2. A key is a set of assignments.

3. An assignment is the allocation of an assigner to a recipient.

4. An assigner is one of the 29 vowel letters and combinations handed down by tradition, available for assignments:

Assigners

a, æ, ai, au

e, ea, ee, ei, eo, eu

i, ie

o, oa, œ, oi, oo, ou

u, ue, ui

y, ay, ey, oy, uy

aw, ew, ow

The vowels æ and œ may be written ae and oe. For the use of graphic accentuation for stress and length, cf. Accentuation.

5. A recipient is a traditional sound of speech to which an assigner is assigned. Recipients are called after a name or sound that carries the vowel:

Recipients

pat, tess, nick, bob, doug, brooke

jane, pete, mike, rose, hugh

ma, howie, joy, maud, luke

mark, claire, bert, keir, george, noor

jacob, little nick, little brooke

6. The recipients correspond to the following phonemes:

/a  ɛ  ɪ  ɔ  ɐ  ʊ/

/eɪ  iː  ɑɪ  əʊ  jʉː/

/ɑː  aʊ  ɔɪ  ɔː  ʉː/

/ɑː  ɛə  ɜː  ɪə  ɔː  ʊə/

/ə  ɪ  ʊ/

The vowel phoneme associated with a recipient may be a monophthong (pat: /a/) or a diphthong (joy: /ɔɪ/).

Recipients are not phonemes. A phoneme is a scientific description. A recipient is a cultural perception. The same recipient may be pronounced with different phonemes, like bob in the UK and the US. It can also be a phonetically arbitrary compound: hugh is nothing but luke preceded by a semivowel. But the distinction is culturally relevant: hugh as a “long” vowel names the letter u, while luke does not and is therefore a “wise” vowel.

English pronunciation is not uniform. The above phonemes represent a subjective perception of British received pronunciation in an educated environment in Winchester. While the list may be a didactic starting point for phonetic literacy, it does not lay any normative claim on English Pronunciation.

7. Orthography may be:

• monoglotic when one spelling system fits all words, e.g. French.
• polyglotic when several systems coexist, e.g. Bloo Bouk English.

8. The Bloo Bouk divides English vowels into two spelling systems, called keys. Each key has its own method of assignments. The keys control words from the following families:

Keys

Nordic	non-Nordic
Old English	Latin, Old French, Anglo-Norman
Middle English	Middle French, early Modern French
Old Norse	early Romance languages
German & Dutch	Ancient Greek, Latin from Greek
Scandinavian languages	modern Greek, Greek disputed
Celtic languages	unknown origin, neologisms

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The assignments of one key do not apply to another:

• one key may assign assigner x to maud,
• another key might assign assigner y to it.

9. A key assigns an assigner to each recipient. A recipient can receive more than one assigner, but an assigner can only be assigned to one recipient. e.g:

• both ai and ei could be assigned to jane,
• but once they are assigned to jane, no other recipient can have them.

An assignment is therefore:

• unique when only one assigner is assigned: a to pat in the Nordic key.
• multiple when several are assigned: u and ue to hugh in the non-Nordic key.

Multiple assigners are assigned for different contexts, e.g. in non-Nordic hugh/luke:

• u for word beginning and middle: unity, polucion.
• ue for closed unstressed final syllable: values, pròdues, cuet.

10. Alien words are words from the above languages loaned into English after ca. 1700. Alien words keep their alien spelling if:

• the word becomes unrecognisable, e.g.:
  French rendezvous, étude, façade > *randævu, *ætued, *fassâd;
• the word has non-vernacular phonemes, e.g.
  French gendarme, joie de vivre, malheur, huile.

The following Modern French phonemes cannot be accommodated: /ʒ ɥ wɑ y œ ø ɛ̃ œ̃ ɑ̃ ɔ̃/.

11. Facultatively, French aliens follow the non-Nordic key if:

• the word remains recognisable, e.g.:
  French groupe > group > gruep;
• current pronunciation has made the spelling unrecognisable, e.g.:
  French reveille > revàly.

A French alien is a word of French origin loaned into English after ca. 1700. The words loaned between the Norman period and the early modern age are French vernaculars.

The latest revision of Bloo Bouk spelling dates back to 1687. Its keys focus on the main lexical sources of English at the time. While English has become an international language since then, the foreign inputs from Anglo-Norman, Latin and Greek can still be described as the most substantial.

The division of orthography into keys must not be misconstrued as a judgement on cultural value. While the linguistic origin of the different keys is worth celebrating, it must not lead to any from of discrimination, which the Knighthood of the Bloo Bouk has always forbidden.

12. Spelling is the most common writing of a word. Orthography is the art of shaping word-writing for aesthetic excellence.

A lexicographer describes a word in its most common writing. An orthographer writes a word in its best aesthetic shape.

Linguistics is the science of describing language. Orthography is not a branch of linguistics as a science, but a separate art. A linguist is not allowed to judge language aesthetically. Orthography is the aesthetic judgement of the shape of written words. An orthographer’s work is enriched by linguistic training, but linguistics alone does not make an orthographer.

Aesthetic judgement, however reasonable, is biased. It is the linguist’s duty of science to point out the orthographer’s bias. And it is the orthographer’s art to own it.

An orthographer is not concerned with spelling reform, social reform or language control. Orthography is an aesthetic pursuit, rewarded primarily, like every other art, by the inherent pleasure of the exertion.

13. An orthographic requirement is a justified expectation regarding the result of an assignment.

The Bloo Bouk upholds the following requirements:

• phonological requirement: the assignment must indicate pronunciation.
• etymological requirement: the assignment must reflect word origin.
• customary requirement: the assignment must look familiar.
• aesthetic requirement: the assigment must please the eye.

The Bloo Bouk blends the requirements in a balanced manner. Exaggerated focus on only one requirement leads to the following degenerations:

• phoneticism turns spelling into phonetic transcription, e.g.
  Ðë sìti jùj ëbzêrvz ðë këndìshënz ëv ðe jùjmënt, instead of
  The city jugg obzérvs the condicions ov the juggment.
• primitivism turns spelling into an archeological museum, e.g.
  Yck habbe allewayghaes y-loubbed yeow, instead of
  Y hav oalwæs luvd u.
• usualism turns spelling into a traditionalist cult, e.g.
  People compete to meet the priest on the heath, instead of
  Pépel compét to meet the preest on the heeth.
• mannerism turns spelling into cosmetic aestheticism, e.g.
  I have much love to give the dove I live for, instead of
  Y hav much luv to giv the duv Y liv for.

14. The Bloo Bouk implements a balance of requirements in the following way:

• phonological requirement: within a key, every assigment is allocated primarily to indicate pronunciation.
• etymological requirement: English words are divided into etymological families, each with a different key of assignments.
• customary requirement: regardless of the key, every assignment shows a degree of historical precedence.
• aesthetic requirement: every assignment is regarded as an elegant solution by a reasonable number of learned speakers.

Thus, every Bloo Bouk assignment follows the steps below:

1. word isolation: assesses etymology and assigns the word to a key.
2. recipient isolation: isolates the desired recipient.
3. assigner isolation: identifies the assigners available for the recipient.
4. customary assessment: assesses the assigners recurrent in the authoritative sources.
5. aesthetic judgement: selects the most non-intrusive and non-innovative candidates.
6. aesthetic probation: tests the assignment on other words in the same key.
7. final assignation: standardises the assignment of an assigner to a recipient.

15. Customary justification clarifies how an assignment aligns with tradition. No language exists in a cultural vacuum. The price of accurate spelling cannot be arbitrary innovation.

Although every art has infinite tools of expression, the most refined works seek to make the best out of limited resources. The orthographer’s tools are the assigners. Originality is not an unlearned break with tradition but a critical dialogue, of which the orthographic outcome looks refreshed without feeling alien.

16. An assignment is justified by custom when the assigner occurs in the same word, or in a similar context, in authoritative sources.

17. Historical sources have different degrees of authority. A degree of authority informs the ability of a source to be a reference of good spelling.

18. The Bloo Bouk bases its assignments on a hierarchy of four degrees of authority:

• First degree: the assigner is recurrent in a similar lexical context in Chaucer or the Matter of England.
• Second degree: the assigner is recurrent in Modern English, whether or not directly applied to the target recipient.
• Third degree: the assigner occurs only occasionally in Old, Middle or Modern English, or is recurrent but in a different context.
• Fourth degree: the assigner is loaned from a related language due to insufficient vernacular solutions.

Thus ou is a first degree assignment to brooke in fout [foot]: the assigner occurs in the same word in King Horn, even though the recipient may have been another. The familiarity we seek speaks not to the ear, but to the eye.

Chaucer and the Matter of England are undoubtedly more authoritative sources than Modern English. Middle English spellings, even when not uniform, are more consistent, predictable, and therefore reliable. Modern English assignments are deeply manneristic. They were coined by printers, lexicographers and chancery officers with limited knowledge of phonetics and etymology, who dismissed assigners handed down by tradition even when still functional, consistent and elegant.