Ellis developed two phonetic alphabets, the English Phonotypic Alphabet (together with Isaac Pitman), which used many new letters, and the Palaeotype alphabet, which replaced many of these with turned letters (such as ⟨ə⟩, ⟨ɔ⟩), small caps (such as ⟨ɪ⟩), and italics. These letters, as well as two of his own creation, ⟨ʃ⟩ and ⟨ʒ⟩, were passed on to Henry Sweet's Romic alphabet and from there to the Inter­national Phonetic Alphabet.