Interbet
The international phonematic alphabet, Interbet, was designed by
Vitaly Vetash from Russia. It is based on the combination of Latin
alphabet and some Cyrillic letters, as well as a number of letters
invented by the author and linguistic signs modifying all of them
into a unified style.
The author has included comparatively few completely new signs,
creating a unified style unity for the new alphabet based on existing
letters. He tried to find the optimal number of letters (45) that
have an aesthetically perfect shape, and are sufficient to write all
the world’s most widely-spoken languages. The same letters can be
used to represent a number of phonemes, depending on the phonetics
of a language.
Notable features
- This alphabet is intended as a practical, international and universal
system for writing any language. In this respect it can be considered
as an alternative to the IPA, though Interbet has fewer letters and
that makes it possible to create a unified style and a harmonious
graphic correspondence of the lowercase and capital letters, according
aesthetic and psycholinguistic laws. The author took into account
the optic resonance between the shape of a letter and the characteristics
of a phoneme. - Unlike the IPA, Interbet is based on the more flexible phonematic
meaning of a letter. Letters do not represent a phonetically strict
sound, but a sound in the frame of a particular sound zone, which
has a systematic relationship to the other sounds. The main Interbet
letters represent only one or two phonemes, while the additional letters
(marked with 2 below) represent a greater range of phonemes. - The usage of the marked letters depends on needs of each language,
but always is based on the fixed principle of the phonetic relationships
in the alphabet. For example, it changes from plosive to fricative or aspirate
consonant. The second sign for the vowel E (E2) always signifies a more
open sound than the first E, despite the fact that in different languages
these sounds will be different. In French the first E is the closed E <é>
and the second E is open E <è> and in German they are e and ä
respectively. T2 in English denotes /θ/, and in Hindi /th/.
Interbet alphabet
The name Interbet comes from International Alphabet. The names of letters in
Interbet are mostly based on the ancient Phoenician and Greek alphabets, as well
as the letters of the other alphabets and on some practical names, traditional
for linguists: with some changes, according to the principles of distinctivity
from the other names, euphony and connection with a prototype
Sample text in Russian
Translation
Vitaly Vetash, an artist and a linguist, is the author of the universal
phonematic alphabet Interbet. He created it having worked from 1977 to 1999.
Sample text in English
Transliteration
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
The main question during the creation of Interbet was to determine the
number and the set of the letters, which would be enough and aesthetically
perfect. Besides the letters represented here on the picture, the author also
created many possible variants of the letters, which you can see in the PDF
article, where the problem of the international writing and this project are
considered in detail.