English Orthography

English orthography 1

English orthographyEnglish orthography is the alphabetic spelling system used by the English language. English orthography, likeother alphabetic orthographies, exhibits a set of relationships between speech sounds and the corresponding writtenwords. In most other languages, these relationships are regular enough to be called rules. In standard Englishspelling, however, nearly every sound can be spelled in more than one way, and most spellings and all letters can bepronounced in more than one way and often in many different ways. This is largely due to the complex history of theEnglish language,[1] together with the absence of systematic spelling reforms implemented in English, in contrast tothe position in a number of other languages.In general, English spelling does not reflect the sound changes in the pronunciation of the language that haveoccurred since the late fifteenth century.[2]

Function of the lettersNote: In the following discussion, only one or two common pronunciations of American and British English varietiesare used in this article for each word cited. Other regional pronunciations may be possible for some words, butindicating all possible regional variants in the article is impractical.

Phonemic representationAs in most alphabetic languages, letters in English orthography may represent a particular sound. For example, theword cat /kt/ consists of three letters c, a, and t, in which c represents the sound /k/, a the sound //,and t the sound /t/.Multiple 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 word ditch, the three letters tch represent thesound /t/.Less commonly, a single letter can represent multiple successive sounds. The most common example is the letterx 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 positionswithin 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 neverpronounced // in syllable codas (the proper name Pittsburgh is an exception).

Word originAnother type of spelling characteristic is related to word origin. For example, when representing a vowel, the lettery represents the sound // in some words borrowed from Greek (reflecting an original upsilon), whereas the letterusually representing this sound in non-Greek words is the letter i. Thus, the word myth /m/ is of Greek origin,while pith /p/ is a Germanic word. Other examples include ph pronounced /f/ (which is usually spelt f), andch pronounced /k/ (which is usually spelt c or k) the use of these spellings for these sounds often markwords that have been borrowed from Greek.Some researchers such as Brengelman (1970), have suggested that, in addition to this marking of word origin, thesespellings indicate a more formal level of style or register in a given text, although Rollins (2004) finds this point tobe exaggerated as there would be many exceptions where a word with one of these spellings, such as ph for /f/(like telephone), could occur in an informal text.


Homophone differentiationSpelling may also be useful to distinguish between homophones (words with the same pronunciation but differentmeanings), although in most cases the reason for the difference is historical and was not introduced for the purposeof making a distinction. For example, the words heir and air are pronounced identically in most dialects (as /r/).However, they are distinguished from each other orthographically by the addition of the letter h. Another exampleis the pair of homophones plain and plane, where both are pronounced /plen/ but have two different spellings of thevowel /e/.[3]

In written language, this may help to resolve potential ambiguities that would arise otherwise (cf. He's breaking thecar vs. He's braking the car). Nevertheless, many homophones that are unresolved by spelling still exist (forexample, the word bay has at least five fundamentally different meanings).Some proponentsWikipedia:Avoid weasel words of spelling reform view homophones as undesirable and wouldprefer that they were eliminated. But this would create more spelling inconsistencies (such as the break/brakeexample above) that would need to be resolved via the linguistic context, as they are in the spoken language.

Marking sound changes in other lettersAnother function of some letters in English is to provide information about the pronunciation of other letters in theword. Rollins (2004) uses the term "markers" for letters with this function. Letters may mark different types ofinformation. For instance the letter e in the word cottage /ktd/ indicates that the preceding g is pronounced/d/, rather than the more common value of g in word-final position as the sound //, such as in tag /t/. Theletter e also often marks an altered pronunciation of a preceding vowel. In the pair ban and bane, the a of banhas the value //, whereas the a of bane is marked by the e as having the value /e/. In this context, the e isnot pronounced, and is referred to as "silent e". A single letter may even fill multiple pronunciation-marking rolessimultaneously. For example, in the word wage the e marks not only the change of the a from // to /e/, butalso of the g from // to /d/.

Silent letters

Multiple functionalityA given letter or (letters) may have dual functions. For example, the letter i in the word cinema has asound-representing function (representing the sound //) and a pronunciation-marking function (marking the c ashaving the value /s/ opposed to the value /k/).

Underlying representationLike many other alphabetic orthographies, English spelling does not represent non-contrastive phonetic sounds (thatis, minor differences in pronunciation which are not used to distinguish between different words). Although the lettert is pronounced by some speakers with aspiration [t] at the beginning of words, this is never indicated in thespelling, and, indeed, this phonetic detail is probably not noticeable to the average native speaker not trained inphonetics. However, unlike some orthographies, English orthography often represents a very abstract underlyingrepresentation (or morphophonemic form) of English words.[4]

[T]he postulated underlying forms are systematically related to the conventional orthography ... and are, as iswell known, related to the underlying forms of a much earlier historical stage of the language. There has, inother words, been little change in lexical representation since Middle English, and, consequently, we wouldexpect ... 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 forthe attested dialects of the past several hundred years.[5]


In these cases, a given morpheme (i.e. a component of a word) has a fixed spelling even though it is pronounceddifferently in different words. An example is the past tense suffix -ed, which may be pronounced variously as /t/,/d/, or /d/ (for example, dip /dp/, dipped /dpt/, boom /bum/, boomed /bumd/, loot /lut/, looted /lutd/). As ithappens, these different pronunciations of -ed can be predicted by a few phonological rules, but that is not thereason why its spelling is fixed.Another example involves the vowel differences (with accompanying stress pattern changes) in several relatedwords. 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 Pronunciation

photograph /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 vssanity). 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|, inwhich 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 underlyingconsonants that are present in certain words but are absent in other related words. Other examples include the t infast /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 pronounceddifferently in the two related words. Thus, again the orthography uses only a single spelling that corresponds to thesingle morphemic form rather than to the surface phonological form.English orthography does not always provide an underlying representation; sometimes it provides an intermediaterepresentation between the underlying form and the surface pronunciation. This is the case with the spelling of theregular 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 thatcorrespond to the single underlying representation |z| of the plural suffix and the three surface forms. The spellingindicates the insertion of // before the /z/ in the spelling -es, but does not indicate the devoiced /s/ distinctly fromthe unaffected /z/ in the spelling -s.The abstract representation of words as indicated by the orthography can be considered advantageous since it makesetymological relationships more apparent to English readers. This makes writing English more complex, butarguably makes reading English more efficient.[6] However, very abstract underlying representations, such as that ofChomsky & Halle (1968) or of underspecification theories, are sometimes considered too abstract to accuratelyreflect the communicative competence of native speakers. Followers of these arguments believe the less abstractsurface forms are more "psychologically real" and thus more useful in terms of pedagogy.[7]


DiacriticsEnglish has some words that can be written with accent marks. These words have mostly been imported from otherlanguages, usually French. As imported words become increasingly naturalised, there is an increasing tendency toomit the accent marks, even in formal writing. For example, words such as rle and htel were first seen withaccents when they were borrowed into English, but now the accent is almost never used. The words were originallyconsidered foreign and some people considered that English alternatives were preferable but today their foreignorigin is largely forgotten. Words most likely to retain the accent are those atypical of English morphology andtherefore still perceived as slightly foreign. For example, caf and pt both have a pronounced final e, which wouldotherwise be silent under the normal English pronunciation rules. However caf is now sometimes facetiouslypronounced "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 thescientific symbol for this unit of measurement is ""), appliqu, attach, blas, bric--brac, Brtchen,[8] clich,crme, crpe, faade, fianc(e), flamb, nave, navet, n(e), papier-mch, pass, piata, protg, rsum, risqu,ber-, voil. Italics, with appropriate accents, are generally applied to foreign terms that are uncommonly used in orhave not been assimilated into English: for example, adis, crme brle, pice de rsistance, raison d'tre, ber(bermensch), vis--vis.

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 Review magazines still use it for this purpose, even though it isincreasingly 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 certainnormally 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 befully pronounced, as with cursd.

LigaturesIn 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 Greek origin. Nowadays, the ligatures have been generallyreplaced 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). Insome cases, usage may vary; for instance, both encyclopedia and encyclopaedia are current in the UK.(See also: the section "ae and oe" in the article "American and British English spelling differences".)

Phonic irregularitiesEnglish spelling, compared to many other languages, is quite irregular and complex. Although French, among otherlanguages, 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 ofthose sequences is always the same. In English, the /u/ sound can be spelled oo or u, u-e, ui, ue, o, oe, o-e, o-b, ou,ough, or ew (food, truth, rude, fruit, blue, to, shoe, move, tomb, group, through, flew), but 10 of those 12 sequenceshave other pronunciations as well: flood, rub, build, go, toe, drove, comb, out, rough, sew. In the case of the oughsequence, many English speakers do not even know how to pronounce certain unfamiliar words containing it,especially names such as Gough, Hough, or Slough.English has never had any formal regulating authority for spelling, such as the Spanish Real Academia Espaola orthe French Acadmie franaise.


Spelling irregularitiesAttempts to regularize or reform the language, including spelling reform, have usually met with failure. The onlysignificant exceptions were the reforms of Noah Webster which resulted in many of the differences between Britishand American spelling, such as center/centre, and dialog/dialogue. (Other differences, such as -ize/-ise inrealize/realise etc., came about separately; 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 spellingthat make it tricky to learn. English contains, depending on dialect, 2427 separate consonant phonemes and 1420vowels. However, there are only 26 letters in the modern English alphabet, so there cannot be a one-to-onecorrespondence between letters and sounds. Many sounds are spelled using different letters or multiple letters, andfor those words whose pronunciation is predictable from the spelling, the sounds denoted by the letters depend on thesurrounding letters. For example, the digraph th represents two different sounds (the voiced interdental fricative andthe voiceless interdental fricative) (see Pronunciation of English th), and the voiceless alveolar grooved fricative canbe represented by the letters s and c.It is, however, not the shortage of letters which makes English spelling irregular. Its irregularities are caused mainlyby 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 sequencesfor spelling different sounds (over, oven, move).Furthermore, English no longer makes any attempt to anglicise the spellings of loanwords, but preserves the foreignspellings, even when they employ exotic conventions like the Polish cz in Czech (rather than *Check) or theNorwegian fj in fjord (although fiord was formerly the most common spelling). In early Middle English, untilroughly 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, sometimesthe pronunciation changes as a result of pressure from the spelling. One example of this is the word ski, which wasadopted from Norwegian in the mid-18th century, although it did not become common until 1900. It used to bepronounced /i/, which is similar to the Norwegian pronunciation, but the increasing popularity of the sport after themiddle 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 amisguided attempt to make them conform to what were perceived to be the etymological origins of the words. Forexample, the letter b was added to debt (originally dette) in an attempt to link it to the Latin debitum, and the letter sin island is a misplaced attempt to link it to Latin insula instead of the Old English word land, which is the trueorigin of the English word. The letter p in ptarmigan has no etymological justification whatsoever, only seeking toinvoke Greek despite being a Gaelic word.The spelling of English continues to evolve. Many loanwords come from languages where the pronunciation ofvowels corresponds to the way they were pronounced in Old English, which is similar to the Italian or Spanishpronunciation of the vowels, and is the value the vowel symbols [a], [e], [i], [o], and [u] have in the InternationalPhonetic Alphabet. As a result, there is a somewhat regular system of pronouncing "foreign" words inEnglish,[citation needed] and some borrowed words have had their spelling changed to conform to this system. Forexample, Hindu used to be spelled Hindoo, and the name Maria used to be pronounced like the name Mariah, butwas changed to conform to this system.Commercial advertisers have also had an effect on English spelling. They introduced new or simplified spellings likelite instead of light, thru instead of through, smokey instead of smoky (for "smokey bacon" flavour crisps), andrucsac 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 andNicky, Toni and Tony, Jo and Joe.


As examples of the idiosyncratic nature of English spelling, the combination ou can be pronounced in at least fourdifferent ways: // in famous, /a/ in loud, // in should, /u/ in you; and the vowel sound /i/ in me can be spelt in atleast nine different ways: paediatric, me, seat, seem, ceiling, people, machine, siege, phoenix. (These examplesassume 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 iscounterintuitive. Changes like this are not usually seen as "standard", but can become standard if used enough. Anexample is the word miniscule, which still competes with its original spelling of minuscule, though this might also bebecause of analogy with the word mini.[citation needed] A further example is the modern pronunciation oftissue.Wikipedia:Citing sources

HistoryInconsistencies and irregularities in English pronunciation and spelling have gradually increased in numberthroughout the history of the English language. There are a number of contributing factors. First, gradual changes inpronunciation, such as the Great Vowel Shift, account for a tremendous number of irregularities. Second, relativelyrecent loan words from other languages generally carry their original spellings, which are often not phonetic inEnglish. The Romanization of languages (e.g., Chinese) using alphabets derived from the Latin alphabet has furthercomplicated 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 wassupplanted in some spheres by Norman French for three centuries, eventually emerging with its spelling muchinfluenced by French. English had also borrowed large numbers of words from French, which naturally kept theirFrench spellings as there was no reason or mechanism to change them. The spelling of Middle English, such as inthe writings of Geoffrey Chaucer, is very irregular and inconsistent, with the same word being spelled in differentways, sometimes even in the same sentence. However, these were generally much better guides to the thenpronunciation 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 spellingconventions which prohibited writing u before v, m, n due to the graphical confusion that would result. (v, u, n wereidentically written with two minims in Norman handwriting; w was written as two u letters; m was written with threeminims, hence mm looked like vun, nvu, uvu, etc.) Similarly, spelling conventions also prohibited final v. Hence theidentical spellings of the three different vowel sounds in love, grove and prove are due to ambiguity in the MiddleEnglish 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 mostpart did not detract from the rule-governed nature of the spelling system; but in some cases they introducedconfusing 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 ofspelling with pronunciation. Furthermore, it introduced further inconsistencies, partly because of the use oftypesetters 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 marginline up more neatly.[9]

By the time dictionaries were introduced in the mid 17th century, the spelling system of English had started tostabilise. By the 19th century, most words had set spellings, though it took some time before they diffusedthroughout the English-speaking world. In The Mill on the Floss (1860), English novelist George Eliot satirized theattitude 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, shebelonged, 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 publiceducation later in the 19th century.

"Ough" wordsThe most notorious group of letters in the English language, ough, is commonly pronounced at least ten differentways, six of which are illustrated in the construct, Though the tough cough and hiccough plough him through, whichis quoted by Robert A. Heinlein in The Door into Summer to illustrate the difficulties facing automated speechtranscription and reading. Ough is in fact a word in its own right; it is an exclamation of disgust similar to ugh. though: /o/ as in toe; (other examples: dough) tough: /f/ as in cuff; (other examples: rough, enough, and the name (but not the word) Hough) cough: /f/ as in off; (other examples: Gough (name, some pronunciations)) hiccough (a now uncommon variant of hiccup): /p/ as in up; (unique) plough: /a/ as in cow; (other examples: sough, drought, bough, doughty, and the names Slough and Doughty) through: /u/ as in blue; nought: // as in caught; (other examples: ought, sought, thought, brought) lough: /x/ with a rough breathing sound like the ch in lochFinally, there is the place name Loughborough, where the first ough has the sound as in cuff and the second rhymeswith thorough.

Spelling patterns

Spelling to sound correspondences

Vowels

In a generative approach to English spelling, Rollins (2004) identifies twenty main orthographic vowels of stressedsyllables that are grouped into four main categories: "Lax", "Tense", "Heavy", "Tense-R". (As this classification isbased on orthography, not all orthographic "lax" vowels are necessarily phonologically lax.)

General American

Letter Lax Tense Heavy Tense-R

a //man

/e/mane

//mar

//mare

e //met

/i/mete

//her

//here

i //win

/a/wine

//fir

/a/fire

o //mop

/o/mope

//for

u //hug

/ju/huge

//cur

/j/cure

u //push

/u/rude

//sure


Received Pronunciation (British)

Letter Lax Tense Heavy Tense-R

a //man

/e/mane

//mar

//mare

e //met

/i/mete

//her

//here

i //win

/a/wine

//fir

/a/fire

o //mop

//mope

//for, fore

u //hug

/ju/huge

//cur

/j/cure

u //push

/u/rude

//sure

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, theletter a in hat is lax //, but when the letter e is added in the word hate the letter a is tense /e/. Similarly, heavy andtense-r vowels pattern together: the letters ar in car are heavy /r/, the letters ar followed by silent e in the word careare /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 letter o, and the letter u in the /-u-/ patterndoes not have a heavy vowel member.Besides silent e, another strategy for indicating tense and tense-r vowels, is the addition of another orthographicvowel 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 digraphai) in the word main the a is marked as tense and pronounced /e/. These two strategies produce words that arespelled differently but pronounced identically, as in mane (silent e strategy), main (digraph strategy) and Maine (bothstrategies). The use of two different strategies relates to the function of distinguishing between words that wouldotherwise be homonyms.Besides the 20 basic vowel spellings, Rollins (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

To reduce dialectal difficulties, the sound values given here correspond to the conventions at Wikipedia:IPA forEnglish. This table includes H, W and Y when they represent vowel sounds. If no information is given, it is assumedthat 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 rulesgiven below (many of which are not explicitly known even by native speakers: speakers merely learn the spelling ofa 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 please

and create)


Spelling Majorvalue(IPA)

Examples of majorvalue

Minorvalues(IPA)

Examples of minorvalue

ExceptionsWikipedia:Pleaseclarify

a before multipleconsonants

final vowel in word followed by 2 or more

unstressed syllables next syllable contains //

// hatchet, banner, marryacrobat, catnational, camera,realityarid, granite, palace

/e/ ache, bass, chambernationhood

/i/ karaoke// father// yacht

before -nge, -ste before single consonant before cons + (-le or

r+vowel) before heterosyllabic

vowel

/e/ arrange, wastegrace, famous, violatetable, hatred, Aprilchaos, aorta

//////

many, anymanor, havechocolate, orange

// gala, sonata

before final r or r + cons.(and in derived terms)

// bar, cartbarred, marring

// scarce

before r + vowel // uncaring, wary,various, glare

// Paris // are

word-final // lemma, banana /i/ bologna

in word-final -ary // ordinary, necessary

after /w/ except before /k/,//, //

// watch, warrior, quantity // quango

after /w/ before final r or r +cons.

// warning, dwarf, war

unstressed // another, about, woman artistically

unstressed, in -age // damage, bondage

aa, ah // bazaar, blah /e/ quaalude

ae usually /i/ encyclopaedia,paediatrician

// aesthetic /e/ reggae/a/ maestro

before r // aerial, aeroplane

ai, ay stressed /e/ bait, cocaine, day ///a/

said, again, sayssamurai, kayak, aye

// plaid/i/ quay

before r // cairn, millionaire, dairy

unstressed // bargain, mountain // Britain

ao /e/ gaol /a/ Taoism

au, aw // taut, author, lawn, ////

sausage, because,laurelaunt, draught, laugh

/e/ gauge/o/ mauve


e before single consonant before cons + (-le or

r+vowel) final, only vowel in

word final, Greek loans before heterosyllabic

vowel

/i/ receding, detail, genemetre, secretbe, shesimile, catastropheneon

/e///

ukulele, cafe, crepemetal, lemon, heronlivelihood, fateful

before multipleconsonants



// better, fetch, merryget, watershedlegacy, elegant, delicatecrevice, perish, epicness

/i/ lethalaxes (plural of axis)legallyevil

// pretty


// herd, kerb, referral // clerk, sergeant

before r + vowel // serious, series, here ////

therefore, werewolfvery

// were

word-final mate, discipline, starveplague

/i/ recipe

unstressed // hatchet, target, poet // taken, decency,moment

usd, before heterosyllabicvowel

/i/ create, area, atheist,hideous

ea usually /i/ beach, eating, please // bread, healthy,cleanse

/e/ break, great, steak

before r + cons. // earth, learn, early // hearty, hearth // beard

before final r or r + vowel(and in derived terms)

// clear, hearing, yearly // bear, pear, swear

eau /o/ bureau, plateau,tableau

/ju/ beauty // bureaucracy

ee usually /i/ bee, feed /e/ matinee, fiancee

before r // cheering, beer, eerie

ei, ey usually /e/ veil, reign, obey /i//a/

seize, key, geyserheight, heist, gneiss

// heifer, leisure/a/ eye

after c /i/ deceive, ceiling, conceit

before r // heir, their // weird, weir, eyrie

unstressed // foreign, counterfeit

unstressed, word-final /i/ monkey, curtsey, jersey

eo // leopard, jeopardy /i/ people /o/ yeoman// leotard

eu(e),ew(e),ieu,iew

usually /ju/ feudal, queue, dew,ewe, lieu, view

/o/ sew

after /r/, //, //, /j/, cons. +/l/

/u/ rheumatism, jewel,blew

before r /j/ amateur, neural, Newry

both of the above // Jewry, pleurisy


i before single consonant before cons + (-le or

r+vowel) before -nd, -ld, -gh, -gn word-final before heterosyllabic

vowel

/a/ shine, cited, guidetitle, idle, vibrantwild, kind, sighed,ensignalumni, alibi, radiivial, quiet, prior, pious

// pivot, give, enginewind (one meaning)

/i/ machine, ski

before multipleconsonants


unstressed syllables next syllable contains // before cons. + e/i +

vowel

// hitch, fiddle, mirrorbitcinema, liberty, militaryfinish, spirit, minutehideous, position, Sirius

/a/ pint, ninthsilentlywhitish

// meringue/i/ ski(ing)


// bird, fir, stirrer // menhir

before r + vowel /a/ hire, firing, enquiry

unstressed // livid, typical // pencil, cousin business

usd, before heterosyllabicvowel

/i/ familiar, alien, radii,idiot

ie finally /a/ die, tie

medially /i/ field, series, siege /a/ flies, tries // sieve// friend

before r // pier, fierce, bulkier

o before multipleconsonants



// or // dot, doctor, torrentopera, colonise,cooperatetopic, solid, promise

///o//u/

won, monkey, frontgross, comb,brokenlytomb, womb

// wolf

before single consonant before cons + (-le or

r+vowel) word-final before heterosyllabic

vowel(inc. unstressed)

/o/ omen, grove, totalnoble, cobrabanjo, goboa, poet, stoiccooperate

///u/////

moral, proper, shoneto, who, move, losecome, love, donepurpose, Europe

// woman// women

before r // ford, boring, more // for, morning

after w, before r // word, work, worst // worn

unstressed // eloquent, wanton,author

oa usually /o/ boat, coal, load // broad

before r // boar, coarse

oe usually /i/ amoeba, coelacanth,phoenix

finally /o/ toe, foe /u/ shoe, canoe // does

unstressed // oedema

oeu /u/ manoeuvre


oi, oy usually // coin, boy

before r /w/ reservoir, memoir,repertoire

// loir /wa/ choir

oo usually /u/ hoop, booze // wool, foot, soot /o/ brooch

before k,d // look, wood /u/ food, brood, spook // blood, flood

before r // door, mooring // poor

ou stressed /a/ out, aloud, bough /u////o/

soup, you, throughtouch, trouble,countrysoul, dough, boulder

// courier, should// cough

before r // tourist, contour, pour /a///

hour, our, devourjourney, courteous,scourge

// courier// courage

unstressed // camouflage, labour,nervous

ow stressed /a/ cow, sow, allow /o/ know, show // acknowledge

before r /a/ dowry

unstressed /o/ yellow, rainbow,narrow

u before multipleconsonants

final vowel in word

// butter, dump, current // put, full, pudding


r+vowel) before heterosyllabic

vowel(inc. unstressed)

word-final

/ju/ luminous, mute, tubabugle, rubricduel, fatuous, druid,January

// sugar // busy

above after /r/, //, //, /j/,cons. + /l/

/u/ rule, chute, June, flutruant, fluent,menstruate


// curdle, burr, furry

before r + vowel /j/ lure, purity, curing /j/ failure // bury


// rural, jury, plural

after g, before e, i guess, disguise, tongue /ju//w/

argue, aguelinguistics, segue

unstressed // supply // minute, lettuce

ue, ui usually /ju/ cue, hue, nuisance /we/ suede /wi/ suite// build, biscuit


/u/ blue, tissue, fruit, juice

uy /a/ buy, guyed


y before multipleconsonants

followed by 2 or moreunstressed syllables

next syllable contains //

// myth, crypticcylinder, typical,pyramidcynic

/a/ hyphen, psychecyclically


r+vowel) word-final, stressed

/a/ typing, style, paralyzecycle, cypresssky, supply, bye


// myrtle, myrrh

before r + vowel /a/ lyre, tyrant, gyrate

unstressed // sibyl, martyr

unstressed, word-final /i/ city, happy

Consonants

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 thebeginning 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.

Spelling Major value (IPA) Examples of major value Othervalues

Examples of other values

b, bb usually /b/ bit, rabbit, obtain bdellium, debtor, subtle

finally after m(and in derived terms)

climb, comb, numbing

c before e, i, y, ae, or oe /s/ cellar, city, cyst,face, prince, nicercaesium, coelacanth

/t////k/

cello, vermicellispecial, liquoriceCelts, chicer

initially before n, t cnidarian, ctenoid

elsewhere /k/ cat, cross victual, indict

cc before e, i or y /ks/ accept, eccentric, occidental /k//t//s/

soccer, recce, siccingbocce, breccia, cappuccinoflaccid

elsewhere /k/ account, accrue, occur,yucca

ch usually /t/ chase, chin, attached, chore /k//h/

achedchutzpahyacht

Greek-derived words /k/ chasm, chimera, chord

French-derived words // chaise, machine, cached,parachute


ck /k/ tack, ticket

d, dd, dh /d/ dive, ladder, jodhpurs /d/

graduate, gradual (both also/dj/ in RP)Wednesday, handsome

-dg- before e, i, or y /d/ lodger, pidgin, edgy

f, -ff /f/ fine, off /v/ of

g before e, i, y, ae, or oe /d/ gentle, magic, gyrate,page, algae (GA)

////

get, eager, algae (RP)collage, gigue

in -gm, gn- or -gn diaphragm, gnome, signing,reign

// signify, repugnant

elsewhere // go, great, guest /d/ margarine

gg // stagger, flagging /d/ suggest, exaggerate

gh initially // ghost, ghastly

elsewhere dough, high, right,daughter

/f//x/ or /k///, /k/, or/x//p/

laugh, enoughloughugh!hiccough

h usually /h/ he, alcohol vehicle, honest, hono(u)r,piranha

after ex exhibit, exhaust /h/ exhale

j- /d/ jump, ajar /j////h/

HallelujahJeanjalapeno, fajitaMarijuana

k, -kk,kh

usually /k/ key, bake, trekking, sheikh

initially before n knee, knock

l, ll /l/ line, valve, valley /j/

halve, balk, salmontortilla

m, mm usually /m/ mine, hammer

initially before n mnemonic

n, nn usually /n/ nice, funny

before /k/ or // // link, bangle, anchor

finally after m(and in derived terms)

hymn, autumn

ng finally and in termsderived from ng-finalwords

// long, kingly, singer, clingy

medially otherwise ///nd/

anger, fingerdanger, ginger, dingy

p, pp usually /p/ pill, happy, soup, corpse,script

coup, receipt

initially before n, s, t pneumonia, psyche,ptomaine

/p/ psst

ph, pph /f/ photograph, sapphire /v/ Stephen

q (not before u) /k/ Iraq, Iqaluit


r, rr, rh,rrh

usually /r/ ray, parrot, rhyme,diarrhoea

iron

before consonant finally before final e

in non-rhoticdialects such as RP

cart, burr, fir, care,walker, tear, hurt

See below for combinations of vowel letters and the letter r

s, ss usually /s/ song, ask, message, misled /z/////

scissors, dessert, dissolve,Islamsugar, tissue, aggressionvisionislet, aisle, debris

-s- between vowelsounds(see also "se" below)

/z/ rose, prison /s/ basis

word-final -smorphemeafter a voiceless sound

/s/ pets, shops

word-final -smorphemeafter a lenis sound

/z/ beds, magazines

sc- before e, i or y /s/ scene, scepter, scissors,scythe

/sk///

sceptic, scirrhusfascism

sch- /sk/ school, scheme, schizo ///s/

schedule (in RP, otherwise:/sk/), schistschism (in RP, otherwise:/sk/)

sh // shin, fashion

t, -tt usually /t/ ten, bitter,cation,chaste, wallet

///t//d/

ratio, Martianquestion, bastionkindergartencastle, chasten, ballet

in unstressed -sten,-stle, -ften

listen, rustle, soften /t/ tungsten, existent

-tch /t/ batch, kitchen

th ////

thin, both,the, bothers

/t//t//th/

thymeeighthouthouse, potherbasthma

v, -vv /v/ vine, savvy

w /w/ sward, swerve, wale /u/

two, sword, answer, gunwalecwm

wh- usually /w/ or /hw/ in Hiberno-Eng. andSouthern Am. Eng.

wheel

before o /h/ or /hw/ in Hiberno-Eng. andSouthern Am. Eng.

who, whole /w/ whopping, whorl

wr- /r/ or /wr/ in Scottish Eng. wrong, wrist


x initially /z/ xylophone

elsewhere /ks/ extent, excuse, axe /z////k/

exit (in some pronunciations)luxury (in somepronunciations)anxiousfaux-pas

-xc before e or i /ks/ excellent, excited

y- /j/ yes, young

z, -zz /z/ zoo, pizzazz /ts/

schizophrenic, pizzarendezvous

Spelling Majorvalue(IPA)

Examples of major value Minorvalues(IPA)

Examples of minor value Exceptions

ayer, ayor /(r)/ layer, mayor

ower /ar/ dowry, tower, flowery

Combinations of other consonant and vowel letters

Spelling Major value(IPA)

Examples of major value Minorvalues(IPA)

Examples of minor value Exceptions

ah // blah

al /l/ pal, talcum, algae, alp /l/ bald, falcon

alf /f/ (RP)/f/ (GA)

calf, half /l/ alfalfa, malfeasance /lf/ palfrey

alk /k/ walk, chalking, talkative /lk/ alkaline, grimalkin /lk/ balkanise

all /l//l/

call, fallout, smallershall, callus, fallow

/l//()l/

wallet, swallowallow, dialled

/l/ (GA)marshmallow,pall-mall

alm /m/ (all threeexamples have alt.pronunc.)

calm (also: /lm/), almond(also: /lm/), palmistry (also:/lm/)

/lm//lm/

dalmatian, salmonellaalmanac (also: /lm/), almost

/m/ salmon/()lm/ signalman

alt /lt/ (RP)/lt/ (GA)

alter, malt, salty, basalt /lt//lt/

alto, shalt, saltationaltar, asphalt

/lt/ gestalt (GA)/()lt/ royalty,penalty

aoh, oh /o/ pharaoh, oh

unstressed ci- beforea vowel

// special, gracious /si/ species

-cqu /kw/ acquaint, acquire /k/ lacquer, racquet

word-final -edmorphemeafter /t/ or /d/*

/d/ waited

word-final -edmorphemeafter a voicelesssound*

/t/ topped, surfed /d/ biped, unfed


word-final -edmorphemeafter a lenis sound*

/d/ climbed, failed, ordered /d/ imbed, misled, infrared

eh /e/ eh

word-final -esmorpheme**

/z/ washes, boxes

unstressed ex- beforea vowel or h

/z/ exist, examine, exhaust /ks/ exhale

gu- before a /w/ bilingual, guano, language // guard, guarantee

word-final -le after aconsonant

/l/ little, table

-(a)isle /al/ aisle, isle, enisle, lisle

word-final -ngue // tongue, harangue, meringue(dessert)

/e/ dengue (also /i/), distingu,merengue (music/dance)

old /old/ blindfold, older, bold /ld/ scaffold, kobold (also /ld/

olk /ok/ yolk, folk

oll /l/ doll, follow, colletc., holler /ol/ roll, stroller, polling, tollway

olm /lm/ olm, dolmen /olm/ enrolment, holmium /om/ holm (oak)

ong // (RP)// (GA)

wrong, strong, song // Congress, congregation

qu- /kw/ queen, quick /k/ liquor, mosquito

quar- beforeconsonant

/kw(r)/ quarter, quart

word-final -que /k/ mosque, bisque /ke/ risqu /kju/ barbeque

word-final -re after aconsonant

/r/ ogre

ro /r/ rod /ro/ roll /(r)/ iron

unstressed sci-before a vowel

/t/ conscience (// in RP) /si/ omniscient (RP only)

sci- (stressed) /sa/ science

-scle /sl/ corpuscle, muscle

-se (noun) /s/ house, mouse

-se (verb) /z/ house, raise /s/ chase

unstressed -si beforea vowel

// expansion // division, illusion /zi/ physiology,busier, caesiumflimsiest/si/ tarsier

unstressed -ssibefore a vowel

// mission /si/ potassium, dossier

unstressed -sure /r/ leisure, treasure

unstressed -ti beforea vowel

// nation, ambitious // equation /ti/ patio, /ta/ cation

unstressed -ture /tr/ nature, picture

unstressed -zure /r/ seizure, azure


* There is no way to tell if it is the morpheme or an integral part of the word. Compare snaked and naked.** Same as above; compare the two pronunciations of axes.Small text indicates rare words. Loans words: SP for Spanish, FR for French.

Sound to spelling correspondencesThe following table shows for each sound, the various spelling patterns used to denote it. The symbol "" stands foran intervening consonant. The letter sequences are in order of frequency with the most common first. Some of thesepatterns are very rare or unique, such as au for the [] sound in laugh (some accents). In some cases, the spellingsshown are found in only one known English word (such as "mh" for /m/, or "yrrh" for /r/).

Consonants

IPA Spelling Examples

/p/ p, pp, gh pill, happy, hiccough

/b/ b, bb bit, rabbit

/t/ t, tt, ed, pt, th, ct ten, hitter, topped, pterodactyl, thyme, ctenoid

/d/ d, dd, ed, dh, t (in some dialects), tt (in some dialects) dive, ladder, failed, dharma, waiter, flatter

// g, gg, gue, gh go, stagger, catalogue, ghost

/k/ c, k, ck, ch, cc, qu, cqu, cu, que, kk, kh, q cat, key, tack, chord, account, liquor, acquis, biscuit, mosque, trekker, khan,burqa

/m/ m, mm, mb, mn, mh, gm, chm mine, hammer, climb, hymn, mho, diaphragm, drachm

/n/ n, nn, kn, gn, pn, nh, cn, mn nice, funny, knee, gnome, pneumonia, piranha, cnidarian, mnemonic

// ng, n, ngue sing, link, tongue

/r/ r, rr, wr, rh, rrh ray, parrot, wrong, rhyme, diarrh(o)ea

/f/ f, ph, ff, gh, pph, u fine, physical, off, laugh, sapphire, lieutenant(Br)

/v/ v, vv, f, ph, w vine, savvy, of, Stephen, weltanschauung

// th, chth, phth, tth, fth (in some dialects) thin, chthonic, phthisis, Matthew, twelfth

// th them, breathe

/s/ s, c, ss, sc, st, ps, sch (in some dialects), cc, se, ce, z (insome dialects)

song, city, mess, scene, listen, psychology, schism, flaccid, horse, juice, citizen

/z/ s, z, x, zz, ss, ze, c (in some dialects) has, zoo, xylophone, fuzz, scissors, breeze, electricity

// sh, ti, ci, ssi, si, ss, ch, s, sci, ce, sch, sc shin, nation, special, mission, expansion, tissue, machine, sugar, conscience, ocean,schmooze, crescendo

// si, s, g, z, j, ti, sh (in some dialects) division, leisure, genre, seizure, jet, equation, Pershing

/t/ ch, t, tch, ti, c, cc, tsch, cz chin, nature, batch, bastion (some accents), cello, bocce, putsch, Czech

/d/ g, j, dg, dge, d, di, gi, ge, gg magic, jump, judgment, bridge, graduate, soldier, Belgian, dungeon, exaggerate

/h/ h, wh, j, ch he, who, fajita, chutzpah

/j/ y, i, j, ll, e yes, onion, hallelujah, tortilla, eoarchean

/l/ l, ll, lh line, hallo, Lhasa

/w/ w, u, o, ou, wh (in most dialects) we, persuade, choir, Ouija board, what

/hw/ wh (in Hiberno-Eng. and Southern Am. Eng.) wheel

/wr/ wr (in Scottish Eng.) wren


Vowels

IPA Spelling Examples

/i/ e, ea, ee, ee, ae, ei, ie, ie, eo, oe,ie...e, ay, ey, i, y, oi, ue, ey, a

be, beach, bee, cede, Caesar, deceit, machine, field, people, amoeba (variant of ameba), hygiene,quay (RP only; /e/ in GA), key, ski, city, chamois, Portuguese, geyser (RP only; /a/ in GA),karaoke

// i, y, ui, e, ee, ie, o, u, a, ei, ee, ia, ea,i...e, ai, ii, oe

bit, myth, build, pretty, been (some accents), sieve, women, busy, damage, counterfeit, carriage,mileage, medicine, bargain, shiitake, oedema

/u/ oo, u, o, ue, ou, ew, ue, oe, ui,eu, oeu, oe, ough, wo, ioux, ieu, oup,w, u

tool, luminous, who, flute, soup, jewel, true, lose, fruit, maneuver, manoeuvre (Br. variant of prec.),canoe, through (form. variant of "thru"), two, Sioux, lieutenant(GA), coup, cwm, thru (inf.)

// oo, u, o, oo...e, or, ou, oul look, full, wolf, gooseberry, worsted, courier, should

/e/ a, ae, aa, ae, ai, ai...e, aig, aigh, al,ao, au, ay, e (), e...e, ea, eg, ei, ei...e,eig, eigh, ee (e), eh, er, es, et, ey, ez,ie, oeh, ue, uet

bass, rate, quaalude, reggae, rain, cocaine, arraign, straight, Ralph(dated Br.), gaol(Australian var.of "jail"), gauge (var. of gage), pay, ukulele (caf), crepe, steak, thegn, veil, beige, reign, eight,matinee (soire), eh, dossier, demesne, ballet, obey, chez, lingerie(US), boehmite (also: /o/),dengue (usually: /i/), sobriquet (also: /t/; var. of "soubriquet")

// a, e, o, u, ai, ou, eig, y, ah, ough, ae,oi

another, anthem, awesome, atrium, mountain, callous, foreign, beryl, Messiah, borough(Br),Michael, porpoise

/o/ o, oe, oa, ow, ou, oe, oo, eau, oh,ew, au, aoh, ough, eo

so, bone, boat, know, soul, foe, brooch, beau, oh, sew, mauve, pharaoh, furlough, yeoman

// e, ea, a, ae, ai, ay, eae, ei, eo, ie,ieu, u, ue, oe

met, weather, many, aesthetic, said, says, cleanse, heifer, jeopardy, friend, lieutenant(Br), bury,guess, foetid

// a, ai, al, au, i hand, plaid, salmon, laugh (some accents), meringue

// u, o, oe, oe, ou, oo, wo sun, son, come, does, touch, flood, twopence

// a, au, aw, ough, augh, o, oa, oo, al,uo, u, ao

fall, author, jaw, bought, caught, cord, broad, door, walk, fluorine(Br), sure(some accents),extraordinary

// o, a, eau, ach, au, ou lock, watch, bureaucracy, yacht, sausage, cough

// a, ah, aa, i father, blah, baa, lingerie(US)

/a/ ae, ai, aie, aille, ais, ay, aye, ei, eigh,ey, eye, i, ie, ia, ie, ic, ig, igh, is, oi,ui, uy, uye, y, y...e, ye

maestro, krait, shanghaied, canaille (RP), aisle, kayak, aye, heist, height, geyser (US), eye, mic,fine, diaper, tie, indict, sign, high, isle, choir, guide, buy, guyed, tryst, type, bye

// oi, oy, awy, uoy oye, eu foil, toy, lawyer, buoy, gargoyle, Freudian

/a/ ou, ow, ough, au, ao out, now, bough, tau, Taoism

/r/ aar, ar, are, arre, ear, er, our, uar, arrh bazaar, car, are, bizarre, heart, sergeant, our(some accents), guard, catarrh

/r/ aar, aer, air, aire, ar, are, ayer, ayor,ear, eir, er, ere, err, erre, ey're, e'er

Aaron, aerial, hair, millionaire, ware, vary, prayer, mayor, bear, heir, stationery (some accents),where, err (variant), parterre, they're, e'er

/r/ ear, eer, eir, eor, ere, ers, e're, ier, iere,ir

ear, beer, weir, theory(US), here, revers, we're, pier, premiere, menhir

/r/ er, or, ur, ir, yr, our, ear, err, eur, yrrh,ar, oeu, olo

fern, worst, turn, thirst, myrtle, journey, earth, err, amateur, myrrh, grammar, hors d'oeuvre,colonel

/ju/ u, ue, eu, ue, iew, eau, ieu, ueue, ui,ewe, ew

music*, use, feud, cue, view, beautiful*, adieu*, queue, nuisance*, ewe, few, * in some dialects, seeyod-dropping


References[1] A short history of English spelling (http:/ / englishspellingproblems. co. uk/ html/ history. html)[2] English language. (2010). In Encyclopdia Britannica. Retrieved November 23, 2010, from Encyclopdia Britannica Online: (http:/ / www.

britannica. com/ EBchecked/ topic/ 188048/ English-language)[3] 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: plane used to be pronounced , but the sound merged with the sound in plain, making plain and plane homonyms.[4] Rollins 2004: 16-19; Chomsky & Halle 1968; Chomsky 1970[5] Chomsky & Halle 1968:54[6][6] Chomsky 1970:294; Rollins 2004:17[7] Rollins 2004:1719[8] Included in Webster's Third New International Dictionary,1981[9] Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Twisted Story of English Spelling, by David Wolman. Collins, ISBN

978-0-06-136925-4. (http:/ / www. rightingthemothertongue. com/ )

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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).

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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. ISBN0801879566

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). Phonemegrapheme correspondences as cues to spelling

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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).

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lingstica contrastiva (pp.441449). Universidad de Santiago.


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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

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External links Transcription Writer (http:/ / www. forcemem. com/ Download Transcription Writer. htm) freeware program is

designed to write English words with the help of phonetic symbols Rules for English Spelling: Adding Suffixes (http:/ / www. kwiznet. com/ p/ takeQuiz. php?ChapterID=10015&

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White Paper (http:/ / www. espindle. org/ whitepaper. pdf) Research based Tutoring of English Spelling Hou tu pranownse Inglish (http:/ / zompist. com/ spell. html) describes rules which predict a word's pronunciation

from its spelling with 85% accuracy Free spelling information (http:/ / www. thephonicspage. org/ On Spelling/ onspellinglinks. html) and Free

spelling lessons in QuickTime movie format (http:/ / www. thephonicspage. org/ On Spelling/ spellinglessonsl.html) at The Phonics Page (http:/ / www. thephonicspage. org/ ).

Article Sources and Contributors 22

Article Sources and ContributorsEnglish orthography Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=550081641 Contributors: 12cool725, 131.152.29.xxx, 23sports, 28bytes, 2WR1, 4pq1injbok, A. Bahn, AdamRetchless,Aeusoes1, AfanforXX, Afasmit, Allens, Altenmann, Amieni, Andycjp, Angr, Anonymous26, Apcbg, Asafoetida, Asarla, AxelBoldt, B4hand, BD2412, Balloonguy, Bamyers99, Barticus88,Bearnfder, Beetstra, Beland, Benc, Benjaburns, Benwbrum, Benwing, BioTube, Bkell, Blahma, Bluemoose, Bob A, Branddobbe, Brian the Editor, Brion VIBBER, Bryan Derksen, Bspringbett,Cameron Nedland, Cassowary, Catdude, ChrisGualtieri, Chriswaterguy, ColBatGuano, Comet Tuttle, Cometstyles, Conversion script, Crazynas, Cultural Freedom, Damian Yerrick, Davidleeroth,Dbfirs, Deflective, Demize, Djwebb1969, Don4of4, DopefishJustin, Doric Loon, Draicone, Duoduoduo, Eaefremov, EamonnPKeane, EdC, EdwinHJ, Ehrenkater, EncycloPetey, ErrantX, Espoo,FilipeS, Florian Blaschke, Foobaz, Freelance Intellectual, Furrykef, Futhark, Fte, Gailtb, Geoking66, Georgia guy, Goododa, Graham Asher, Graham87, Grammatical error, Grover cleveland,Guy Peters, Hagrid grrrl, Hairy Dude, Hannes Hirzel, Hlnodovic, Hmains, IAmTheCoinMan, Icairns, Ihcoyc, Iridescent, Iron CurtaiNYC, Ish ishwar, Itai, JHJ, JKW, JRStutler, JackLumber,Jackessler, Jacob Newton, Jarble, JasonAQuest, Jasper Chua, Jeeny, Jeff G., Jfnelson61, Jim10701, Jivan82, Jnestorius, JoDonHo, JoeenNc, John of Reading, JonMoore, Joseph Solis in Australia,Jrdioko, Jrouquie, Kablammo, Kearnsdm, Kiewbra, Kirbytime, Kjkolb, Kocio, Kric Cbith, Krsont, Kurykh, Kvn8907, Kwamikagami, Kwertii, LDHan, LGF1992UK, Lancevortex,LanguageMan, Lenoxus, Lewis R, Liberalcynic, Lobosolo, Logiphile, Louche, MRippel, Macrakis, Majora4, Manishearth, Mark J, Masoris, Matthew Stannard, Maximus Rex, MeltBanana,Michael Hardy, Mike Rosoft, Mikebrand, Minesweeper, Mozzerati, Mr Gronk, Muhandes, Mzajac, Neuralwarp, Nickshanks, Nimur, Nite-Sirk, Niteowlneils, Nobbie, Nohat, Ortolan88,OwenBlacker, Pajast, PierreAbbat, Pne, Poccil, PorlBond1, Potosino, Quadell, Quiensabe, R'n'B, RPlunk2853, RTBarnard, Random832, RaseaC, Reedy, Regregex, Reinyday, RekishiEJ,RetiredUser2, Reywas92, Rich Farmbrough, Rmhermen, Rosiewrose, Rosmoran, Ruhrjung, SC979, SFGiants, SameerKhan, Sburke, Scotty Zebulon, SergF, Shorne, Siroxo, Sj122390, Sljaxon,Sminthopsis84, Smyth, Spacetweek, Spellmender, Squids and Chips, St.nerol, Stanstaple, Steve2011, Stubblyhead, SudoGhost, Sun Creator, Svick, T A Francis, TAKASUGI Shinji, Tarquin,Tedder, Tetromino, TharkunColl, The Man in Question, The Wiki ghost, Thebeginning, Thematicunity, Titanium Dragon, Tkynerd, Victor Yus, Visviva, Washi, Wbm1058, Welsh, Wereon,Wikiklrsc, Wikitiki89, WilliamThweatt, Wiwaxia, Wmahan, Wolfdog, Woodstone, Xyzzyva, Yogi, YoshiroShin, ZanderSchubert, pple, , 347 anonymous edits

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English orthographyFunction of the lettersPhonemic representationWord originHomophone differentiationMarking sound changes in other letters

Silent lettersMultiple functionalityUnderlying representation

DiacriticsLigaturesPhonic irregularities Spelling irregularities History"Ough" words

Spelling patternsSpelling to sound correspondencesVowelsCombinations of vowel lettersConsonantsCombinations of other consonant and vowel letters

Sound to spelling correspondences

ReferencesBibliographyExternal links

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English Orthography

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Transcript of English Orthography