Documentation from Apple is available on this subject, but I will try to cover the basic points to get you started.
The phonetic alphabet used by Macintalk represents every sound (approximately) in the English language by a one or two letter symbol. The complete alphabet can be found on two cards (one for vowels, one for consonants and special symbols) in the Macintalk Phoneme Table. To get to the table, you can click the Table button which is present on every card in this stack. To get back from the phoneme table, click anyplace on the screen that is not in a button or in the menu bar. A button in the lower right hand corner of the table toggles between the two cards. The Table button is circled below. Go ahead and have a look at the phoneme table right now.
The first chore in writing phonetically is choosing the right consonants and vowels. The consonants are easier than vowels because there are about 18 distinct vowel sounds, whereas there are only 6 vowel letters (if you count ΓÇÿyΓÇÖ);
With some exceptions, there is a separate letter for each distinct consonant.
