have retained the apostrophe homophonous with zy "disease." The apostrophe is retained in "Teach Yourself Dutton Speedwords" (1951, 1971) but there is no indication how this is to be pronounced. Irregularities to avoid homophones The only examples specifically given by Dutton are: "away" as an opposite of directional a "to" is ao [aː'joː] as *ax would be homophonous with ax "ask." The agent suffix -r (< er "person") is written as the full word and pronounced with an epenthetic , when it would otherwise create a homophone with an existing word. For example, "maker" is maer to avoid confusion with mar "marry, marriage" (In "Dutton Double-Speed Words Companion to Text-Book", Dutton also gives jeer "judge" to avoid confusion with jur "law, legal"; in the 1951 Dictionary, however, "judge" is given as just Following 2 above, we may reasonably assume that if adding -b, -c, -g, -k, -l, -m, -n, -p, -s or -t, then the full word from which these are derived would have been written and pronounced with an epenthetic , thus *noib "noticeable" to avoid confusion with nob "celebrated, honour, note, repute" . Following 1 above, we may reasonably assume that this would always be the case if by adding -x a homophone would have been created. We may also assume that the same would apply to the -v ~ -i pair, i.e. if by adding -v we had a homophone, we must add -i instead; the same well have applied to the -f ~ y pair, i.e. if by adding -f we had a homophone, we must add -y instead; but as these suffixes derive from the word fy, it may be that Dutton, following 1 above, would have added -fy. Compound words When two roots form a compound, the unwritten affix is placed after the first root. When three roots form a compound, the unwritten affix is placed after the first root. Either affix takes an epenthetic after a consonant. Examples: albe "already" (< al + be) is diel "telephone" (< di + el) is rysan "hospital" (< ry + san) is opmekav "anti-aircraft" (< op + mek + av) is 'OPP-ish-mek-avv' ryefki "gymnasium" (< ry + ef + ki) is Morphology and syntax Root words may function as adjectives, nouns, verb or adverbs. In "Dutton Speedwords Dictionary" (1951, London, Dutton Publications) we read: "The English language, like most other natural languages, is inconsistent in having