Writing English

target: en — English as the language being learned: a document for a learner of English, whose prose may be Persian, Italian or English itself. Whatever the prose, the studio cannot tell an English word to be learned from the words around it, so every run of it is marked.

1. Every run is marked#

Any mark sets a word or a group as the English being taught: […]{tl}, the code […]{en}, a colour, a pronunciation, or any other word in the braces but la, ltr and math.

---target: en---[thought]{translit:θɔt} = *an idea*, [though]{teal translit:ðoʊ}, [through]{translit:θru}and [tough]{translit:tʌf}: the same letters *-ough*, and four different sounds.[The weather is lovely today.]{tl bg=quote}

A whole paragraph marked […]{tl} is a block, and takes bg=; inside a line the options are not read. There are no automatic paragraphs and no display lines. A wrong form is a marked run after ✗: ✗[goed]{tl}.

When the prose is written right to left — lang: fa for a Persian writing English lessons for Persians — the editor writes its source right to left too (Front matter).

2. Face#

English is set in the prose’s own face, TeX Gyre Pagella, at the prose’s size; it has no second face and is not set vertically.

3. Vocabulary entries#

Any ## heading with two parts or more is a vocabulary entry, so a section title in an English document cannot hold a |.

---target: en---## thought | θɔt | Old English *þōht* | = *an idea that comes to the mind*## [light]{amber translit:laɪt} | | Old English *lēoht* | = *what lets us see*

4. Pronunciation#

English spelling says little of the sound, so a pronunciation is written for every word or group taught, in IPA, in a General American accent with every written r sounded, lower case and without punctuation:

• consonants as the IPA writes them, with θ ð ʃ ʒ tʃ dʒ ŋ, j for the y of yes, and the plain letters g and r;
• vowels ɪ i ɛ æ ɑ ɔ ʊ u ʌ ə; diphthongs eɪ aɪ ɔɪ oʊ aʊ; a vowel and an r written as the vowel then r (kɑr, fɔr, bərd);
• stress: ˈ before the stressed syllable of every word of more than one, ˌ for a secondary stress (ˌʌndərˈstænd);
• silent letters not written (ni knee); function words weak (ðə, tə, əv); a contraction one word (doʊnt); endings as said (hɛlpt, bɛdz); the flapped t written t.

---target: en---[record]{translit:ˈrɛkərd} *the thing* and [record]{translit:rəˈkɔrd} *the act*;[island]{teal translit:ˈaɪlənd}.

English has no reading: kana: means nothing here.