Naming the symbols

One often-overlooked issue is what you actually call the symbols in a new orthography. You need these labels in order to talk about the letters or other symbols you are using. You need them to dictate spelling of a word, or to tell how to write your name, or to talk about alphabetic order of the letters. These labels can be quite different in different languages. In English we have ABC...GH being phonetically pronounced as [ei, bi, si...dʒi, eitʃ]. In French, the same symbols are pronounced [a, be, se... ʒe, aʃ]. The letter H is especially different: English [eitʃ] vs. French [aʃ].

Besides the consonants and vowels, symbols for punctuation and diacritics such as tone marks must also be given names. In some contexts, it is helpful to label these according to a common object they resemble. For example, a tilde over a vowel <ã> might be called a "snake." Like other decisions, local speakers should have the main input, inventing terms that will be appropriate and memorable for local speakers.