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English orthography is the orthography used in writing the English language, including English spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word
breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Like the orthographic systems of most world languages, it has a broad degree of standardization. However, unlike
most languages, English provides more than one way to spell nearly every phoneme, and most letters and letter-combinations can stand for different
pronunciations depending on context and meaning. This is largely due to the complex history of the English language[1] together with the absence of
systematic spelling reforms. In general, modern English spelling, much of which was devised originally for the phonetic spelling of Middle English, does not
reflect the sound changes that have occurred since the late fifteenth century (such as the Great Vowel Shift).[2] There are somevariations in English
orthography by global regions, some of which resulted from spelling reform efforts that succeeded only partially and only in certain regions.
Contents
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Phonemic representation[edit]
Further information: Phonemic orthography
Letters in English orthography usually represent a particular sound (phoneme). For example, the word cat /kt/ consists of three letters c, a, and t, in
which crepresents the sound /k/, a the sound //, and t the sound /t/.
Sequences of letters may perform this role as well as single letters. Thus, in the word ship (pronounced /p/), the digraph sh (two letters) represents the
sound //. In the wordditch, the three letters tch represent the sound /t/.
Less commonly, a single letter can represent multiple successive sounds. The most common example is the letter x, which normally represents the
consonant cluster /ks/ (for example, in the word six, pronounced /sks/).
The same letter (or sequence of letters) may be pronounced in different ways when it occurs in different positions within a word. For instance, the
digraph gh represents the sound /f/ at the end of some words, such as rough /rf/. At the beginning of syllables (i.e. the syllable onset), the
digraph gh is pronounced //, as in the word ghost(pronounced /ost/). Conversely, the digraph gh is never pronounced /f/ in syllable onsets and is
almost never pronounced // in syllable codas (the proper name Pittsburghis an exception).
Some words contain silent letters, which do not represent any sound in modern English pronunciation. Examples include the b in doubt, debt, dumb, etc.,
the p inpsychology and pneumatic, and the commonly encountered silent e (discussed further below).
Word origin[edit]
See also: Hard and soft C, Hard and soft G, Silent k and Palatalization (phonetics)
Another type of spelling characteristic is related to word origin. For example, when representing a vowel, the letter y represents the sound // in some
words borrowed fromGreek (reflecting an original upsilon), whereas the letter usually representing this sound in non-Greek words is the letter i. Thus, the
word myth /m/ is of Greek origin, whilepith /p/ is a Germanic word. Other examples include ph pronounced /f/ (which is usually spelt f),
and ch pronounced /k/ (which is usually spelt c or k) the use of these spellings for these sounds often mark words that have been borrowed from
Greek.
Some researchers, such as Brengelman (1970), have suggested that, in addition to this marking of word origin, these spellings indicate a more formal level
of style or register in a given text, although Rollings (2004) finds this point to be exaggerated as there would be many exceptions where a word with one of
these spellings, such as ph for /f/ (liketelephone), could occur in an informal text.
Homophone differentiation[edit]
Spelling may also be useful to distinguish between homophones (words with the same pronunciation but different meanings), although in most cases the
reason for the difference is historical and was not introduced for the purpose of making a distinction. For example, the words heir and air are pronounced
identically in most dialects, but in writing they are distinguished from each other by their different spellings. Another example is the pair of
homophones pain and pane, where both are pronounced /pen/ but have two different spellings of the vowel /e/. Often this is because of the historical
pronunciation of each word where, over time, two separate sounds become the same but the different spellings remain: pain used to be pronounced
as /pain/, with a diphthong, and pane as /pen/, but the diphthong /ai/ merged with the long vowel /e/ in pane, making pain and panehomophones (pane
pain merger). Later /e/ became a diphthong /e/.
In written language, this may help to resolve potential ambiguities that would arise otherwise (cf. He's breaking the car vs. He's braking the car).
Nevertheless, many homophones remain that are unresolved by spelling (for example, the word bay has at least five fundamentally different meanings).
Multiple functionality[edit]
A given letter or (letters) may have dual functions. For example, the letter i in the word cinema has a sound-representing function (representing the
sound //) and a pronunciation-marking function (marking the c as having the value /s/ opposed to the value /k/).
Underlying representation[edit]
Like many other alphabetic orthographies, English spelling does not represent non-contrastive phonetic sounds (that is, minor differences in pronunciation
which are not used to distinguish between different words). Although the letter t is pronounced by some speakers with aspiration [t] at the beginning of
words, this is never indicated in the spelling, and, indeed, this phonetic detail is probably not noticeable to the average native speaker not trained in
phonetics. However, unlike some orthographies, English orthography often represents a very abstract underlying representation (or morphophonemic form)
of English words.[3]
[T]he postulated underlying forms are systematically related to the conventional orthography ... and are, as is well known, related to the underlying forms of
a much earlier historical stage of the language. There has, in other words, been little change in lexical representation since Middle English, and,
consequently, we would expect ... that lexical representation would differ very little from dialect to dialect in Modern English ... [and] that conventional
orthography is probably fairly close to optimal for all modern English dialects, as well as for the attested dialects of the past several hundred years.[4]
In these cases, a given morpheme (i.e. a component of a word) has a fixed spelling even though it is pronounced differently in different words. An example
is the past tense suffix-ed, which may be pronounced variously as /t/, /d/, or - in some accents - /d/ (for
example, dip /dp/, dipped /dpt/, boom /bum/, boomed /bumd/, loot /lut/, looted /lutd/). As it happens, these different pronunciations of -ed can be
predicted by a few phonological rules, but that is not the reason why its spelling is fixed.
Another example involves the vowel differences (with accompanying stress pattern changes) in several related words. For instance, the
word photographer is derived from the word photograph by adding the derivational suffix -er. When this suffix is added, the vowel pronunciations change
largely owing to the moveable stress:
Spelling
photograph
Pronunciation
/fotrf/ or /fotrf/
photographer /ftrfr/
photographical /fotrfkl/
Other examples of this type are the -ity suffix (as in agile vs agility, acid vs acidity, divine vs divinity, sane vs sanity). See also: Trisyllabic laxing.
Another such class of words includes sign /san/ and bomb /bm/ with "silent" letters g and b, respectively. However, in the related
words signature and bombard these letters are pronounced /sntr/ and /bmbrd/, respectively. Here it could be argued that the underlying
representation of sign and bomb is |san| and |bmb|, in which the underlying || and |b| are only pronounced in the surface forms when followed by
certain suffixes (-ature, -ard). Otherwise, the || and |b| are not realized in the surface pronunciation (e.g. when standing alone, or when followed by
suffixes like -ing or -er). In these cases, the orthography indicates the underlying consonants that are present in certain words but are absent in
other related words. Other examples include the t in fast /fst/ and fasten /fsn/, and the h in heir /r/ and inherit /nhrt/.
Another example includes words like mean /min/ and meant /mnt/. Here the vowel spelling ea is pronounced differently in the two related words.
Thus, again the orthography uses only a single spelling that corresponds to the single morphemic form rather than to the surface phonological form.
English orthography does not always provide an underlying representation; sometimes it provides an intermediate representation between the
underlying form and the surface pronunciation. This is the case with the spelling of the regular plural morpheme, which is written as either -s (as
in tick, ticks and mite, mites) or -es (as in box, boxes). Here the spelling -s is pronounced either /s/ or /z/ (depending on the environment,
e.g. ticks /tks/ and pigs /pz/) while -es is usually pronounced /z/ (e.g. boxes /bksz/). Thus, there are two different spellings that correspond to
the single underlying representation |z| of the plural suffix and the three surface forms. The spelling indicates theinsertion of // before the /z/ in the
spelling -es, but does not indicate the devoiced /s/ distinctly from the unaffected /z/ in the spelling -s.
The abstract representation of words as indicated by the orthography can be considered advantageous since it makes etymological relationships more
apparent to English readers. This makes writing English more complex, but arguably makes reading English more efficient.[5] However, very abstract
underlying representations, such as that of Chomsky & Halle (1968) or of underspecification theories, are sometimes considered too abstract to
accurately reflect the communicative competence of native speakers. Followers of these arguments believe the less abstract surface forms are more
"psychologically real" and thus more useful in terms of pedagogy.[6]
Diacritics[edit]
Main article: English terms with diacritical marks
See also: British and American keyboards and keyboard layouts
English has some words that can be written with accent marks. These words have mostly been imported from other languages, usually French.[citation
needed]
As imported words become increasingly naturalised, there is an increasing tendency to omit the accent marks, even in formal writing. For
example, words such as rle and htel were first seen with accents when they were borrowed into English, but now the accent is almost never used.
The words were originally considered foreign and some people considered that English alternatives were preferable but today their foreign origin is
largely forgotten. Words most likely to retain the accent are those atypical of English morphology and therefore still perceived as slightly foreign. For
example, caf and pt both have a pronounced final e, which would otherwise be silent under the normal English pronunciation rules.
However caf is now sometimes facetiously pronounced "caff", while in pt, the acute accent is helpful to distinguish it from pate.
Further examples of words sometimes retaining diacritics when used in English are: ngstrm (partly because the scientific symbol for this unit of
measurement is ""), appliqu,attach, blas, bric--brac, Brtchen,[7] clich, crme, crpe, faade, fianc(e), flamb, nave, navet, n(e), papiermch, pass, piata, protg, rsum, risqu, ber-, voil.Italics, with appropriate accents, are generally applied to foreign terms that are
uncommonly used in or have not been assimilated into English: for example, adis, crme brle,pice de rsistance, raison d'tre, ber, vis--vis,
and belles-lettres.
It was formerly common in American English to use a diaeresis mark to indicate a hiatus: for example, coperate, das, relect. The New
Yorker and Technology Reviewmagazines still use it for this purpose, even though it is increasingly rare in modern English. Nowadays the diaeresis is
normally left out (cooperate), or a hyphen is used (co-operate). It is, however, still common in loanwords such as nave and Nol.
Written accents are also used occasionally in poetry and scripts for dramatic performances to indicate that a certain normally unstressed syllable in a
word should be stressed for dramatic effect, or to keep with the metre of the poetry. This use is frequently seen in archaic and pseudoarchaic writings
with the -ed suffix, to indicate that the e should be fully pronounced, as with cursd.
Ligatures[edit]
See also: American and British English spelling differences ae and oe
In certain older texts (typically British), the use of the ligatures and is common in words such as archology, diarrha, and encyclopdia. Such
words have Latin or Greekorigin. Nowadays, the ligatures have been generally replaced in British English by the
separated digraph ae and oe (encyclopaedia, diarrhoea); but usually economy, ecology,and in American English by e (encyclopedia, diarrhea; but
usually paean, amoeba, oedipal, Caesar). In some cases, usage may vary; for instance, both encyclopedia andencyclopaedia are current in the UK.
Phonic irregularities[edit]
See also: English spelling reform
Partly because English has never had any formal regulating authority for spelling, such as the Spanish Real Academia Espaola or the
French Acadmie franaise, English spelling, compared to many other languages, is quite irregular and complex. Although French, among other
languages, presents a similar degree of difficulty when encoding(writing), English is more difficult when decoding (reading), as there are clearly many
more possible pronunciations of a group of letters. For example, in French the [u] sound (as in "food"), can be spelled ou, ous, out, or oux (ou, nous,
tout, choux), but the pronunciation of each of those sequences is always the same. In English, the /u/ sound can be spelled in up to 18 different ways
(see the Sound-to-spelling correspondences section below), including oo, u, ui, ue, o, oe, ou, ough, and ew (food, truth, fruit, blues, to, shoe, group,
through, grew), but all of these have other pronunciations as well (e.g. as in flood, trust, build, bluest, go, hoe, grout, rough, sew). The Spelling-tosound correspondencessection below presents a summary of pronunciation variations. Thus, in unfamiliar words and proper nouns the pronunciation
of some sequences, ough being the prime example, is unpredictable to even educated native English speakers.
Spelling irregularities[edit]
Attempts to regularize or reform the spelling of English have usually met with failure. However, Noah Webster popularized more phonetic spellings in
the United States; such asflavor for British flavour, fiber for fibre, defense for defence, analyze for analyse, catalog for catalogue and so forth. These
spellings already existed as alternatives, but Websters dictionaries helped make them standard in the US.[8] See American and British English spelling
differences for details.
Besides the quirks the English spelling system has inherited from its past, there are other idiosyncrasies in spelling that make it tricky to learn. English
contains, depending ondialect, 2427 separate consonant phonemes and 1420 vowels. However, there are only 26 letters in the modern English
alphabet, so there cannot be a one-to-one correspondence between letters and sounds. Many sounds are spelled using different letters or multiple
letters, and for those words whose pronunciation is predictable from the spelling, the sounds denoted by the letters depend on the surrounding letters.
For example, the digraph th represents two different sounds (the voiced dental fricative and thevoiceless dental fricative) (see Pronunciation of
English th), and the voiceless alveolar sibilant can be represented by the letters s and c.
It is, however, not the shortage of letters which makes English spelling irregular. Its irregularities are caused mainly by the use of many different
spellings for some of its sounds, such as the sounds /u/, /i/ and /o/ (too, true, shoe, flew, through; sleeve, leave, even, seize, siege; stole, coal,
bowl, roll, old, mould), and the use of identical sequences for spelling different sounds (over, oven, move).
Furthermore, English no longer makes any attempt to anglicise the spellings of loanwords, but preserves the foreign spellings, even when they employ
exotic conventions like thePolish cz in Czech (rather than *Check) or the Norwegian fj in fjord (although fiord was formerly the most common spelling).
In early Middle English, until roughly 1400, most imports from French were respelt according to English rules (e.g. bataille - battle, bouton - button, but
not double, trouble). Instead of loans being respelled to conform to English spelling standards, sometimes the pronunciation changes as a result of
pressure from the spelling. One example of this is the word ski, which was adopted from Norwegian in the mid-18th century, although it did not become
common until 1900. It used to be pronounced /i/, which is similar to the Norwegian pronunciation, but the increasing popularity of the sport after the
middle of the 20th century helped the /ski/ pronunciation replace it.[citation needed]
There was also a period when the spelling of a small number of words was altered in what is now regarded as a misguided attempt to make them
conform to what were perceived to be the etymological origins of the words. For example, the letter b was added to debt (originally dette) in an attempt
to link it to the Latin debitum, and the letter s in island is a misplaced attempt to link it to Latin insula instead of the Old English word land, which is
the true origin of the English word. The letter p in ptarmigan has no etymological justification whatsoever, only seeking to invoke Greek despite being a
Gaelic word.
The spelling of English continues to evolve. Many loanwords come from languages where the pronunciation of vowels corresponds to the way they
were pronounced in Old English, which is similar to the Italian or Spanish pronunciation of the vowels, and is the value the vowel symbols [a], [e], [i],
[o], and [u] have in the International Phonetic Alphabet. As a result, there is a somewhat regular system of pronouncing "foreign" words in English,[citation
needed]
and some borrowed words have had their spelling changed to conform to this system. For example, Hindu used to be spelled Hindoo, and the
name Maria used to be pronounced like the name Mariah, but was changed to conform to this system.
Commercial advertisers have also had an effect on English spelling. They introduced new or simplified spellings like lite instead of light, thru instead
of through, smokey instead ofsmoky (for "smokey bacon" flavour crisps), and rucsac instead of rucksack. The spellings of personal names have also
been a source of spelling innovations: diminutive versions of women's names that sound the same as men's names have been spelled
differently: Nikki and Nicky, Toni and Tony, Jo and Joe.
As examples of the idiosyncratic nature of English spelling, the combination ou can be pronounced in at least four different
ways: // in famous, /a/ in loud, // in should, /u/ inyou; and the vowel sound /i/ in me can be spelt in at least nine different
ways: paediatric, me, seat, seem, ceiling, people, machine, siege, phoenix. (These examples assume a more-or-less standard non-regional British
English accent. Other accents will vary.)
Sometimes everyday speakers of English change a counterintuitive pronunciation simply because it is counterintuitive. Changes like this are not
usually seen as "standard", but can become standard if used enough. An example is the word miniscule, which still competes with its original spelling
of minuscule, though this might also be because of analogy with the word mini.[citation needed] A further example is the modern pronunciation of tissue.[specify]
History[edit]
Inconsistencies and irregularities in English pronunciation and spelling have gradually increased in number throughout the history of the English
language. There are a number of contributing factors. First, gradual changes in pronunciation, such as the Great Vowel Shift, account for a
tremendous number of irregularities. Second, relatively recent loan words from other languages generally carry their original spellings, which are often
not phonetic in English. The Romanization of languages (e.g., Chinese) using alphabets derived from the Latin alphabet has further complicated this
problem, for example when pronouncing Chinese proper names (of people or places).
The regular spelling system of Old English was swept away by the Norman Conquest, and English itself was supplanted in some spheres by Norman
French for three centuries, eventually emerging with its spelling much influenced by French. English had also borrowed large numbers of words from
French, which naturally kept their French spellings as there was no reason or mechanism to change them. The spelling of Middle English, such as in
the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer, is very irregular and inconsistent, with the same word being spelled in different ways, sometimes even in the same
sentence. However, these were generally much better guides to the then pronunciation than modern English spelling is.
For example, the sound //, normally written u, is spelled with an o in son, love, come, etc., due to Norman spelling conventions which prohibited
writing u before v, m, n due to the graphical confusion that would result. (v, u, n were identically written with two minims in Norman handwriting; w was
written as two u letters; m was written with three minims, hence mm looked like vun, nvu, uvu, etc.) Similarly, spelling conventions also prohibited
final v. Hence the identical spellings of the three different vowel sounds in love, grove andprove are due to ambiguity in the Middle English spelling
system, not sound change.
There was also a series of linguistic sound changes towards the end of this period, including the Great Vowel Shift, which resulted in the i in mine, for
example, changing from a pure vowel to a diphthong. These changes for the most part did not detract from the rule-governed nature of the spelling
system; but in some cases they introduced confusing inconsistencies, like the well-known example of the many pronunciations
of ough (rough, through, though, trough, plough, etc.). Most of these changes happened before the arrival of printing in England. However, the arrival
of the printing press froze the current system, rather than providing the impetus for a realignment of spelling with pronunciation. Furthermore, it
introduced further inconsistencies, partly because of the use of typesetters trained abroad, particularly in the Low Countries. For example,
the h in ghost was influenced by Dutch.[9] The addition and deletion of a silent e at the ends of words was also sometimes used to make the right-hand
margin line up more neatly.[9]
By the time dictionaries were introduced in the mid 17th century, the spelling system of English had started to stabilise. By the 19th century, most
words had set spellings, though it took some time before they diffused throughout the English-speaking world. In The Mill on the Floss (1860), English
novelist George Eliot satirized the attitude of the English rural gentry of the 1820s towards orthography:
Mr. Tulliver did not willingly write a letter, and found the relation between spoken and written language, briefly known as spelling, one of the most
puzzling things in this puzzling world. Nevertheless, like all fervid writing, the task was done in less time than usual, and if the spelling differed from
Mrs. Glegg's,why, she belonged, like himself, to a generation with whom spelling was a matter of private judgment.
The modern English spelling system, with its national variants, spread together with the expansion of public education later in the 19th century.
"Ough" words[edit]
Main article: Ough (combination)
The most notorious group of letters in the English language, ough, is commonly pronounced in at least ten different ways, six of which are
illustrated in the construct, Though the tough cough and hiccough plough him through, which is quoted by Robert A. Heinlein in The Door into
Summer to illustrate the difficulties facing automated speech transcription and reading. Ough[pronunciation?] is in fact a word in its own right; it is an
exclamation of disgust similar to ugh.
The place name Loughborough uses two different pronunciations of ough: the first ough has the sound as in cuff and the second rhymes
with thorough.
Spelling patterns[edit]
See also: Help:IPA for English
Spelling-to-sound correspondences[edit]
Vowels[edit]
In a generative approach to English spelling, Rollings (2004) identifies twenty main orthographic vowels of stressed syllables that are grouped into
four main categories: "Lax", "Tense", "Heavy", "Tense-R". (As this classification is based on orthography, not all orthographic "lax" vowels are
necessarily phonologically lax.)
General American
Letter
Lax
Letter
Lax
//
man
/e/
mane
/r/
mar
/r/
mare
//
man
/e/
mane
//
mar
/r/
mare
//
met
/i/
mete
/r/
her
/r/
here
//
met
/i/
mete
/r/
her
/r/
here
//
win
/a/
wine
/r/
fir
/ar/
fire
//
win
/a/
wine
/r/
fir
/ar/
fire
//
mop
/o/
mope
//
mop
/o/
mope
//
hug
/ju/
huge
/r/
cur
/jr/
cure
//
hug
/ju/
huge
/r/
cur
/jr/
cure
//
push
/u/
rude
/r/
sur
/r/
sure
//
push
/u/
rude
/r/
sur
/r/
sure
/r/
for, fore
//
for, fore
For instance, the letter a can represent the lax vowel //, tense /e/, heavy //, or (often allophonically) [] before |r|. Heavy and tense-r vowels
are the respective lax and tense counterparts followed by the letter r.
Tense vowels are distinguished from lax vowels with a "silent" e letter that is added at the end of words. Thus, the letter a in hat is lax //, but
when the letter e is added in the word hate the letter a is tense /e/. Similarly, heavy and tense-r vowels pattern together: the letters ar in car are
heavy /r/, the letters ar followed by silent e in the word care are /r/. The letter u represents two different vowel patterns, one being //, /ju/, //,
/j/, the other //, /u/, //. There is no distinction between heavy and tense-r vowels with the lettero, and the letter u in the /-u-/ pattern does not
have a heavy vowel member.
Besides silent e, another strategy for indicating tense and tense-r vowels, is the addition of another orthographic vowel forming a digraph. In this
case, the first vowel is usually the main vowel while the second vowel is the "marking" vowel. For example, the word man has a
lax a pronounced //, but with the addition of i (as the digraph ai) in the word mainthe a is marked as tense and pronounced /e/. These two
strategies produce words that are spelled differently but pronounced identically, as in mane (silent e strategy), main(digraph strategy)
and Maine (both strategies). The use of two different strategies relates to the function of distinguishing between words that would otherwise be
homonyms.
Besides the 20 basic vowel spellings, Rollings (2004) has a reduced vowel category (representing the sounds /, /) and a miscellaneous category
(representing the sounds /, a, a, a/ and /j/+V, /w/+V, V+V).
Combinations of vowel letters[edit]
To reduce dialectal difficulties, the sound values given here correspond to the conventions at Wikipedia:IPA for English. This table includes H, W
and Y when they represent vowel sounds. If no information is given, it is assumed that the vowel is in a stressed syllable.
Deriving the pronunciation of an English word from its spelling requires not only a careful knowledge of the rules given below (many of which are
not explicitly known even by native speakers: speakers merely learn the spelling of a word along with its pronunciation) and their many exceptions,
but also:
a knowledge of which syllables are stressed and which are unstressed (not derivable from the spelling: compare hallow and allow)
which combinations of vowels represent monosyllables and which represent disyllables (ditto: compare waif and naif, creature and creator)
Spelling
before multiple
consonants
final vowel in word
followed by 2 or
more
unstressed syllables
next syllable
contains //
before final -nge, -ste
before single
consonant
before cons + (-le or
r+vowel)
before heterosyllabic
vowel
Major
value
(IPA)
//
Examples of major
value
Minor
values
/e/
//
/e/
//
range, exchange, haste
gave, opaque, savor, status
table, hatred, April
//
chaos, aorta, mosaic
.
//
bar, cart
barred, marring
before r + vowel
/()/
word-final (stressed)
//
// (//)*
//
Examples of minor
value
Exceptions
[clarification needed]
// yacht
// advocate (n), hurricane (RP)
// many, any
/a/ naive
// scarce
//
//
// (//)*
//
/()/
/e/
// quarantine (GA)
// waratah
/e/ teenage
unstressed
//
// to
//
/e/
unstressed, in -age
//
//
(RP):
//
//
Aaron
/e/ Quaalude
usually
/i/
encyclopaedia,
paediatrician
//
aesthetic
before r
//
aerial, aeroplane
//
chimaera
// anaerobe
stressed
/e/
/a/
//
/e /
before r
//
unstressed
//
bargain, mountain
//
aa, ah
ae
garage, barrage
ai
/a/ hetaira, zaire
ao
/a/
/e/
/e/
/e/
//
au
//
/o/ pharaoh
/e/ aorta
/eo/ baobab
/o/ karaoke
/e/ gauge
/a/ gaur
Major
value
(IPA)
Spelling
Examples of major
value
Minor
values
/a/
/o/
aw
//
ay
/e/
/i/
before single
consonant
before cons + (-le or
r+vowel)
final, only vowel in
word
final, Greek loans
before heterosyllabic
vowel
before multiple
consonants
final vowel in word
bef. 2+ unstressed
syllables
next syllable
contains //
trauma (GA)
chauffeur, gauche, mauve
Exceptions
[clarification needed]
// because (GA)
// aurora, meerschaum
// awry
/a/
//
/e/
//
//
/i/
//
//
clerk, sergeant
compere, there, werewolf
derelict, heresy, perish,
very
derail, reremind
// pretty
before r + vowel
//
//
//
/i/
word-final
/i/
recipe
unstressed
//
//
/i/
/e/
/e/
//
//
/i/
/ie/
// orgeat, // poleax
// ealderman
// mileage, /i/ lineage
// yeah, /e/ seance
/i/ beatify, caveat, reality
// were, weregild
// erase, erect
/e/ cafe
usually
/i/
//
before r + cons.
//
pearly, hearse,
yearning, earth
//
// beard, peart
/e/ bearnaise, /i'/ rearm
//
//
/i/
// heard
/i/ tearoom
/o/
/ju/
beauty
// bureaucracy
// bureaucrat
ea
eau
usually
/i/
/e/
/i/
before r
//
/i/
freer, seers
/i/
/a/
/i/
ee
ei, ey
Examples of minor
value
usually
/e/
after c
/i/
before r
//
//
unstressed
//
//
/i/
mullein, villein
volleyed
// ceinture, enceinte
/e/ glaceing /i/ haecceity
Spelling
unstressed, word-final
eo
usually bisyllabic
usually
eu(e),
after /r/, //, //, /j/, cons.
ew(e),
+ /l/
ieu,
iew
before r
unstressed before r
before single
consonant
before cons + (-le or
r+vowel)
before -nd, -ld, -gh, gn
word-final
before heterosyllabic
vowel
before multiple
consonants
final vowel in word
bef. 2+ unstressed
syllables
next syllable
contains //
before cons. + e/i +
vowel
Major
value
(IPA)
Examples of major
value
/i/
/io/
/i/
//
/i/
//
/ju/
//
/u/
/i/
berceuse, danseuse
leukemia, lewd, lieu (sic)
museum, pileus
/u/
/i/
nucleus
/j/
//
masseur, voyeur
/ju()/
eurhythmic, neurotic
/j/
//
aneurism, derailleur,
grandeur
amateur, chauffeur
/a/
//
//
before r + vowel
/a/
unstressed
//
livid, typical
/i/
finally
/a/
//
/a/
/i/
// wolf
/w/ once
// (GA) long, broth
// woman
// women
/w/ one
colonel, sophomore (some
//
/a()/
/i/ to /j/
// or //
/o/
business
before r
before single
consonant
before cons + (-le or
r+vowel)
word-final
pencil, cousin
//
/i/
// menhir
medially
/a/
/a/
/i/ to /j/
/i/
before multiple
consonants
final vowel in word
followed by 2 or
more
unstressed syllables
next syllable
contains //
Exceptions
[clarification needed]
Examples of minor
value
/i/
ie
Minor
values
//
/o/
/u/
//
/u/
//
//
dialects)
Spelling
Major
value
(IPA)
Examples of major
value
//
//
// whorl
// borough
after w, before r
//
//
// worry
unstressed
//
usually
/o/
before r
//
/i/
amoeba, coelacanth,
foetal, phoenix
/o/
/u/
/o/
doeskin, woeful
shoelace, canoeing
poetic, soever, orthoepic
// foetid, roentgen
/oi/ coeval, noesis
/o/ coerce
/o/ poetry, orthoepy
shoes, canoe
coed, noel, phloem
goer, loess, poem
// does
/u/ doeth, doer
// foehn
/oi/ diploe, kalanchoe
/u/ hoopoe
/o/
/o/
/oe/
boa, inchoate
coaxial, ogdoad
oasis, cloaca
// broad
/u/ doable
/o/ koala
// cupboard, starboard
/o/ coarctate
final vowels
/o/
unstressed
//
oedema, oesophagus
/o/
/u/
manoeuvre
//
oeuvre
going, egoist, heroin, stoic
bourgeois, coiffeur, patois
connoisseur, porpoise,
tortoise
/u/ doing
/i/ chamois
/oa/ ghettoise, oroide
oeu
usually
//
/o/
/w/
//
before r
/w/
//
/wa/ choir
// avoirdupois
usually
/u/
//
/o/ brooch
/o / coopt, zoology
before k, d
//
/u/
// flood, blood
before r
//
door, flooring
//
// whippoorwill
/o / coordinate
/u/
//
/o/
// could, should
// cough, fount (printing)
/ju/ ampoule, coupon (GA)
oi
stressed
/a/
stressed before r
//
/a/
//
/()/
unstressed
//
camouflage, labour,
nervous
/u/
//
entourage, bivouac,
bedouin
potpourri, detour
// hiccough
/w/ ratatouille, ouabaine
stressed
/a/
/o/
// acknowledge, rowlock
before r
/a/
dowry, cowries
/o/
cowrites, showroom
unstressed
/o/
yellow, teabowl,
landowner
/a/
peafowl, sundowner
//
/wa/
voyeur, noyade
/oj/ oyez
/a/ coyote (GA)
before multiple
consonants
final vowel in word
//
budding, cuckold,
mullet, usher
but, gull, Dutch, hush, fuss
//
before single
consonant
/ju/
mute, student,
puny, union, fuses
bugle, hubris, nutrient (RP)
oy
// neuron
/u/
/o/
/o/
oe
ow
Exceptions
[clarification needed]
before r
usually
ou
Examples of minor
value
before heterosyllabic
vowel
(inc. unstressed)
oa
oo
Minor
values
//
/u/
// busy, business
Major
value
(IPA)
Spelling
Examples of major
value
Minor
values
Exceptions
[clarification needed]
/u/
//
// sugar
/ju/ overuse, underused
//
//
recurrent, occurrence
/()/ langur
before r + vowel
/j()/
/()/
// bury, burial
/()/
//
/w/
language, segue,
distinguish
after q
/w/
//
/ju/
/u/
/j/
//
after g
/ju/
//
//
ague, argued
guest, guessed, baguette
guerrilla, beleaguered
after r or cons. + l
/u/
unstressed
ue
ui
Examples of minor
value
/ju/
/ju/
/u/
/u/
after g
/w/
/a/
//
after j, r, or cons. + l
/u/
/u/
/ju/
/ju/
/u/
/ju/
elsewhere (except after q)
//
uu
/ju/
continuum, residuum
/u/
menstruum
/u/ duumvir
/ju/ vacuum
/u/ muumuu
uy
/a/
/i/
/wi/
/j/ toluyl
/uj/ thuya, gruyere
//
/a/
/a/
//
byzantine, synod,
synagogue,
Cypriote, sycophantic
.
before multiple
consonants
bef. 2+ unstressed
syllables
next syllable
contains //
before single
consonant
before cons + (-le or
r+vowel)
word-final, stressed
Spelling
Major
value
(IPA)
Examples of major
value
Minor
values
Examples of minor
value
Exceptions
[clarification needed]
lycra
awry, by, deny, sky, supply
before final r or r + cons.
(and in derived terms)
//
myrtle, myrrh
before r + vowel
/a/
//
syrup, Pyrenees
unstressed
//
//
/a/
/i/
unstressed, word-final
/i/
// pyrrhic
In many if not most North American accents /r/ and /r/ are merged into the latter pronunciation.
* The LOT and CLOTH lexical sets, pronounced with // or //, respectively in GA, but merged in // in RP.
** Pronounced // in GA.
Consonants[edit]
See also: Digraph (orthography)
Notes:
In the tables, the hyphen has two different meanings. A hyphen after the letter indicates that it must be at the beginning of a syllable, e.g. j- in
jumper and ajar. A hyphen before the letter indicates that it cannot be at the beginning of a word, e.g. -ck in sick and ticket.
More specific rules take precedence over more general ones, e.g. "c- before e, i or y" takes precedence over "c".
Where the letter combination is described as "word-final", inflectional suffixes may be added without changing the pronunciation, e.g.
catalogues.
The dialect used is RP.
Isolated foreign borrowings are excluded.
Major
value
(IPA)
Spelling
Other
values
usually
/b/
finally after m
(and in derived terms)
/b/
iambic, nimb
before e, i, y, ae, or oe
/s/
/t/
//
/k/
/ts/
cello, vermicelli
special, liquorice
Celts, chicer, syncing
letovicite
initially before n, t
cnidarian, ctenoid
elsewhere
/k/
cat, cross
victual, indict
before e, i or y
/ks/
/k/
/t/
/s/
elsewhere
/k/
drachm
b, bb
cc
usually
/t/
/k/
//
/h/
/d/
/x/
Greek-derived words
/k/
ch
Major
value
(IPA)
Spelling
/k/
/t/
/d/
fine, off
/v/
of
/d/
//
//
in gm or gn
phlegmy, diaphragm
gnome, signed, poignant, reign
//
//
elsewhere
//
/d/
margarine, gaol
//
/d/
/gd/
//
burgh
lough, saugh
laughter, trough, draught, roughage
burgher, ogham, yogh
leghorn, pigheaded
hiccough
French-derived words
//
ck
/k/
tack, ticket
d, dd, dh
/d/
-dg- before e, i, or y
/d/
f, -ff
/f/
before e, i, y, ae, or oe
Other
values
gg
initially
elsewhere
// or /o/
/x/ or /k/
/f/
//
/h/
/p/
usually
/h/
final or after r or ex
/h/
/d/
jump, ajar
/j/
//
/h/
Hallelujah
bijou, jongleur, julienne
jalapeno, fajita
marijuana
usually
/k/
reknit, camiknicks
initially before n
/k/
knish
/l/
/j/
usually
/m/
mine, hammer
initially before n
mnemonic
gh
k, kk, kh
l, ll
m, mm
Major
value
(IPA)
Spelling
Other
values
usually
/n/
//
anxiety
monsieur, condemner, damningly
before /k/ or //
//
/n/
finally after m
//
//
/nd/
longer, strongest
stingy (ungenerous)
medially otherwise
//
/nd/
/n/
//
/n/
usually
/p/
initially before n, s, t
/p/
psst
ph, pph
/f/
photograph, sapphire
/v/
/pf/
Stephen
camphor
q (not before u)
/k/
Iraq, Iqaluit
usually
/r/
iron
in nonrhotic
dialects like
RP
n, nn
ng
p, pp
r, rr, rh,
rrh
before consonant
finally
before final e
usually
/s/
/z/
//
//
/z/
/s/
word-final -s morpheme
after a voiceless sound
/s/
pets, shops
word-final -s morpheme
after a lenis sound
/z/
beds, magazines
sc- before e, i or y
/s/
/sk/
//
/z/
sceptic, scirrhus
fascism
crescent (RP)
sch-
/sk/
//
/s/
sh
//
/s h/
/z h/
/s /
/ h/
ss
/s/
boss, assign,
dresser, dissent, aggressors,
finesse
//
/z/
/s s/
Major
value
(IPA)
Spelling
Other
values
/sw/
/s/
/zw/
sword, answer
menswear
coxswain
usually
/t/
//
/t/
//
/d/
/t/
tungsten, listless
/t/
batch, kitchen
/t/
/t/
/th/
/t/
thyme
eighth
outhouse, potherb (RP)
posthumous (GA)
asthma
sw
t, -tt
-tch
th
//
//
v, -vv
/v/
/w/
/u/
/v/
usually
/w/ [12]
wheel
/f/
whew (RP)
before o
/h/ [12]
who, whole
/w/
whopping, whorl
/r/ [13]
wrong, wrist
/z/
/ks/
/z/
//, /k/
/ks/
/gz/
//
/k/
/z/
xc before e or i
/ks/
xh
/gz/
exhaust, exhibit
exhilarating, exhortation
/ks/
/ksh/
exhibition, Vauxhall
exhale, exhume, foxhole
y-
/j/
yes, young
/z/
//
/ts/
wh-
wrinitially
/z/
elsewhere
z, -zz
Nearly 80% of Americans pronounce "luxurious" with /g/, while two thirds of Brits use /k/. Half the American speakers pronounce "luxury"
as /lg ri/, the rest says /lk ri/[14]
About half of both British and American speakers say /kst/, the other half says /gzt/.[14]
Combinations of vowel letters and "r"[edit]
This section
requires expansion.(April 2014)
Spelling
ayer, ayor
Major value
Minor values
Examples of major value
Examples of minor value Exceptions
(IPA)
(IPA)
/e[][r]/
layer, mayor
Spelling
Minor
values
(IPA)
Exceptions
ah
//
blah
al
/l/
/l/
alf
/f/ (RP)
/f/ (GA)
calf, half
/l/
alfalfa, malfeasance
/lf/ palfrey
alk
/k/
/lk/
alkaline, grimalkin
/lk/ balkanise
all
/l/
/l/
/l/
/()l/
wallet, swallow
allow, dialled
alm
/m/
/lm/
/lm/
alt
/lt/ (RP)
/lt/ (GA)
/lt/
/lt/
final -ange
/end/
/nd/
flange, phalange
/n / melange
/nd/ blancmange
/nd/ orange
final -aste
/est/
/st/
//
special, gracious
/si/
species
-cqu
/kw/
acquaint, acquire
/k/
lacquer, racquet
/d/
loaded, waited
/t/
/d/
biped, underfed
/d/
/d/
eh
/e/
//
yeh
/z/
/iz/
/z/
/ks/
exhale
gu- before a
/w/
//
guard, guarantee
/l/
little, table
/l/
orle, isle
final -(a)isle
/al/
/d/ naked
/le/ boucle
final -ngue
//
/e/
merengue, distingu
/i/ dengue
/o/
//
demijohn, johnny
// bohrium
// matzoh
old
/old/
/ld/
olk
/ok/
yolk, folklore
/lk/
oll
/l/
/ol/
olm
/lm/
olm, dolmen
/olm/
enrolment, holmium
ong
//
/g/
/nd/
//
/g/
//
/nd/
// among, tongue
/ng/ ongoing, nongraded
/ng/ congratulate, lemongrass
/nd/ congeal, congestion
/n/ allonge /on/ cong (GA)
qu-
/kw/
queen, quick
/k/
liquor, mosquito
final -que
/k/
mosque, bisque
/ke/
manque, risqu
/r/
/re/, /ri/
/r/
/rn/
/rn/
/(r)n/ iron
/ron/ chaperon
//
-scle
/sl/
corpuscle, muscle
/skl/
mascle
/s/
/z/
/z/
/s/
//
//
/zi/
pension, controversial,
compulsion
easier, enthusiasm, physiological
//
/si/
unstressed -sure
/r/
leisure, treasure
/r/
tonsure, censure
/t/
/ti/
/i/
//
unstressed -ture
/tr/
nature, picture
/kju/ barbeque
/ki/ pulque
* According to the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 75% of Americans pronounce "almond" as /lmnd/.
Where GA distinguishes between // and // in the letter combination ong, RP only has the vowel //
Sound-to-spelling correspondences[edit]
The following table shows for each sound the various spelling patterns used to denote it, starting with the prototypical pattern(s) followed by others
in alphabetical order. Some of these patterns are very rare or unique (such as "gh" for /p/, "ph" for /v/, "i" for //). The symbol "" stands for an
intervening consonant.
Consonants[edit]
In order of the IPA consonant tables
Consonants
IPA
Spelling
Examples
/m/
mine, hammer, drachm, phlegm, salmon, climb, combe, forme, mho, femme, autumn
/n/
n, nn, cn, dn, gn, gne, kn, ln, mn, mp, nd, ne, nh, nne,
pn, sne
nice, inn, cnidarian, Wednesday, gnome, coigne, knee, Lincoln, mnemonic, comptroller,
handsome, borne, piranha, tonne, pneumonia, mesne
//
/p/
/b/
/t/
t, tt, bt, cht, ct, ed, ght, pt, te, th, tte, tw
ten, sett, doubt, yacht, victual, dressed, lighter, pterodactyl, forte, thyme, cigarette, two
/d/
dive, odd, bdellium, horde, dharma, abandoned, solder, kindergarten (GA), (flatter)
/k/
c, k, cc, ch, ck, cq, cqu, cque, cu, ke, kh, kk, lk, q, qu,
que, x
cat, key, account, chord, tack, acquire, lacquer, sacque, biscuit, burke, khaki, trekker, polkadotted,quorum, liquor, mosque, excitement
//
/s/
s, ss, c, cc, ce, ps, sc, sce, sch (in some dialects), se, sse, st,
sth, sw, tz, z
song, mess, city, flaccid, ounce, psalm, scene, coalesce, (schism), horse, finesse, listen,
asthma(RP), sword, waltz (RP), quartz
/z/
z, zz, cz, s, sc, se, ss, sth, ts, tz, x, ze, c (in some dialects)
zoo, fuzz, czar, has, crescent (UK)*, tease, dissolve, asthma (GA), tsarina, tzar, xylophone,
breeze, (electricity)
//
sh, c, ce, ch, che, chi, chsi, ci, s, sc, sch, sci, she, shi, si, shin, speciality, ocean, machine, quiche, marchioness, fuchsia, special, sugar,
ss, ssi, ti
crescendo, schmooze, conscience, galoshe, cushion, expansion, tissue, mission, nation
//
/f/
fine, chaff, carafe, gaffe, laugh, half, physical, ouphe, sapphire, (lieutenant (RP))
/v/
//
//
th, the
them, breathe
/j/
y, i, j, ll
/x/
loch
/h/
h, wh, j, ch, x
//
/r/
/l/
/w/
//
wheel
/t/
ch, tch, c, cc, che, chi, cz, t, tche, te, th, ti, tsch, tsh
chop, batch, cello, bocce, niche (GA), falchion, Czech, nature, escutcheon, righteous,
posthumous(GA), bastion (GA), putsch, Wiltshire
/d/
magic, jump, sandwich (RP), graduate, judgment, bridge, soldier, adjust, barge, suggest,
Belgian
/ks/
x, cc, chs, cks, cques, cs, cz, kes, ks, lks, ques, xc, xe,
xs, xsc, xsw
sax, accent, tachs, backs, sacques, sacs, eczema, burkes, yaks, caulks, toques, excel, axe,
exsert, exscind, coxswain
tt, dd, t, d
* According to Longman (page 196) the majority of Brits, and the great majority of younger ones, now pronounce "crescent" as /krznt/.
According to Longman (page 301) 64% of Americans and 39% of Brits now pronounce "February" as /fb ju r i/
Vowels[edit]
Sorted more or less from close to open sounds in the vowel diagram.
Vowels
IPA
Spelling
Examples
/i/
e, ee, i, ie, a, ae, ay, ea, ee, ei, eo, ey, eye, ie,
ie...e, oe, oi, ue, ui, uy, y
be, cede, ski, machine, bologna, algae, quay, beach, bee, deceit, people, key, volleyed, field,
hygiene, amoeba, chamois, dengue, beguine, guyot, city
//
i, y, a, a...e, ai, e, ea, ee, ei, i...e, ia, ie, ii, o, oe, u,
u...e, ui
bit, myth, orange, chocolate, bargain, pretty, mileage, breeches, counterfeit, medicine,
carriage, sieve, shiitake, women, oedema, busy, minute (RP), build
/u/
u, u...e, oo, eu, ew, ieu, ioux, o, oe, oe, oeu, ooe,
ou, ough, ougha, oup, ue, ui, uo, w, wo
tutu, flute, too, sleuth, yew, lieu, Sioux, to, lose, shoe, manoeuvre, cooed, soup, through,
brougham, coup, true, fruit, buoy (GA), cwm, two
//
/e/
a, ae, aa, ae, ai, ai...e, aig, aigh, ais, al, ao, au, ay,
aye, e (), e...e, ea, eg, ee (e), eh, ei, ei...e, eig,
eigh, eighe, er, ere, es, et, ete, ey, eye, ez, ie, oeh,
ue, uet
bass, rate, quaalude, reggae, rain, cocaine, arraign, straight, palais, Ralph (Br.), gaol, gauge,
hay, played, ukulele (caf), crepe, steak, matinee (soire), thegn, eh, veil, beige,
reign, eight, weighed, dossier, espaliered, demesne, ballet, crocheted, they, obeyed, chez,
lingerie (GA), boehmite (GA), merengue, bouquet
//
a, e, i, o, u, y, a...e, ae, ah, ai, au, ea, eau, eh, ei, eig,
eo, eou, eu, gh, ie, o...e, oa, oe, oh, oi, oo, ou, ough,
u...e, ua, ue, ui, uo
tuna, oven, pencil, icon, opus, beryl, gunwale, anaerobe, Messiah, mountain, aurora,
Eleanor, bureaucrat, keffiyeh, mullein, foreign, truncheon, timeous, amateur (RP), burgh,
mischievous (GA), awesome, starboard, biocoenosis, matzoh, porpoise, whipoorwill, callous,
borough (RP), minute (GA), piquant, guerillla, circuit (GA), languor
/o/
o, oe, aoh, au, eau, eaue, eo, ew, oa, oe, oh, oo,
ou, ough, oughe, ow, owe
so, bone, pharaoh, mauve, beau, plateaued, yeoman, sew, boat, foe, oh, brooch, soul,
though, furloughed, know, owe
//
e, a, ae, ai, ay, e...e, ea, ei, eo, ie, ieu, u, ue, oe
met, many, aesthetic, said, says, there, deaf, heifer, jeopardy, friend, lieutenant (RP), bury,
guess, foetid
//
hand, Aaron, Fahrenheit, plaid, salmon, laugh (GA), poleax, enceinte, meringue
//
//
o, a, al, au, au...e, augh, aughe, aw, awe, eo, oa, oh,
oo, ou, ough, u, uo
flora, bald, talk, author, cause, caught, overslaughed, jaw, awe, ealdorman, broad,
bohrium, flooring, pouring, bought, surest (RP) fluoridate (RP)
/(r)/
or, ore, aor, ar, aur, aure, oar, oare, oor, oore, our,
oure, owar, ure
or, fore, extraordinary, war, dinosaur, roquelaure, oar, soared, bohrium, door, floored,
four, poured, toward (GA), sure (RP)
//
//
father, garage, salaam, baaed, aah, aahed, blah, aunt (RP), sergeant, heart, lingerie (GA),
lot (GA)
/(r)/
ar, aar, are, arr, arre, arrh, ear, er, uar, our (some
car, bazaar, are, parr, bizarre, catarrh, heart, sergeant, guard, (our)
/a/
ie, ae, ai, aie, aille, ais, ay, aye, ei, eigh, ey, eye, i,
ia, ic, ie, ig, igh, ighe, is, oi, oy, ui, uy, uye, y, y...e, ye
fine, maestro, krait, shanghaied, canaille (RP), aisle, kayak, aye, heist, height,
geyser (GA), eye, mic, diaper, indict, tie, sign, high, sighed, isle, choir, coyote (GA), guide, buy,
guyed, tryst, type, bye
//
/a/
ou, ow, ao, aow, aowe, au, ough, oughe, owe, (eo)
out, now, cacao, miaow, miaowed, gauss, bough, ploughed, vowed, (Macleod)
/(r)/
are, aer, air, aire, ar, ayer, ayor, ayre, e'er, eah, ear,
eir, eor, er, ere, err, erre, ert, ey're
bare, aerial, hair, millionaire, scarce, prayer, mayor, fayre, ne'er, yeah, bear, heir, ceorl,
moderne, where, err (variant), parterre, couvert, they're
/(r)/
ere, aer, e're, ea, ear, eare, eer, eere, eir, eor, er,
ers, ier, iere, ir, oea
here, chimaera, we're, idea (RP), ear, feared, beer, peered, weird, theory (RP), series, revers,
pier, premiere, souvenir, diarrhoea (RP)
/r/
//
er, ir, ur, ear, ere, err, erre, eur, eure, irr, irre, oeu,
olo, or, ore, our, ueur, urr, urre, yr, yrrh
defer, fir, fur, earl, were, err, interred, voyeur, chauffeured (GA), birr, stirred, hors d'oeuvre,
colonel, worst, wore, adjourn, liqueur, purr, murre, myrtle, myrrh
/ju/
u, ue, ew, eau, eo, eu, ewe, ieu, iew, ou, ue, ueue,
ui
music, use, few, beauty, feodary, feud, ewe, adieu, view, ampoule, cue, queue, nuisance
dialects)
See also[edit]
English language
False etymology
Spelling bee
List of English homographs
Conventions
English plural
I before E except after C
Three letter rule
Variant spelling
Apostrophe
Eth
Long s
Thorn (letter)
Phonetic orthographic systems
English scripts
Dutch
German
Icelandic
Romance languages
French
Italian
Milanese
Portuguese
Spanish
Celtic languages
Irish
Scottish Gaelic
Welsh
Historical languages
Latin
Old Norse
Artificial languages
Esperanto
References[edit]
1. Jump up^ A short history of English spelling
2. Jump up^ English language. (2010). In Encyclopdia Britannica. Retrieved November 23, 2010, from Encyclopdia Britannica
Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/188048/English-language
3. Jump up^ Rollings 2004: 16-19; Chomsky & Halle 1968; Chomsky 1970
4. Jump up^ Chomsky & Halle 1968:54
5. Jump up^ Chomsky 1970:294; Rollings 2004:17
6. Jump up^ Rollings 2004:1719
7. Jump up^ Included in Webster's Third New International Dictionary,1981
8. Jump up^ Algeo, John. "The Effects of the Revolution on Language", in A Companion to the American Revolution. John Wiley & Sons, 2008. p.599
9. ^ Jump up to:a b Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Twisted Story of English Spelling, by David Wolman. Collins, ISBN 978-006-136925-4. [1]
10. Jump up^ According to the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, a majority of younger speakers in England pronounce "sure" and "assure" and
derivatives. as //, //, etc.
11. Jump up^ Accroding to Longman, 77% of Americans pronounce "suggest" as /sg dst/
12. ^ Jump up to:a b or /hw/ in Hiberno-English and Southern American English
13. Jump up^ /wr/ in Scottish
14. ^ Jump up to:a b J.C. Wells Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd edition, Pearson Education Limited, Harlow, 2008
Bibliography[edit]
Albrow, K. H. (1972). The English writing system: Notes towards a description. Schools Council Program in Linguistics and English Teaching, papers series 2 (No. 2).
London: Longmans, for the Schools Council.
Aronoff, Mark. (1978). An English spelling convention. Linguistic Inquiry, 9, 299303.
Bell, Masha (2004), Understanding English Spelling, Cambridge, Pegasus.
Bell, Masha (2007), Learning to Read, Cambridge, Pegasus.
Bell, Masha (2009), Rules and Exceptions of English Spelling, Cambridge, Pegasus.
Brengelman, Fred H. (1970). Sounds and letters in American English. In The English language: An introduction for teachers (pp. 7798). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall.
Brengelman, Fred H. (1970). Generative phonology and the teaching of spelling. English Journal,59, 11131118.
Brengelman, Fred H. (1971). English spelling as a marker of register and style. English Studies,52, 201209.
Brengelman, Fred H. (1980). Orthoepists, printers, and the rationalization of English spelling.Journal of English and German Philology, 79, 332354.
Carney, Edward. (1994). A survey of English spelling. London: Routledge.
Chomsky, Carol. (1970). Reading, writing and phonology. Harvard Educational Review, 40 (2), 287309.
Chomsky, Noam; & Halle, Morris. (1968). The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper and Row. (Particularly pp. 46, 4849, 69, 80n, 131n, 148, 174n, 221).
Cummings, D. W. (1988). American English spelling: An informal description. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801879566
Derwing, Bruce; Priestly, Tom; Rochet, Bernard. (1987). The description of spelling-to-sound relationships in English, French and Russian: Progress, problems and
prospects. In P. Luelsdorff (Ed.), Orthography and phonology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Dixon, Robert. (1977). Morphographic spelling program. Eugene, OR: Engelman-Becker Press.
Emerson, Ralph. (1997). English spelling and its relation to sound. American Speech, 72 (3), 260288.
Hanna, Paul; Hanna, Jean; Hodges, Richard; & Rudorf, Edwin. (1966). Phoneme grapheme correspondences as cues to spelling improvement. Washington, D.C.: US
Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
Jespersen, Otto. (1909). A modern English grammar on historical principles: Sounds and spellings(Part 1). Heidelberg: C. Winter.
Luelsdorff, Philip A. (1994). Developmental morphographemics II. In W. C. Watt (Ed.), Writing systems and cognition (pp. 141182). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic
Publishers.
McCawley, James D. (1994). Some graphotactic constraints. In W. C. Watt (Ed.), Writing systems and cognition (pp. 115127). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Mencken, H. L. (1936). The American language: An inquiry into the development of English in the United States (4th ed.). New York: A.A. Knopf.
Rollings, Andrew G. (1998). Marking devices in the spelling of English. Atlantis, 20 (1), 129143.
Rollings, Andrew G. (1999). Markers in English and other orthographies. In L. Iglesias Rbade & P. Nuez Pertejo (Eds.), Estudios de lingstica contrastiva (pp. 441449).
Universidad de Santiago.
Rollings, Andrew G. (2003). System and chaos in English spelling: The case of the voiceless palato-alveolar fricative. English Language and Linguistics, 7 (2), 211233.
Rollings, Andrew G. (2004). The spelling patterns of English. LINCOM studies in English linguistics (04). Muenchen: LINCOM EUROPA.
Sampson, Geoffrey. (1985). Writing systems: A linguistic introduction. London: Hutchinson.
Seymour, P. H. K.; Aro, M.; & Erskine, J. M. (2003). Foundation literacy acquisition in European orthographies. British Journal of Psychology, 94 (2), 143174.
Simpson, J. A.; & Weiner, E. S. C. (Eds.). (1989). Oxford English dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Steinberg, Danny. (1973). Phonology, reading and Chomsky and Halle's optimal orthography.Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 2 (3), 239258.
Stubbs, Michael. (1980). Language and literacy: The sociolinguistics of reading and writing. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Venezky, Richard L. (1967). English orthography: Its graphical structure and its relation to sound.Reading Research Quarterly, 2, 75105.
Venezky, Richard L. (1970). The structure of English orthography. The Hague: Mouton.
Venezky, Richard L. (1976). Notes on the history of English spelling. Visible Language, 10, 351365.
Venezky, Richard L. (1999). The American way of spelling. New York: Guildford Press.
Weir, Ruth H. (1967). Some thoughts on spelling. In W. M Austin (Ed.), Papers in linguistics in honor of Leon Dostert (pp. 169177). Janua Linguarum, Series Major (No.
25). The Hague: Mouton.
External links[edit]
Rules for English Spelling: Adding Suffixes, QU Rule, i before e, Silent e, 'er' vs. 'or'
Hou tu pranownse Inglish describes rules which predict a word's pronunciation from its spelling with 85% accuracy
Free spelling information and Free spelling lessons in QuickTime movie format at The Phonics Page.
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