Well, we could start using the following symbols from the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), I suppose:
“phi” symbol - looks like an O with a vertical bar. Letter “f” in the special Symbol font if you’re on a Mac, not a conventional ASCII character, apparently. For the “th” sound in “thanks”
- symbol - that currently looks sort of like a backwards lowercase “d” with a curved riser, but vBulletin sometimes does some cute things with special characters. For the “th” sound in “this”
ç symbol - that oughta be the “French” c with the descender, but see previous disclaimer regarding vBulletin. For the soft Scottish/German/etc. “ch” aspirated sound.
upside-down lowercase “t” symbol. For the tongue-click consonant used by the Kalahari San “bushmen”.
Symbol that looks like a backwards cent sign (¢) (or a C with a vertical bar), severely flattened. Used for the Scandinavian aspirated sound made with the tongue in the “l” position.
ng symbol. Looks like a lowercase “n” with the right side descending down into a hook like the right side of a “g”. The nasal “ng” sound, of course.
“sh” symbol. Looks like a vertically enlongated capital “S”. The “sh” sound as in “should”.
“x”. Not our own x, which we could retire by substituting “ks”, but the hard/back German “ch” as in “ach” (also used in Russian and some other languages).
“ø” symbol. That oughta come out looking like a lowercase “o” with a slash from upper right to lower left. The German o-umlaut sound as in Göring (Goering).
“ae” symbol where the back of the a becomes the side of the e. The “a” as in “at”, “bat”, “sat”, etc., to differentiate it from the “a” as in “father” (which is written as a child’s lowercase “a”, i.e., without the riser curving overhead) and the in-between “a” as in “path” (which does have the riser).
“y”. Not our own y, which we could retire by substituting “i” (vowel) or “j” (consonant), but the German u-umlaut sound as in über (ueber).
“zh” symbol. Looks like the number 3 except flattened on top. There’s also an apothecary symbol that looks pretty much the same way. For the “zh” sound as in leisure, pleasure, azure.
The short i sound, represented by a capital I with a horizontal slash through it, for words like “sit”, “fix”, “rip”.
short “e” sound. Like a script capital E, or a backwards 3. For the e as in “set”, “get”, “edit”, etc. To differentiate it from the long “e” sound which is written as a lowercase “i” = sounds like the e in “eve”, “seed”; but in most langauges that sound is made with an i, as in the i in “burrito”, “kilo”, “miso”, etc; and also to differentiate it from the long “a” sound which is written as a lowercase “e”, for sounds like the a in “say”, the e in “Santa Fe”, the ei in “sleigh”, etc. Uh, whatever. Now I’m confused!
E’s are I’s and A’s are E’s and C’s are K’s and no sounds at all are C’s…
