I do this. It’s called a letter pair image list. So like the major system has unique sounds for 0-9. I use rules that give me unique translations between AA-ZZ and words. I’ve written out things before, but most of my digital files have been lost so I’ll try to explain my system a bit again. Letter pairs were not originally my Idea. The first person I know who started using them was Chris Hardwick. He picked images for each letter pair that he used for solving Rubik’s cubes and gave them an image.
When I started doing that, I wanted my system to be more robust. I wanted a way to get every English word to be translated to a specific letter pair, but for every letter pair to have many possibilities for words. That sort of happened. The letters starting with X are more like acronyms since there are not many words starting with X. It’s still a success since I have an image for every pair of letters.
- For any word, the letter pair is determined by looking at the first syllable.
2.the first and last sound in the first syllable become the first and second letter.
- I ignore suffixes even if they are in the first syllable. For example, Rock=RK so rocks is also RK. There would be too much trouble otherwise. I would not like to consider visually remembering whether a rock or a pile of rocks fell on someone. It should make no difference.
note-because the syllable determines the pair. My letter pairs occasionally have an entymology mapping which makes somewhat of a connection between possible images and the characteristics that they have. Some of these are obvious like chain and chainsaw for CN. Some surprise me like remembering that there was something green, but having no idea what image it was. Thinking, hey Piccolo, a character from a show, is green and then, remembering that it was a pickle(also green).
After that you just make hard and fast rules about how you will split up the sounds between the letters.
The trick is to differentiate between S and Z, C and K, J and G, and q and K and anything else that would give you trouble.
For example, I use the English rule for having the u vowel before q to separate u and k. I never have a u vowel before the letter k. so I can use that sound with a u vowel to fill out words with q which would otherwise be a tricky letter. For example, NQ=Nuke (nucleur bomb) KQ=Kosqiusco mustard MQ=Mosquito JQ=Juke box
There are 4 combinations for consonants (C) and vowels (V) in a pair and it helps to understand this.
1.CC is the the easiest combo and is a closed syllable. Luckily, these are also usually the best source of variety for words because the vowel in the middle of the first syllable doesn’t affect the pair. This is also the subset of words that the major system stays in. For example. TP can make a lot of words. Trap,Tarp,Tramp, Trampoline, Tempist, Temper, Tripped, Tip(as is the apex of),Tip(as in buying someone off), Triple, Triple H(a person), Troops, Trump card, Type, Typist, etc. The thing about theses CC pairs is that even though they all have so many choices. I have favorites that I use most of the time for memo. For TP, that would be trap and tarp. Others just pop into my head occasionally. The occasional ones are usually very strong though because something about the previous word or my day made me think of it.
2.CV these letter pairs are still easy to find but there are less choices of the first syllable. In some cases, there is only one choice. If you know a language that uses mostly open syllables than it is very easy to take loan words. Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese are coming to mind. Examples would be LO= Lohan (lindsey) CA=Caley Le=Lee RU=Ruby loan words could be things like Casa, Lo mein, Kakashi(scarecrow).
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VC These are easier since the vowel isn’t going to cause problems with the syllable in the front of the words. They are easy to find words for. For example IC=Ice, Icicle, Ice Cream, Ice cream truck, etc. EG=egg EK= elk the words are there so it’s nice.
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VV these are more trouble. There are words to use but some can be hard to find. I remember having a hard time finding a word for EO and I was using an acronym for a bit until I remembered Eowyn from the lord of the rings. I still use arconyms and just subvocalize the letters for some of these. UO=UO That’s brilliant, right?! but as a fan of running, UO means University of Oregon and I can remember a runner from there.
Basically these rules get you 95% of the way there and you make exceptions or just know your list/have a list for the rest. These holes shouldn’t really make sense to anyone other than you. An example would be OQ= Officier Qualities= a Canadian guard with the bearskin hat. Sure, I broke some rules, to get to an awesome image, but it’s not an image I could easily get to otherwise and I don’t think there is a really great word for OQ. These become reflexive.
Some other rules would be to use the most common name for things to avoid synonym troubles and to have habits for always using first names or last names for certain people. These rules really don’t have to make much sense to anyone other than yourself. So if you decide that friends are first names and celebrities are last names, then that’s perfectly fine. When I use journey’s I stick to concrete images and visual adjectives, nouns and verbs. Most of verbs would have objects attached to them like the verb Shoveling.
When I make mnemonic sentences, which is actually how I remember everyone’s phone numbers since I don’t have contacts on my phone. I ignore all of the connective function words like prepositions, pronouns, particles, and determiners. Those words just hold the sentence together. Abstract words are usable though. For example, There is a guy on this forum whose # has the word “gracefully” in it and it’s not as a letter pair. Then, for phone numbers, I link something in the sentence to the person. It usually has to be something that actually exists like a friend’s ex or a shared experience like where I met them.
The obvious next step to expand this system is to know your common list of vocab and then know when you are stretching it. I like one syllable words because they are quick to say and easy to remember. “Gracefully” is not a one syllable word or standard word of mine. It’s an uncommon 2 syllable word with an ignored suffix. That’s like a red flag that it may be a 4 letter word which can be a 3 or 4 digit word based on whether all of the letters convert to numbers which only 12 of my 26 letters do. Of course, if you need a 3 digit number at the end of a 10 digit phone number. you can always find a word for a 4 digit number and ignore the useless last number. So to continue the example Grace-fully=90 55.
Another expansion of the system is for random words. For the abstract words that come up in the event, It’s helpful to know enough images for the syllables that you can do the CVC (consonant vowel consonant) of the syllable correctly. This breaks the abstract word into a string of syllables and if you have images for that, then it’s no sweat. I’m not going to say this is the best way for all cases or that I know the CVC for every syllable because it isn’t and I don’t. I know enough though where is helps for random words which is a very freestyle event. An example against this is “diplomacy”. This cases is a boon since you can imagine a diploma with a C on it. It’s an average diploma and then you go to the next word. But for most abstract words, it works well and a list of preset suffix images makes it better.
I think a last idea to note is about how often I manage to stick to a preset list for letter pairs for memory sport. I have noticed that when I start practicing a ton, I end up having less and less variety in my choices and for speed cards, it becomes a preset list. When I practice less or stop practicing for a while, I start using whatever comes to mind more often. Over time the first string images change. I had this documented by rewriting my lists over time. I could watch a good movie and the characters would have some appearances later in the week. Maybe I forget my list but remember the rules so I never have an issue creating an image or I’ve changed my mind too much and it toggles between previous images that I used. I don’t think it matters too much If you stick to a preset list or not since practicing will do most of the optimizing.
TL;DR- 1.Make rules for sounds/lexicon for each letter 2. Mostly use letter pair images for memory sport 3. expand to 2 syllables for 4 letters when you can for non-timed, more creative and long term memory. 4. Try splitting tough abstract random words into syllables and using your knowledge of letter pairs to memorize them.
