Why isn phonetic spelled the way it sounds?
1) Are you talking about the word “phonetic” or the phonetic writing of words? 2) The phonetic transcription of words is given as a help to know how the words are pronounced, so it is supposed to be “spelled the way it sounds”. (As long as you know how the phonetic signs are pronounced): “Actual pronunciation of words in many languages, versus their written form (orthography), have undergone significant change over time, and can also vary greatly between dialects. Traditional orthography in some languages, particularly French and English, often does not coincide with pronunciation. For example, the words “bough” and “trough” are pronounced very differently in English, even though they are spelled the same way. In French, for example, the ‘s’ at the end of words is usually silent (“militaire” is pronounced the same as “militaires”) unless followed by a word beginning in a vowel. In the orthography of most European languages, the fact that many letters are pronounced or silent depending
