Choice of Consonants for the Major System

General Memory Chat
1

I am new here and currently busy writing my own list of major system words. Since I have a British accent, I tend not to pronounce the R sound at the end of a word. Thus, for numbers ending in four, I have to break myself out of the phonetic mode of thinking and rather recall the actual spelling of the word.

I notice that the consonants H and TH are not present in Josh’s table. Is this arbitrary (albeit inspired by frequency of use and ease of memorisation)? Who else out there has changed or rearranged the consonants in the table and have you run into any issues?

1 Like
2

When I read about the major system the correspondence letter-sounds didn’t satisfy me at all.
Because for me 5 clearly looks like a S. And B like 8…
I grouped together: t/d, s/z, p/b, sh/j… Basically both versions of consonants (voiced and voiceless) together.
I put “th” with the t/d because I was a young french speaker with no idea how to pronounce English at the time. But it makes sense anyway because it’s pronounced at the same place in the mouth.
And H doesn’t get any number, it gets ignored because in french we don’t prononce it.
There’s no real problem having your own system if other correspondences feel more logical to you (at least I’ve never had any in twenty something years…)

Edit: it makes a bit harder to use pre made PAO lists / major system generator but really it’s not that important compared to having something that feels right

3 Likes
3

I didn’t fully understand what you are trying to ask. If your doubts are about pronouncing R, accents don’t matter. If you pronounce the R in e.g. the word “four”, then it’s 84 for you, assuming you use the standard consonants.

If your doubts are about altering the number-to-consonant mapping, then @Hari-P pretty much answered that.

1 Like
4

Thanks @Hari-P. That comment about the pre-made lists is what I was worried about, but you have convinced me to go ahead with my changes anyway.

5

You are free to use whatever consonants work for you.

I believe I use a different phonetic alphabet.

  1. R
  2. T/D
  3. N
  4. M
  5. C/K
  6. L
  7. S
  8. F
  9. CH/SH
  10. V/B
6

I have bookmarked the pages I use for searching associations and begin with https://memcoder.com/ because the design shows the sounds in the input field so you know which number to substitute and then can search it on the other sites.
I also often use a Google sheet file that somebody of this forum generously shared: Complete PO Major System (3-2-1-0 digits).xlsx - Google Drive. Looking at the columns for the one digit also allows to know easily which number to substitute when searching for more digits.

1 Like
7

Thank you, Hari. These are both very useful. What are some of the other sites that you mentioned?

8

I also like numzi which often gives other words than memcoder: Numzi - Remember Numbers

I also check TIM System Instructions and Worksheet.xlsx - Google Drive (another share from Tim).

And Major System Mnemotechnik Datenbank, Liste und Generator because you can choose English or German for more variety.

Thre are others but they often give the same keywords.

1 Like
9

Hello all, Thanks to inventors of major system. I believe memory systems are personal creativity. See merging sound and handwrite flow appearance.

0=o 1=hnilj 2=ruv 3=mw 4=kxy 5=szc 6=bep 7=t 8=f 9=adgq

Kindly comment.