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I've been wondering for some time about an alternative to the buy, cuy, duy system for consonant names and hence, pronouns. My biggest problem with the present series is lack of redundancy. So, here's a proposal. We borrow "tsi" from Mandarin for "letter" (yes, we already have "zimu," but it's a standard morpheme that would lead to ambiguity if we used it as a combining form as I envision it.) "Tsi" would be a -bound- morpheme that would have a unique function, thus batsi = b So "tsi" means "the letter that begins the beginning morpheme of this compound word. In effect, we could use any morpheme that begins with b to denote the letter/pronoun b. In actual usage, we should use easily-remembered forms. I suggest, first off, using the vowels and standard diphthongs in order: b = batsi c = cetsi d = ditsi f = fotsi g = gutsi h = haytsi j = jeytsi k = koytsi p = pawtsi (instead of returning to -a, etc. we go for more reduncancy) s = saltsi t = tirtsi v = vertsi x = xantsi z = zintsi Anybody see any typos or lack of logic here? So, then, there are our pronouns. Vowels will be handled thus: hatsi = a hetsi = e hitsi = i hotsi = o hutsi = u They don't need as much redundancy, as they won't be pronouns. And the rest of the nonconsonants: halatsi = l hemetsi = m hinitsi = n hoqotsi = q hurutsi = r This also opens possibilities up for using acronyms when necessary. USA = hutsi saltsi hatsi But! We make the initial morphs into a compound word, so to speak, and to refer to the USA we simply say "husalhatsi", NRA is hinihuruhatsi, FDR is fodihurutsi, SS is salsaltsi, etc. And, the alphabet names will be fairly easy to memorize if we think of the actual meaning of the initial morphs: if-letter something-letter what's about to be said-letter animal-letter need-letter etc. Reactions? Rex F. May (Baloo) Daily cartoon at: http://www.cnsnews.com/cartoon/baloo.asp Buy my book at: http://www.kiva.net/~jonabook/book-GesundheitDummy.htm