English orthography (or spelling), has relatively complicated rules when compared to other orthographic systems written with alphabetic scripts and contains many inconsistencies between spelling and pronunciation, necessitating rote learning for most people learning to read or write English. The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of writing in that language. ... A Specimen of typeset fonts and languages, by William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... Proper spelling is the writing of a word or words with all necessary letters and diacritics present in an accepted standard order. ... Look up pronunciation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... It has been suggested that Rote memory be merged into this article or section. ...

Function of symbols

Note: In the following discussion, only one or two common pronunciations of American and British English varieties are used in this article for each word cited. Other regional pronunciations may be possible for some words, but indicating all possible regional variants in the article is impractical. A variety of a language is a form that differs from other forms of the language systematically and coherently. ...

Indicating sound values

Main article: Phonetic spelling

Like most alphabetic systems, letters in English orthography may represent a particular sound. For example, the word cat (pronounced /kæt/) consists of three letters c, a, and t, in which c represents the sound /k/, a the sound /æ/, and t the sound /t/. A pronunciation spelling of a word is a spelling intentionally different from the standard spelling, used to emphasis a particular pronunciation of the word. ... A Specimen of typeset fonts and languages, by William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ...

Single letters or multiple sequences of letters may provide this function. Thus, the single letter c in the word cat represents the single sound /k/. In the word ship (pronounced /ʃɪp/), the digraph sh (two letters) represents the sound /ʃ/. In the word ditch, the three letters tch represent the sound /tʃ/. Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

Less commonly, a single letter can represent more than one sound. The most common example is the letter x, which often represents more than one sound as in the prefix ex- where it represents the consonant cluster /ks/ (for example, in the word ex-wife, pronounced /ɛkswaɪf/). Look up prefix in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The same letter (or sequence of letters) may indicate different sounds when the letter occurs in different positions. For instance, the digraph gh represents the sound /f/ at the end of single-syllable, single-morpheme words, such as cough (pronounced /kɔf/ in many dialects of American English). At the beginning of syllables (i.e. the syllable onset), the digraph gh represents the sound /g/, such as in the word ghost (pronounced /gost/ or /gəʊst/). Furthermore, the sound value represented by a particular letter (or letters) is often restricted by its position within the word. Thus, the digraph gh never represents the sound /f/ in syllable onsets and never represents the sound /g/ in syllable codas. (Incidentally, this shows that ghoti does not follow English spelling rules to sound like fish.) A syllable (Ancient Greek: ) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. ... In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest lingual unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... For other uses, see American English (disambiguation). ... In phonetics and phonology, a syllable onset is the part of a syllable that precedes the syllable nucleus. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

Marking pronunciation

Further information: Silent E

Another function of English letters is to provide information about other aspects of pronunciation or the word itself. Rollins (2004) uses the term "markers" for letters with this function. Letters may mark different types of information. One common type of marking is that of a different pronunciation of another letter within the word. An example of this is the letter e in the word cottage (pronounced /kɒtɪdʒ/ or /kɑtɪdʒ/). Here e indicates that the preceding g should represent the sound /dʒ/. This contrasts with the more common value of g in word-final position as the sound /g/, such as in tag (pronounced /tæɡ/). A particular letter may have more than one pronunciation-marking role. Besides the marking of word-final g as indicating /dʒ/, the letter e may also marks an altered pronunciation for other vowels. In the pair ban and bane, the a of ban has the value /æ/, whereas the a of bane is marked by the e as having the value /eɪ/. Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

Marking word origin

See also: Silent k

Other types of marking include indicating information about etymology. When representing a vowel, the letter y in non-word-final positions represents the sound /ɪ/ in many words borrowed from Greek, whereas the letter usually representing this sound in non-Greek words is the letter i. Thus, the word myth (pronounced /mɪθ/) is of Greek origin, while pith (pronounced /pɪθ/) is a Germanic word. A silent k occurs when the letter k is not pronounced in a word. ... Not to be confused with Entomology, the study of insects. ... A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ...

Homophone differentiation

Letters are also used to distinguish between homophones (words with the same pronunciation) that would otherwise have the same pronunciation and spelling but different meanings. The words hour and our are pronounced identically (as /aʊə/ or /aʊr/). However, they are distinguished from each other orthographically by the addition of the letter h. Another example of this is the homophones plain and plane where both are pronounced /pleɪn/, but are marked with two different orthographic representations of the vowel /eɪ/. Look up homonym in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

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). This can be seen in a positive light since with written language, unlike spoken language, the reader usually has no recourse to ask the writer for clarification (whereas in a conversation, the listener can ask the speaker about lexical uncertainties). Some proponents of spelling reform view homophones as undesirable and would prefer that they be eliminated. Doing so, however, would increase orthographic ambiguities that would need to be resolved via the linguistic context. Look up ambiguity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A written language is a language that uses a writing system to convey meaning, or more generally the written form of any language that has such written components. ... Spoken language is a language that people utter words of the language. ... Lenin and Stalin in conversation Conversation is the verbalization of concepts involving abstractions and concrete objects which make up the reality in which we reside. ... Definition A lexeme is an abstract unit of morphological analysis in linguistics, that roughly corresponds to a set of words that are the same in basic meaning. ... Spelling reform generally attempts to introduce a logical structure connecting the spelling and pronunciation of words. ... ConTeXt is a document preparation system based on the TeX typesetting system. ...

Multiple functionality

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 /ɪ/) and a pronunciation-marking function (marking the c as having the value /s/ opposed to the value /k/).

Functionless letters

Main article: Silent letter

Other letters have no linguistic function. For example, there is a general "graphotactic" constraint in English orthography against words that ending in the letter v. Thus, in order to satisfy this contraint, syllable-final v is followed by the letter e, such as in the word give. Thus, words like rev and slav are extremely rare. Other examples include the silent t in castle (pronounced /kæsəl/ or /kɑːsəl/). In an alphabetic writing system, a silent letter is a letter that, in a particular word, does not correspond to any sound in the words pronunciation. ...

Spelling patterns

Spelling to sound correspondences

Vowels

In a generative approach to English spelling, Rollins (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.) This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word. ... Tenseness is a term used in phonology to describe a particular vowel quality that is phonemically contrastive in many languages, including English. ...

Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

For instance, the letter a can represent the lax vowel /æ/, tense /e/, heavy /ɑr/ or /ɑː/, or tense-r /ɛr/ or /ɛə/. 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 /æ/, 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 /ɑː(r)/, the letters ar followed by silent e in the word care are /ɛə(r)/. The letter u represents two different vowel patterns, one being /ʌ - ju - ə(r) - jʊ(r)/, the other /ʊ - u - ʊ(r)/. There is no distinction between heavy and tense-r vowels with the letter o, and the letter u in the /ʊ-u-ʊ(r)/ pattern does not have a heavy vowel member. Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

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 /æ/, but with the addition of i (as the digraph ai) in the word main the 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) and main (digraph strategy). The use of two different strategies relates to the function of distinguishing between words that would otherwise be homonyms. Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

Besides the 20 basic vowel spellings, Rollins (2004) has a reduced vowel category (representing the sounds /ə, ɪ/) and a miscellaneous category (representing the sounds /ɔɪ, aʊ, aɪr, aʊr/ and /j/+V, /w/+V, V+V). Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

Consonants

See also: Digraph (orthography)

Notes: Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

• The dash has two different meanings. A dash after the letter indicates that it must be at the beginning of a syllable, eg j- in jumper and ajar. A dash before the letter indicates that it cannot be at the beginning of a word, eg -ck in sick and ticket.
• More specific rules take precedence over more general ones, eg '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, eg catalogues.
• The dialect used is RP.
• Isolated foreign borrowings are excluded.
• This relies highly on knowledge of where the stress in a word is, but English has no consistent way of showing stress.

Inflection of the Spanish lexeme for cat, with blue representing the masculine gender, pink representing the feminine gender, grey representing the form used for mixed-gender, and green representing the plural number. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest lingual unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ... Phoneticians define phonation as use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ... In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest lingual unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ... Phoneticians define phonation as use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Combinations of consonant and vowel letters

* There is absolutely 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. Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest lingual unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ... In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest lingual unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ... Phoneticians define phonation as use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ... In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest lingual unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ... Phoneticians define phonation as use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ... In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest lingual unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ...

Sound to spelling correspondences

The following table shows for each sound, the various spelling patterns used to denote it. The symbol "…" stands for an intervening consonant. The letter sequences are in order of frequency with the most common first. Some of these patterns are very rare or unique, such as au for the æ sound in laugh. In some cases, the spellings shown are found in only one known English word (such as "mh" for /m/, or "yrrh" for /ər/).

Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Yod-dropping is the elision of the sound , the term comes from the Hebrew letter י, Yod, pronounced as . ...

Diacritics

English includes some words that can be written with accent marks. These words have mostly been imported from other languages, usually French. But it is increasingly rare for writers of English to actually use the accent marks for common words, even in very formal writing. The strongest tendency to retain the accent is in words that are atypical of English morphology and therefore still perceived as slightly foreign. For example, café and paté both have a pronounced final e, which would be "silent" by the normal English pronunciation rules.

Some examples: appliqué, attaché, blasé, bric-à-brac, brötchen,^[1] café, cliché, crème, crêpe, façade, fiancé(e), flambé, naïve, naïveté, né(e), papier-mâché, passé, piñata, protégé, raison d’être, résumé, risqué, über-, vis-à-vis, voilà. For a more complete list, see List of English words with diacritics. This is a list of loan words adopted into the English language that have letters with diacritical marks. ...

Some words such as rôle and hôtel were first seen with accents when they were borrowed into English, but now the accent is almost never used. The words were considered very French borrowings when first used in English, even accused by some of being foreign phrases used where English alternatives would suffice, but today their French origin is largely forgotten. The accent on "élite" has disappeared from most publications today, though Time magazine still uses it. For some words such as "soupçon" however, the only spelling found in English dictionaries (the Oxford English Dictionary and others) uses the diacritic. (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ... The Oxford English Dictionary print set The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a dictionary published by the Oxford University Press (OUP), and is generally regarded as the most comprehensive and scholarly dictionary of the English language. ...

Italics, with appropriate accents, are generally applied to foreign terms that are uncommonly used in or have not been assimilated into English: for example, adiós, coup d’état, crème brûlée, pièce de résistance, raison d’être, über (übermensch), vis-à-vis. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Adiós is Spanish for GoodBye. ... A coup détat (pronounced kÅ« dā ta), or simply a coup, is the sudden overthrow of a government, usually done by a small group that just replaces the top power figures. ... Crème brûlée Crème brûlée (French for burnt cream; IPA: in English, in French) is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a layer of hard caramel, created by burning sugar under a grill or other intense heat source. ... Pièce de résistance is a French term (circa 1839), translated into English literally as piece of resistance, referring to the best part or feature of something (as in a meal), a showpiece, or highlight. ... Look up raison dêtre in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... Look up Vis-à-vis on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Vis-à-vis from the French language, literally face to face, is a type of carriage where the occupants face each other. ...

It was formerly common in English to use a diaeresis mark to indicate a syllable break: for example, coöperate, daïs, reëlect. One publication that still uses a diaeresis for this function is the New Yorker magazine. However, this 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 naïve and noël. The umlaut mark (or simply umlaut) and the trema or diaeresis mark (or simply diaeresis) are two diacritics consisting of a pair of dots placed over a letter. ... The New Yorker is an American magazine that publishes reportage, criticism, essays, cartoons, poetry and fiction. ...

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 cursèd. The Chinese poem Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong (Song Dynasty) Poetry (from the Greek , poiesis, making or creating) is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning. ... This does not cite its references or sources. ...

In certain older texts (typically British), the use of ligatures is common in words such as archæology, diarrhœa, and encyclopædia. Such words have Latin or Greek origin. Nowadays, the ligatures have been generally replaced in British English by the separated letters "ae" and "oe" ("encyclopaedia", "diarrhoea") and in American English by "e" ("encyclopedia", "diarrhea"); however, the spellings "oeconomy" and "oecology" are now generally replaced by "economy" and "ecology" outside the U.S. as well. In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more letterforms are written or printed as a unit. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... For other uses, see American English (disambiguation). ...

For further information on how one can type diacritics and ligatures, see British and American keyboards, keyboard layouts. There are two major English language keyboard layouts, the United States layout and the United Kingdom layout. ... Computers and other typing devices offer many different keyboard layouts, for people to be able to input data in different languages. ...

Irregularities

The English spelling system, compared to the systems used in other languages, is quite irregular and complex. Although French presents a similar degree of difficulty when encoding (writing), English is more difficult when decoding (reading)^{[citation needed]}. English has never had any formal regulating authority, like the Spanish Real Academia Española, Italian Accademia della Crusca or the French Académie française, so attempts to regularize or reform the language, including spelling reform, have usually met with failure. The Real Academia Española (Spanish for Royal Spanish Academy, RAE) is the institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. ... The Accademia della Crusca is an Italian institution that brings together scholars and experts in Italian linguistics and philology. ... The Académie française In the French educational system an académie LAcadémie française, or the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. ... Spelling reform generally attempts to introduce a logical structure connecting the spelling and pronunciation of words. ...

The only significant exceptions were the reforms of Noah Webster which resulted in many of the differences between British and American spelling, such as center/centre, and dialog/dialogue. (Other differences, such as -ize/-ise in realize/realise etc, came about separately.) Noah Webster Noah Webster (October 16, 1758 – April 28, 1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook author, spelling reformer, political writer, and editor. ... American and British English spelling differences are one aspect of American and British English differences. ... Language change is the manner in which the phonetic, morphological, semantic, syntactic, and other features of a language are modified over time. ...

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 24-27 (depending on dialect) separate consonant phonemes and, depending on dialect, anywhere from fourteen to twenty 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 interdental fricative and the voiceless interdental fricative) (see Pronunciation of English th), and the voiceless alveolar fricative can be represented by the letters "s" and "c". In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language characteristic of a particular group of the languages speakers. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... The voiced dental fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The voiceless dental fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... In English, the digraph 〈th〉 represents in most cases one of two different phonemes: the voiced dental fricative (as in this) and the voiceless dental fricative (thing). ... The voiceless alveolar fricatives are consonantal sounds. ...

Of course, such a philosophy can be taken too far. For instance, there was also a period when the spellings 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" 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 Norse word igland, which is the true origin of the English word. The letter "p" in "ptarmigan" has no etymological justification whatsoever. Some are just randomly changed, like 'score' used to be spelled 'skor'. Binomial name Lagopus mutus (Montin, 1781) The Ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus) is a small (31-35 cm) bird in the grouse family. ...

Furthermore, in most recent loanwords, English makes no attempt to Anglicise the spellings of these words, and preserves the foreign spellings, even when they employ exotic conventions, like the Polish "cz" in "Czech" or the Old Norse "fj" in "fjord" (although New Zealand English exclusively spells it "fiord"). In fact, 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 didn't become common until 1900. It used to be pronounced "shee", which is similar to the Norwegian pronunciation, but the increasing popularity of the sport after the middle of the 20th century helped the "sk" pronunciation replace it. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ... Old Norse is the Germanic language spoken by the inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300. ... A shaped, twin-tip alpine ski. ...

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, 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. It has been argued that this influence probably started with the introduction of many Italian words into English during the Renaissance, in fields like music, from which come the words "andante", "viola", "forte", etc. Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... This article discusses the adherents of Hinduism. ... The Renaissance (French for rebirth, or Rinascimento in Italian), was a cultural movement in Italy (and in Europe in general) that began in the late Middle Ages, and spanned roughly the 14th through the 17th century. ... For other uses, see Music (disambiguation). ...

Commercial advertisers have also had an effect on English spelling. In attempts to differentiate their products from others, they introduce new or simplified spellings like "lite" instead of "light", "thru" instead of "through", "smokey" instead of "smoky" (for "smokey bacon" flavour crisps), and "rucsac" instead of "rucksack". The spellings of personal names have also been a source of spelling innovations: affectionate 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 seven different ways: "famous", "journey", "loud", "should", "you", "flour", "tour"; and the vowel sound in "me" can be spelt in at least eleven different ways: "paediatric", "me", "seat", "seem", "ceiling", "people", "chimney", "machine", "siege", "phoenix", "lazy". (These examples assume a more-or-less standard non-regional British English accent. Other accents will vary.)

Sometimes everyday speakers of English change a non-intuitive pronunciation simply because it's non-intuitive. Changes like this aren't 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".

"Ough" words

Main article: Ough (combination)

The most notorious group of letters in the English language, ough, is commonly pronounced 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 is in fact a word in its own right; it is an exclamation of disgust similar to "ugh". ough is a combination in the English language. ... Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of hard science fiction. ... The Door into Summer is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, published in 1957. ...

• though: /oʊ/ as in toe;
• tough: /ʌf/ as in cuff;
• cough: /ɒf, ʌf/ as in off;
• hiccough (a now uncommon variant of hiccup): /ʌp/ as in up;
• plough (Commonwealth spelling): /aʊ/ as in cow;
• through: /u/ as in boo.

American and British English spelling differences are one aspect of American and British English differences. ...

History of the English spelling system

Throughout the history of the English language, these inconsistencies have gradually increased in number. There are a number of contributing factors. First, gradual changes in pronunciation, such as the Great Vowel Shift, account for a tremendous amount 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 place names. Third, some prescriptivists have had partial success in their attempts to normalize the English language, forcing a change in spelling but not in pronunciation. English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and auxiliary troops under Roman tutelage from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the Northern Netherlands. ... The Great Vowel Shift was a major change in the pronunciation of the English language, generally accomplished in the fifteenth century, although evidence suggests it began as early as the fourteenth century. ... A loanword (or a borrowing) is a word taken in by one language from another. ... Phonetic (pho-NET-ic) is a nationwide voicemail-to-text messaging service available for most digital mobile phones in which a subscriber is provided a custom voice mailbox for the purpose of receiving all incoming voice messages as actual transcribed text for reading via short messaging (also known as SMS... In linguistics, romanization (or Latinization, also spelled romanisation or Latinisation) is the representation of a word or language with the Roman (Latin) alphabet, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... In linguistics, prescription is the laying down or prescribing of normative rules for the use of a language. ...

The regular spelling system of Old English was swept away by the Norman Conquest, and English itself was eclipsed by French for three centuries, eventually emerging with its spelling much influenced by French. English had also borrowed large numbers of words from French, which for reasons of prestige and familiarity kept their French spellings. The spelling of Middle English, such as in the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer, is very irregular and inconsistent, with the same word being spelled differently, sometimes even in the same sentence. However, these were generally much better guides to pronunciation than modern English spelling can honestly claim. Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ... Bayeux Tapestry depicting events leading to the Battle of Hastings The Norman Conquest of England was the conquest of the Kingdom of England by William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy), in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings and the subsequent Norman control of England. ... Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

For example, the sound /ʌ/, 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 and prove are due to ambiguity in the Middle English spelling system, not sound change. Minim, a term for short, vertical strokes used in handwriting, comes from a group of scribes employed by the newly conquering Normans of the mid 11th century. ... Minim, a term for short, vertical strokes used in handwriting, comes from a group of scribes employed by the newly conquering Normans of the mid 11th century. ... Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the...

There was also a series of linguistic sound changes towards the end of this period, including the Great Vowel Shift, which resulted in "i" in "mine" 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 merely 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. The Great Vowel Shift was a major change in the pronunciation of the English language, generally accomplished in the fifteenth century, although evidence suggests it began as early as the fourteenth century. ... For the purposes of this article, any word which has appeared in a recognised general English dictionary published in the 20th century or later is considered a candidate. ... The Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries (see Country) on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse (Maas) rivers. ...

By the time dictionaries were introduced in the mid 1600s, the spelling system of English started to stabilize, and by the 1800s, most words had set spellings. For other uses of dictionary, see dictionary (disambiguation). ...

The state of English spelling

It has been shown that regular alphabetic spelling systems make languages easier to learn (e.g., Seymour et al, 2003). Indeed, the concept of learning "spelling" seems very strange to speakers of languages with regular spelling systems such as Finnish or Spanish. This is also the case with several abugida writing systems, such as the Indian Devanagari. Vietnamese used to be written exclusively using Chinese characters, so that becoming literate in Vietnamese required years of study, and as a result, very few people were literate. However, after a modified form of the Latin alphabet was introduced, the writing system could be mastered by a native speaker in very little time — literacy in Vietnamese is much more widespread now. English, it seems, is somewhere in between: its spelling system is irregular, but it is regular to some degree and mastery only requires knowledge of the 26 letters of the alphabet, whereas mastering written Chinese or Japanese Kanji is much more difficult, requiring the memorization of thousands of different characters. An abugida or alphasyllabary is a writing system composed of signs (graphemes) denoting consonants with an inherent following vowel, which are consistently modified to indicate other vowels (or, in some cases, the lack of a vowel). ... Rigveda manuscript in Devanagari (early 19th century) DevanāgarÄ« (देवनागरी — in English pronounced ) (ISCII – IS13194:1991) [1] is an abugida alphabet used to write several Indian languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Bihari, Bhili, Konkani, Bhojpuri and Nepali from Nepal. ... 漢字 / 汉字 Chinese character in Hanzi, Kanji, Hanja, Hán Tá»±. Red in Simplified Chinese. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... Japanese writing Kanji Kana Hiragana Katakana Hentaigana Manyōgana Uses Furigana Okurigana Rōmaji   ) are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with hiragana (平仮名), katakana (片仮名), and the Arabic numerals. ...

Studies have shown that dyslexia occurs more often (or at least is more noticeable) among speakers of languages such as English whose orthography differs heavily from the phonology than speakers of languages where the letter-sound correspondence is more regular.^{[citation needed]} Dyslexia is a condition or learning disability which causes difficulty with reading and/or writing, not due to an intelligence below the normal range or to sensory problems such as poor eyesight. ...

Underlying representation

Like many other alphabetic orthographies, English spelling does not represent non-contrastive phonetic sounds (that is, sub-phonemic sounds). The fact that the letter t is pronounced with aspiration [tʰ] at the beginning of words is never indicated in the spelling, and, indeed, this phonetic detail is probably not salient to the average native speaker not trained in the phonetics. However, unlike some orthographies, English orthography often represents a very abstract underlying representation (or morphophonemic form) of English words (Rollins 2004: 16-19; Chomsky & Halle 1968; Chomsky 1970). Phonetic (pho-NET-ic) is a nationwide voicemail-to-text messaging service available for most digital mobile phones in which a subscriber is provided a custom voice mailbox for the purpose of receiving all incoming voice messages as actual transcribed text for reading via short messaging (also known as SMS... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies the release of some obstruents. ... In phonology, the underlying representation or underlying form of a morpheme is the abstract form the morpheme is postulated to have before any phonological rules have applied to it. ... In phonology, the word morphophonemic describes anything relating primarily to phonemes, but secondarily to morphemes. ...

"[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." (Chomsky & Halle 1968:54) Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the... Look up lexicon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

In these cases, a given morpheme (i.e. a component of a word) is represented with a single spelling despite the fact that it is pronounced differently (i.e. has different surface representations) in different environments. An example is the past tense suffix -ed, which may be pronounced variously as [t], [d], or [ɪd] (for example, dip [dɪp], dipped [dɪpt], boom [bum], boomed [bumd], loot [lut], looted [lutɪd]). Because these different pronunciations of -ed can be predicted by a few phonological rules, only a single spelling is needed in the orthography. In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest lingual unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ... The past tense is a verb tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past. ... Look up Suffix in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Phonology (Greek phone = voice/sound and logos = word/speech) is a subfield of grammar (see also linguistics). ...

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: In linguistics, derivation is the process of creating new lexemes from other lexemes, for example, by adding a derivational affix. ...

Spelling	Pronunciation
photograph	[ˈfotəgræf] or [ˈfəʊtəgrɑːf]
photographer	[fəˈtɑgrəfər] or [fəˈtɒgrəfə]

It may be argued that the underlying representation of photo is a single phonological form, such as |fotɒgrɑːf|. Since the (surface) pronunciation of the vowels can be predicted by phonological rules according to the different stress patterns, the orthography only needs to have one spelling that corresponds to the underlying form. Other examples of this type, include words with the -ity suffix (as in agile vs agility, acid vs acidity, divine vs divinity, sane vs sanity, etc.). (See also: Trisyllabic laxing.) Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ...

Another example includes words like sign (pronounced [saɪn]) and bomb (pronounced [bɑm] or [bɒm]) where the "silent" letters g and b, respectively, seem to be "inert" letters with no functional role. However, there are the related words signature and bombard in which the so-called "silent" letters are pronounced [sɪɡnətʃər] and [bɑmbɑrd] or [bɒmbɑːd], respectively. Here it may be argued that the underlying representation of sign and bomb is |saɪgn| and |bɑmb| or |bɒmb|, in which the underlying |g| and |b| are only pronounced in the surface forms when followed by certain suffixes (-ature, -ard). Otherwise, the |g| 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 [fæst] / [fɑːst] and fasten [fæsən] / [fɑːsən] and the h in heir [ɛr] / [ɛə] and inherit [ɪnhɛrɪt].

Another example includes words like mean (pronounced [min]) and meant (pronounced [mɛnt]). 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 [tɪks] and pigs [pɪɡz]) while -es is pronounced [ɪz] (e.g. boxes [bɑksɪz] or [bɒksɪz]). 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 the insertion of [ɪ] before the [z] in the spelling -es, but does not indicate the devoiced [s] distinctly from the unaffected [z] in the spelling -s. Look up Plural in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Plural is a grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the referent in the real world. ... In poetry and phonetics, epenthesis (, from Greek epi on + en in + thesis putting) is the insertion of a consonant, a vowel, or a whole syllable into a word, usually to facilitate pronunciation. ... Phoneticians define phonation as use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ...

The abstract representation of words as indicated by the orthography can be considered to be advantageous since the etymological relationships between words are very apparent to English readers. This makes writing English more complex, but arguably makes reading English more efficient (Chomsky 1970:294; Rollins 2004:17).

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 linguistic knowledge 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 (Rollins 2004:17-19). Underspecification is a phenomenon in theoretical linguistics where certain features are omitted in underlying representations. ... Pedagogy, the art or science of being a teacher, generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction[1]. The word comes from the Ancient Greek παιδαγωγέω (paidagōgeō; from παῖς (child) and ἄγω (lead)): literally, to lead the child”. In Ancient Greece, παιδαγωγός was (usually) a slave who supervised the education...

Bibliography

• Carney, Edward. (1994). A survey of English spelling. London: Routledge.
• Chomsky, Carol. (1970). Reading, writing and phonology. Harvard Educational Review, 40 (2), 287-309.
• Chomsky, Noam; & Halle, Morris. (1968). The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper and Row.
• Rollins, Andrew G. The spelling patterns of English. LINCOM studies in English linguistics (04). Muenchen: LINCOM EUROPA.
• Sapmpson, 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), 143-174.

See also

• Disc or disk (spelling)
• English language
• English spelling reform
• International Phonetic Alphabet for English (or the condensed IPA chart for English)
• English phonology
• Misspelling
• American and British English spelling differences
• Alternative political spellings
• List of unusual English words
• Longest word in English
• Three letter rule
• List of names in English with non-intuitive pronunciations
• List of English homographs
• I before e except after c
• Initial-stress-derived noun
• Internet spelling
• Saxon genitive
• Silent E
• Silent k
• List of English words containing a Q not followed by a U
• Sensational spelling
• Spelling bee
• English plural
• Classical compound
• Ghoti

Look up disc, disk in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... English spelling reform is the collective term [ — see talk page] for various campaigns to change the spelling system of English to make it simpler and more rationally consistent. ... The symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet can be used to show pronounciation in English. ... This chart shows concisely the most common way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is applied to represent the English language. ... English phonology is the study of the phonology (ie the sound system) of the English language. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... American and British English spelling differences are one aspect of American and British English differences. ... The orthodox spellings of common words are often altered to make a political point, particularly in informal writing on the Internet, but also in some serious political writing that opposes the status quo. ... For the purposes of this article, any word which has appeared in a recognised general English dictionary published in the 20th century or later is considered a candidate. ... The longest word in English depends upon the definition of what constitutes an English word. ... In English spelling, the three letter rule states that only function words may have fewer than three letters. ... This is a list of personal and place names that are pronounced in a way not easily deducible from the spelling or in a way at variance with a better known name of the same spelling. ... List of homographs (also known as heteronyms) in English. ... I before e, except after c is a mnemonic device used to help students remember how to spell certain words in the English language. ... Initial-stress-derivation is a phonological process in English, wherein verbs become nouns or adjectives when the stress is moved to the first syllable from a later one -- usually, but not always, the second. ... Internet spelling is a term to describe the use of words in an official Internet related context (like an RFC specification), but are misspelled to such a point, that a large number of people use the alternate spelling. ... The Saxon genitive is the traditional term used for the s word-ending in the English language. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... A silent k occurs when the letter k is not pronounced in a word. ... It is often said that, in English, the letter q must always be followed by the letter u. ... It is proposed that this article be deleted, because of the following concern: Original research If you can address this concern by improving, copyediting, sourcing, renaming or merging the page, please edit this page and do so. ... For other uses, see Spelling bee (disambiguation). ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... A large portion of the technical and scientific lexicon of English and other Western European languages consists of classical compounds. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

External links

• Teaching Spelling - Information on teaching English spelling
• Rules for English Spelling: Adding Suffixes, QU Rule, i before e, Silent e, 'er' vs. 'or'
• White Paper Research based Tutoring of English Spelling
• Hou tu pranownse Inglish describes rules which predict a word's pronunciation from its spelling with 85% accuracy
• Basic Roman Spelling of English
• Free spelling information and Free spelling lessons in QuickTime movie format at The Phonics Page.