪ(ɹ)/ (as in ‘near’)
• Yur iur = /jʊə(ɹ)/ (as in ‘cure’)

Although iır is the preferred spelling for the /ɪə(ɹ)/~/ɪ(ɹ)/ sound, ir is an acceptable alternate spelling. All other rhotic vowel sequences are represented by appending the letter ‘r’ at the end of the vowel, e.g. /aɪɹ/ = air.

Also, these rhotic digraphs only apply when they stand alone or come before consonants. Should a vowel follow it, the ‘r’ is considered as part of a 2nd syllable with the following vowel instead.

Defining the consonant letters

For most consonant letters, their pronunciations are the same as in normal English orthography: ⟨R⟩ = /ɹ/, ⟨P⟩ = /p/, etc. Pretty straightforward.

This leaves us with the 3 ‘redundant letters’ of the Latin script: ⟨C⟩, ⟨Q⟩ and ⟨X⟩. What to do with them?

⟨C⟩ was pretty straightforward: it will not be pronounced as /s/ or /k/ depending on context anymore. Instead, in RDIO, ⟨C⟩ solely represents the /tʃ/ sound in ‘change’, as in Indonesian orthography. This also means that all instances of ⟨C⟩ pronounced /s/ will be replaced with ⟨S⟩, and likewise for ⟨C⟩ pronounced as /k/, which becomes ⟨K⟩. For instance: ‘contact’ -> ‘kontàkt’, ‘celebrate’ -> ‘selıbreit’, ‘cheese’ -> ‘cyz’. It might seem strange to some at first, but one can think of this as the ‘ch’ digraph without the ‘h’ letter.

• C c = /tʃ/ (as in ‘change’)

⟨Q⟩ will stay, but it shall only be used for personal and brand names – in English language words, all instances of ⟨Q⟩ (e.g. ‘queue’) are replaced with ⟨K⟩ as its sound is already represented with ⟨K⟩.

The letter ⟨X⟩ is used as a contraction of ⟨KS⟩, just as in normal English words like ‘box’ and ‘complex’ (komplex).

• X x = /ks/, /gz/ (as in ‘box’)

Handling consonants without their own letters

Still, there are 5 more consonants that don’t have a letter of their own in the Latin alphabet. To represent these letters, an archaic lowercase letter was revived and simple modifications were added to existing letters such that they are easy to integrate into handwriting.

The velar nasal /ŋ/ is one of the most common sounds in English without its own letter and is almost always represented with the digraph ‘ng’. ⟨Ŋ⟩ shall be used as it visually integrates well with the other Latin letters and can easily be interpreted as the end result of slurring the lowercase letters ‘n’ and ‘g’ together in handwriting.

• Ŋ ŋ = /ŋ/ (as in ‘sing’)

/θ/ and /ʃ/ are represented by appending a comma diacritic to the bottom of the ⟨T⟩ and ⟨S⟩ letters respectively. While using the caron ˇ would be equally effective, I settled on the comma below as used in Romanian, since it was the least intrusive diacritic available and can be made to easily flow from the downward strokes of both ⟨T⟩ and ⟨S⟩ in handwriting.

• Ț ț = /θ/ (as in ‘thank’)
• Ș ș = /ʃ/ (as in ‘share’)

To write /ð/ in lowercase, I shall rivive ye olde ‘thorn’ letter ⟨þ⟩, the ancient letter from the Old English alphabet which was used to write /θ/ a long time ago, since /ð/ was also a common pronunciation of ⟨þ⟩ back when it was still used – one can think of þ as a mini version of the uppercase letter D with the vertical stroke stretched out. Also, /ð/ is somewhat more frequent than /θ/, so it makes more sense to give /ð/ its own unique letter.
Since I don’t really like the way that the letter ‘thorn’ looks in uppercase ⟨Þ⟩, I’m gonna get the uppercase form to just be the ⟨Ð⟩ letter with a stroke.

• Ð þ = /ð/ (as in ‘the’)

/ʒ/ is represented by a dot above the letter ⟨Z⟩, since it was the least attention-grabbing diacritic I could find for this letter. I would have chosen Z with a comma for consistency with the letters for /θ/ and /ʃ/, but given that Unicode does not have a dedicated character for that combination and /ʒ/ is a relatively uncommon sound to begin with, this will do.

• Ż ż = /ʒ/ (as in ‘azure’)

Letters

Now that all phonemes have been assigned, here’s a table of all the letters and digraphs used in RDIO.

Consonants

/p/ p (port)	/b/ b (born)	/f/ f (free)	/v/ v (van)	/m/ m (moon)
/t/ t (test)	/d/ d (done)	/θ/ ț (thank)	/ð/ þ (the)	/n/ n (new)
/k/ k (call)	/g/ g (get)	.	.	/ŋ/ ŋ (sing)
/s/ s (soon)	/z/ z (zoo)	/ʃ/ ș (share)	/ʒ/ ż (closure)	.
/tʃ/ c (change)	/dʒ/ j (just)	.	.	.
/w/ w (way)	/ɹ/ r (run)	/l/ l (laugh)	/j/ y (yell)	/h/ h (house)

Vowels

/a/~/ʌ/ a (sun)	/æ/ à (can)
/ɛ/ e (head)	/ə/~/ɜ/ ı (sure)
/ɪ/ i (bid)	/iː/ y, ie (bead)
/ɔ/ o (pot)	/ɔː/ oo (bought)
/ʊ/ u (pull)	/uː/ ou (pool)

Note that /iː/ comes in 2 different forms. The 2nd form is only to be used when it begins a word or after the ‘Y’ consonant: the 1st form is used in all other cases.

Phoneme	1st form	2nd form	2nd form after ‘Y’
/iː/	/miːt/ = myt	/iːt/ = iet	/jiːt/ = yiet

Diphthongs

/aɪ/ ai (high)	/aʊ/ au (now)
/eɪ/ ei (day)	/ɔɪ/ oi (toy)
/oʊ/~/əʊ/ oe (dough)	/ju/ iu, yu (use)

/ju/ comes in 2 different forms. The 2nd form is only to be used when it begins a word: the 1st form is used in all other cases.

Phoneme	1st form	2nd form
/ju/	/nju/ = niu	/ju/ = yu

Triphthongs

/aɪə/ aiı (higher)	/aʊə/ auı (tower)
/jʊə/ yuı, iuı (cure)	.

Rhotic vowel sequences

/aː(ɹ)/ ar (far)	/ɔː(ɹ)/ or (north)
/ɛə(ɹ)/ er (chair)	/ɜː(ɹ)/~/ə(ɹ)/ ır (nurse)
/ʊə(ɹ)/ ur (tour)	/oː(ɹ)/ oer (force)
/ɪə(ɹ)/~/ɪ(ɹ)/ iır (near)	/jʊə(ɹ)/ yur, iur (cure)

Special contractions

/ks/, /gz/ x (box)

Miscellaneous letters and digraphs

These can be used for transcribing particular accents of English.

/ʍ/ hw (what)	/x/ ķ (loch)	/ɣ/ ģ
/aː/ aa (father)	.	.

• hw is to be used if the 1st consonant in ‘what’ (/ʍ/) and ‘way’ (/w/) needs to be distinguished.
• ķ is for writing the last consonant in ‘loch’ (/x/) and in loanwords from other languages.
• ģ is for writing loanwords from other languages.
• aa is to be used if the vowel in ‘son’ (/a/~/ʌ/) and ‘father’ (/aː/) needs to be distinguished. (Normally, both will be written as a)

Letter ordering

There are 2 ways to order the letters of the RDIO alphabet: the ‘traditional’ ABC order and my custom linguistically-based PBF order.

Traditional ABC-based order

The additional letters are placed after the base letter from which they were derived from.

Hence the order shall be: A À B C D Ð E F G H İ I J K L M N Ŋ O P Q R S Ș T Ț U V W X Y Z Ż.

Custom PBF order

I also devised a letter ordering inspired by those in South and Southeast Asian scripts such as Devanagari and Khmer that groups letters based on the linguistic features of their sounds: (1) bilabial consonants, (2) alveolar consonants, (3) velar consonants (including X and Q), (4) sibilants, (5) affricates, (6) approximants + glottal consonants, and (7) vowels.

The PBF order, including groups, shall be: P B F V M, T D Ț Ð N, K G Q X Ŋ, S Z Ș Ż, C J, W R L Y H, A À E İ I O U.

Examples

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Yunivırsıl Deklıreișın of Hiumın Raits

Ol hiumın byŋs ar born fry ànd ikuıl in digniti ànd raits. Ðei ar endaud wiț ryzın ànd konșıns ànd șud àkt towırds wan ınaþır in ı spirit of braþırhud.

(Artikıl 1 of þi Yunivırsıl Deklıreișın of Hiumın Raits)

Excerpt from a short story I wrote a while ago

For comparison, you can view the original one here.

Ai hàd ı streinj drym þàt nait.

İn þàt drym, Ai faund maiself ıweikıniŋ, laiiŋ on soft gryn gras, in ı fàntısi 8-bit wırld sıraundıd bai kompiutırs. Ðı luminıns of blinkiŋ moedems ànd worm, ciırful ciptiun miuzik fild þi er. Olþoe evrițiŋ lukd bloki ànd skwer, it broot mi bàk tu þoez deis. Of ol þı kompiutırs Ai soo, 1 of þem wıs pleiiŋ mai feivrıt soŋ! Ai jamp ànd lyp in joi oevır þı sait. Ai þen soo mai haus, ànd Ai sed “Hai” tu mai best meits, hu wır weitiŋ autsaid. Wi wookd tugeþır, hàviŋ ı ciıri càt ıbaut þı kompiutır geim Ai wıs wırkiŋ on ırliır.

“Soe wats þàt kul geim gona bi ıbaut, ei?” wan of þem askd.
“İf yu lıvd Marioe, yul lıv þis!” Ai sed.
“Oosım!!! Kànt weit tu si it!” İnsaid mi þı faiır tu kyp mi goeiŋ bikeim stroŋgır.

Wi wookd intu ı vivid sanset. Ai reminisd þı memoris of past samırs, pleiiŋ retroe vidioe geims in þı kul șeid, ivın þoe þı san autsaid pykd àt 42 digrys ànd meltıd evrițiŋ els.

More examples

These are clippings of random quotes from English literature and famous English-speaking politicians, re-rendered in RDIO.

1. “Houevır gavırns Siŋıpor mast hàv þàt aiın in him. Or giv it ap. Ðis is not ı geim of kards! Ðis is yor laif ànd main! Aiv spent ı hoel laiftaim bildiŋ þis ànd às loŋ às Aim in carj, noebadi is goeiŋ tu nok it daun.” [1]
2. “Far betır it is tu der maiti țiŋs, tu win gloriıs traiımfs, ivın þoe cekırd bai feiliır, þàn tu teik ràŋk wiț þoez pur spirits hou nyþır enjoi mac nor safır mac, bikoz þei liv in þı grei twailait þàt noes nyþır viktıri nor difyt.” [2]
3. “Ai wantıd yu tu si wat ryl karij is, insted of getiŋ þi aidiı þàt karij is ı màn wiț ı gan in his hànd. İts wen yu noe yur likd bifor yu bigin bat yu bigin eniwei ànd yu si it țrou noe màtır wat.” [3]
4. “İt wıs þı best of taims, it wıs þı wırst of taims, it wıs þi eij of wizdım, it wıs þi eij of foulișnıs, it wıs þi epık of bilyf, it wıs þi epık of inkridiuliti, it wıs þı syzın of lait, it wıs þı syzın of darknıs, it wıs þı spriŋ of hoep, it wıs þı wintır of disper.” [4]
5. “Wai did yu du ol þis for mi?” hi askd. “Ai dont dizırv it. Aiv nevır dan enițiŋ for yu.” “Yu hàv byn mai frend,” riplaid Carlıtt. “Ðàt in itself is ı trimendıs țiŋ.” [5]
6. “İf yu kànot ryd ol yor buks… Fondıl þem – piır intu þem, let þem fol oepın wer þei wil, ryd from þı fırst sentıns þàt ırests þi ai, set þem bàk on þı șelvs wiț yor oen hànds, ıreinj þem on yor oen plàn soe þàt yu àt lyst noe wer þei ar. Let þem bi yor frends; let þem, àt eni reit, bi yor ıkweintınsıs.” [6]
7. “İt wıs on þı fırst dei of þı Niu Yiır þàt þi ınaunsmınt wıs meid, olmoest simılteiniısli from țry obzırvıtoris, þàt þı moeșın of þı plànıt Neptiun, þi autırmoest of ol þı plànıts þàt wyl ıbaut þı san, hàd bikam veri iràtik. Ogilvy hàd olredi kold ıtenșın tu ı sıspektıd ritardeișın in its vılositi in Disembır. Sac ı pys of nius wıs skersli kalkiuleitıd tu intrıst ı wırld þı greitır porșın of hous inhàbitınts wer anıwer of þi ixistıns of þı plànıt Neptiun, nor autsaid þi àstrınomikıl prıfeșın did þı sabsikwınt diskavıri of ı feint rimoet spek of lait in þı ryjın of þı pırtırbd plànıt kooz eni veri greit ixaitmınt. Saiıntifik pypıl, hauevır, faund þi intelijıns rimarkıbıl inaf, ivın bifor it bikeim noen þàt þı niu bodi wıs ràpidli groeiŋ larjır ànd braitır, þàt its moeșın wıs kwait difrınt from þi ordırli proegres of þı plànıts, ànd þàt þı diflekșın of Neptiun ànd its sàtılait wıs bikamiŋ nau of àn anpresidıntıd kaind.” [7]
8. “Ðer is ı gloriıs reinboe þàt bekıns þoez wiț þı spirit of àdvencır. Ànd þer ar ric faindiŋs àt þi end of þàt reinboe. Tu þı yaŋ ànd þı not tou oeld, Ai sei luk àt þı hıraizın, faind þàt reinboe, goe raid it. Not ol wil bi ric; kwait ı fiu wil faind ı vein of goeld; bat ol hou pırșu þàt reinboe wil hàv ı joiıs ànd exilireitiŋ raid ànd sam profit.” [8]

The Tower of Babel

This text is widely used by DIY language-crafters (‘conlangers’) to showcase the languages they have created. Here is what it looks like in RDIO:

Niu Kiŋ Jeims Baibıl (1982): Ðı Tauır of Beibıl [9]

Nau þı hoel ırț hàd wan làŋgwij ànd wan spyc. Ànd it keim tu pas, às þei jırnid from þı iest, þàt þei faund ı plein in þı lànd of Șinar, ànd þei dwelt þer. Ðen þei sed tu wan ınaþır, “Kam, let as meik briks ànd beik þem țarıli.” Ðei hàd brik for stoen, ànd þei hàd àsfolt for mortır. Ànd þei sed, “Kam, let as bild aurselvs ı siti, ànd ı tauır hous top is in þı hevıns; let as meik ı neim for aurselvs, lest wi bi skàtırd ıbrod oevır þı feis of þı hoel ırț.” Bat þı Lord keim daun tu si þı siti ànd þı tauır wic þı sans of men hàd bilt. Ànd þı Lord sed, “İndyd þı pypıl ar wan ànd þei ol hàv wan làŋgwij, ànd þis is wat þei bigin tu du; nau națiŋ þàt þei propoez tu du wil bi wițheld from þem. Kam, let As goe daun ànd þer konfiuz þer làŋgwij, þàt þei mei not andırstànd wan ınaþırs spyc.” Soe þı Lord skàtırd þem ıbrod from þer oevır þı feis of ol þi ırț, ànd þei sysd bildiŋ þı siti. Ðerfor its neim is kold Beibıl, bikoz þer þı Lord konfiusd þı làŋgwij of ol þi ırț; ànd from þer þı Lord skàtırd þem ıbrod oevır þı feis of ol þi ırț.

RDIO Keyboard Layout

To type RDIO efficiently, I created a QWERTY-based keyboard layout containing all the 7 additional letters. Some changes were made by replacing less common letters with more frequent letters to help make them easier to input:

• ⟨À⟩ is in the same spot as ⟨Q⟩.
• ⟨I/ı⟩ is in the same spot as the semicolon ⟨;⟩.
• ⟨Ŋ⟩ is in the same spot as ⟨X⟩.

It also includes the ability to input the diaresis-capped letters ⟨Ü⟩, ⟨Ï⟩ and ⟨Ö⟩, which can be used as abbreviations for the RDIO digraphs ‘yu/iu’, ‘iı’ and ‘oe’ respectively.

The letters highlighted in green above are all accessed by pressing the Right Alt key on the keyboard.

Download links

Want to try RDIO on your computer? Download the Windows, Linux and Android (Multiling O) keyboard layouts here:

• RDIO keyboard layout (Windows)
• RDIO keyboard layout (Linux)
• RDIO keyboard layout (Android, Multiling O)
• RDIO keyboard layout (MacOS)

You can find more information on how to install keyboard layouts here.