English orthography refers to the alphabetic spelling system used by the English language. The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific Writing system to write the language English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States English orthography, like other alphabetic orthographies, uses a set of rules that generally governs how speech sounds are represented in writing. English has relatively complicated spelling rules when compared to other languages with alphabetic orthographies. A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them An alphabet is a standardized set of letters basic written symbols each of which roughly represents a Phoneme, a Spoken language, either Because of the complex history of the English language, nearly every sound can be legitimately spelled in more than one way, and many spellings can be pronounced in more than one way.

Contents 1 Function of the letters 1.1 Phonemic representation 1.2 Word origin 1.3 Homophone differentiation 1.4 Marking sound changes in other letters 1.5 Functionless letters 1.6 Multiple functionality 1.7 Underlying representation 2 Spelling patterns 2.1 Spelling to sound correspondences 2.1.1 Vowels 2.1.2 Consonants 2.1.3 Combinations of consonant and vowel letters 2.2 Sound to spelling correspondences 3 Diacritics 4 Irregularities 4.1 "Ough" words 5 History of the English spelling system 6 Bibliography 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

Function of the letters

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.

Phonemic representation

Further information: Phonemic orthography

Like most alphabetic systems, letters in English orthography may represent a particular sound. A phonemic orthography is a Writing system where the written Graphemes correspond to Phonemes the spoken sounds of the language A letter is an element in an Alphabetic system of writing such as the Greek alphabet and its descendants 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/.

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/. A digraph, bigraph, or digram is a pair of characters used to write one Phoneme (distinct sound or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond In the word ditch, the three letters tch represent the sound /tʃ/.

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/). A prefix is a type of Affix attached to a stem which modifies the meaning of that stem

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). A syllable ( Greek:) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. This is a list of varieties of the English language. Dialects are linguistic varieties which differ in Pronunciation, Vocabulary and Phonology North American English regional phonology In many ways compared to English English, North American English is conservative in its Phonology. 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/). In Phonetics and Phonology, a syllable onset is the part of a Syllable that precedes the Syllable nucleus. 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. In Phonology, a syllable coda comprises the Consonant sounds of a Syllable that follow the nucleus, which is usually a Vowel (Incidentally, this shows that ghoti does not follow English spelling rules to sound like fish. Ghoti is a constructed example used to illustrate irregularities in English spelling )

Word origin

See also: Hard and soft C, Hard and soft G, and Silent K

Another type of spelling characteristic is related to word origin. A hard c vs a soft c is a feature that occurs in many Languages including English, in which two A hard g vs a soft g is a feature that occurs in many Languages including English, in which two A silent k occurs when the letter K is not pronounced in a word For example, 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. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Thus, the word myth (pronounced /mɪθ/) is of Greek origin, while pith (pronounced /pɪθ/) is a Germanic word. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. Other examples include th representing /t/ (which is usually represented by t), ph representing /f/ (which is usually represented by f), and ch representing /k/ (which is usually represented by c or k) — the use of these spellings for these sounds often mark words that have been borrowed from Greek.

Some, such as Brengelman (1970), have suggested that, in addition to this marking of word origin, these spellings indicate a more formal level of style or register in a given text, although Rollins (2004) finds this point to be exaggerated as there would many exceptions where a word with one of these spellings, such as ph for /f/ (like telephone), could occur in an informal text. Stylistics is the study of varieties of Language whose properties position that language in context. In Linguistics, a register is a subset of a Language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting

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. In linguistics a homonym is one of a group of words that share the same pronunciation but have different meanings and are usually spelled differently 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. Spoken language often creates subtle difference to alleviate confusion, "our" often can if desired be pronounced like "are". 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/. 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 /pleːn/, but the /eː/ sound merged with the /eɪ/ sound in plain, making plain and plane homonyms. Note This article deals sound changes involving English-language diphthongs

In written language, this may help to resolve potential ambiguities that would arise otherwise (cf. Ambiguity (Am-big-u-i-ty is the property of being ambiguous, where a Word, term notation sign Symbol, Phrase, sentence, or any 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). A written language is the representation of a Language by means of a Writing system. A spoken language is a human Natural language in which the Words are uttered through the Mouth. Banter redirects here for the Radio 4 panel show see Banter (radio show A conversation is Communication by two or more people or by one's self For its use in the context of Computer Science see Lexical analysis. Some proponents of spelling reform view homophones as undesirable and would prefer that they be eliminated. Many languages have undergone spelling reform, where a deliberate often officially sanctioned or mandated change to spelling takes place Doing so, however, would increase orthographic ambiguities that would need to be resolved via the linguistic context.

Marking sound changes in other letters

See also: Silent E

Another function of English letters is to provide information about other aspects of pronunciation or the word itself. Silent e is a writing convention in English Spelling. When reading the Silent letter e at the end of a Word signals 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/ as in cottage, the letter e may also mark 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/.

Functionless letters

Further information: Silent letter

Other letters have no linguistic function. In an alphabetic writing system, a silent letter is a letter that in a particular word does not correspond to any sound in the word's Pronunciation. For example, there is a general "graphotactic" constraint in English orthography against words that end in the letter v. Thus, in order to satisfy this constraint, syllable-final v is followed by the letter e, such as in the word give. Spellings such as rev and slav are extremely rare.

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/). For another example, see Pronunciation of English th. In English the digraph 〈th〉 represents in most cases one of two different Phonemes the Voiced dental fricative /ð/ (as in th is

Underlying representation

Like many other alphabetic orthographies, English spelling does not represent non-contrastive phonetic sounds (that is, sub-phonemic sounds). Phonetics (from the Greek φωνή ( phonê) "sound" or "voice" is the study of the physical sounds of human speech 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 noticeable to the average native speaker not trained in the phonetics. Description Voiceless consonants are produced with the Vocal cords open and voiced consonants are produced when the vocal folds are fractionally closed 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). In Morphophonology, the underlying representation (UR or underlying form (UF of a Morpheme is the abstract form the morpheme is postulated to have before Morphophonology (also morphophonemics, morphonology) is a branch of Linguistics which studies The phonological structure

"[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. Middle English is the name given by Historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of . . that lexical representation would differ very little from dialect to dialect in Modern English. In Linguistics, the lexicon (from Greek Λεξικόν of a language is its Vocabulary, including its words and expressions Modern English is the form of the English language spoken since the Great Vowel Shift, completed in roughly 1550 . . [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)

In these cases, a given morpheme (i. In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. 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]). The past tense is a Verb tense expressing action activity state or being in the past of the current moment (in an Absolute tense system or prior In Grammar, a suffix (also postfix, ending) is an Affix which is placed at the end of a word Because these different pronunciations of -ed can be predicted by a few phonological rules, only a single spelling is needed in the orthography. Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning

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. In Linguistics, derivation is "Used to form new words as with happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from When this suffix is added, the vowel pronunciations change:

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. Trisyllabic laxing or trisyllabic shortening is a process in English whereby tense vowels (which are long vowels or Diphthongs become )

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). Plural is a Grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the Referent in the real world 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. In Phonology, epenthesis (/əˈpɛnθəsɪs/ Ancient Greek ἐπένθεσις - epenthesis from epi "on" + en "in" Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless

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. In Theoretical linguistics, underspecification is a phenomenon where certain features are omitted in Underlying representations Restricted underspecification 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). Pedagogy (ˈpɛdəgɒdʒi or paedagogy is the Art or Science of being a Teacher.

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". Generative may refer to Generative actor Generative art Generative music Math and science In Linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain Syllables in a word (As this classification is based on orthography, not all orthographic "lax" vowels are necessarily phonologically lax. In Phonology, tenseness is a particular Vowel or Consonant quality that is phonemically contrastive in many languages including English )

For instance, the letter a can represent the lax vowel /æ/, tense /eɪ/, heavy /ɑr/ or /ɑː/, or tense-r /ɛr/ or /ɛə/. General American is an accent of American English within American English General American and accents approximating it are contrasted with Southern American Received Pronunciation ( RP) is a form of Pronunciation of the English language (specifically British English) which has long been perceived as 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. Silent e is a writing convention in English Spelling. When reading the Silent letter e at the end of a Word signals 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 /eɪ/. 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.

Besides silent e, another strategy for indicating tense and tense-r vowels, is the addition of another orthographic vowel forming a digraph. A digraph, bigraph, or digram is a pair of characters used to write one Phoneme (distinct sound or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond 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 /eɪ/. These two strategies produce words that are spelled differently but pronounced identically, as in mane (silent e strategy), main (digraph strategy) and Maine (both strategies). The use of two different strategies relates to the function of distinguishing between words that would otherwise be homonyms.

Besides the 20 basic vowel spellings, 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). See also Vowel reduction In English, vowel reduction is the centralization and weakening of an Unstressed vowel, such as the characteristic

Consonants

See also: Digraph (orthography)

Notes:

• The dash has two different meanings. A digraph, bigraph, or digram is a pair of characters used to write one Phoneme (distinct sound or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond 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. In Grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice
• The dialect used is RP. Received Pronunciation ( RP) is a form of Pronunciation of the English language (specifically British English) which has long been perceived as
• 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.

Spelling	Major value (IPA)	Examples of major value	Minor value (IPA)	Examples of minor value	Exceptions
b, -bb	/b/	bit, rabbit
c before e, i or y	/s/	centre, city, cyst, face, prince			/tʃ/ cello
c	/k/	cat, cross
-cc before e or i	/ks/	accept
-cc	/k/	account
ch	/tʃ/	chin	/k/ /ʃ/	chord, archaic machine, parachute, chef
-ck	/k/	tack, ticket
ct-	/t/	ctenoid
d, -dd	/d/	dive, ladder			/dʒ/ graduate, gradual (both may also be pronounced as /dj/ in RP)
-dg	/dʒ/	ledger
f, -ff	/f/	fine, off			/v/ of
g before e, i or y	/dʒ/	gentle, magic, gyrate, page, college			/g/ get, give, girl, begin
g, -gg	/g/	go, great, stagger
gh-	/g/	ghost, ghastly
-gh	Ø	dough, high	/f/	laugh, enough
-ght	/t/	right, daughter, bought
gn-	/n/	gnome, gnaw
h- after ex	Ø	exhibit, exhaust			/h/ exhale
h-	/h/	he, alcohol			Ø vehicle, honest, hono(u)r
j-	/dʒ/	jump, ajar
k	/k/	key, bake
kn-	/n/	knee, knock
l, -ll	/l/	line, hall
m, -mm	/m/	mine, hammer
-mb	/m/	climb, plumber
mn-	/n/	mnemonic
-mn	/m/	hymn, autumn
-n before /k/	/ŋ/	link, plonk, anchor
n, -nn	/n/	nice, funny
-ng	/ŋ/	long, singing	/ŋg/ /ndʒ/	England, finger, stronger danger, passenger
p, -pp	/p/	pill, happy
ph	/f/	physical, photograph			/p/ Phuket, /v/ Stephen
pn-	/n/	pneumonia, pneumatic
ps-	/s/	psychology, psychic
pt-	/t/	ptomaine
q	/k/	Iraq
r-, -rr	/ɹ/	ray, parrot			Ø iron
rh, -rrh	/ɹ/	rhyme, diarrhoea
-r, -rr, -rrh when not followed by a vowel sound	Ø in non-rhotic dialects such as RP, /ɹ/ in rhotic dialects such as GA	bar, bare, catarrh
-s- between vowels	/z/	rose, prison	/s/	house, base
word-final -s morpheme after a voiceless sound	/s/	pets, shops
word-final -s morpheme after a voiced sound	/z/	beds, magazines
s, -ss	/s/	song, ask, message	/z/	scissors, dessert, dissolve	/ʃ/ sugar, tissue
sc- before e, i or y	/s/	scene, scissors, scythe			/sk/ sceptic
sch-	/sk/	school	/ʃ/	schist, schedule (this may be pronounced as /sk/)	/s/ schism
sh	/ʃ/	shin
t, -tt	/t/	ten, bitter
-tch	/tʃ/	batch, kitchen
th	/θ/ or /ð/	thin, them	/t/	thyme, Thames	/tθ/ eighth
v, -vv	/v/	vine, bovver
w-	/w/	we			Ø sword, answer
wh- before o	/h/	who, whole
wh-	/w/ (/ʍ/ in dialects where this phoneme exists)	wheel
wr-	/ɹ/	wrong
x-	/z/	xylophone
-xc before e or i	/ks/	excellent, excited
-xc	/ksk/	excuse
-x	/ks/	box
y-	/j/	yes
z, -zz	/z/	zoo, fuzz

Combinations of consonant and vowel letters

Spelling	Major value (IPA)	Examples of major value	Minor value (IPA)	Examples of minor value	Exceptions
qu-	/kw/	queen, quick	/k/	liquor, mosquito
-cqu	/kw/	acquaint, acquire
gu- before e or i	/g/	guest, guide	/gw/	linguistics
alf	/ɑːf/ (RP) /æf/ (GA)	calf, half
alm	/ɑːm/	calm, almond			/æm/ salmon
olm	/əʊm/RP, /oʊm/ GA	holm (oak)
alk	/ɔːk/	walk, chalk
olk	/əʊk/	yolk, folk
al, all	/ɔːl/	bald, call, falcon			/æl/ shall
ol, oll	/əʊl/	old, roll
unstressed ex- before a vowel or h	/ɪgz/	exist, examine, exhaust	/ɪks/	exhale
unstressed ci- before a vowel	/ʃ/	special, gracious	/si/	species
unstressed sci- before a vowel	/ʃ/	conscience
unstressed -si before a vowel	/ʃ/	expansion	/ʒ/	division, illusion
unstressed -ssi before a vowel	/ʃ/	mission
unstressed -ti before a vowel	/ʃ/	nation, ambitious	/ʒ/	equation	/ti/ patio, /taɪ/ cation
unstressed -ture	/tʃə(ɹ)/	nature, picture
unstressed -sure	/ʒə(ɹ)/	leisure, treasure
unstressed -zure	/ʒə(ɹ)/	seizure
unstressed -ften	/fən/	soften, often
unstressed -sten	/sən/	listen, fasten
unstressed -stle	/səl/	whistle, rustle
word-final -le after a consonant	/əl/	little, table
word-final -re after a consonant	/ə(ɹ)/	metre, fibre
word-final -ngue	/ŋ/	tongue
word-final -gue	/g/	catalogue, plague, colleague	/gju/	argue
word-final -que	/k/	mosque, bisque	/keɪ/	risqué	barbeque
word-final -ed morpheme after /t/ or /d/*	/ɪd/	waited
word-final -ed morpheme after a voiceless sound*	/t/	topped
word-final -ed morpheme after a voiced sound*	/d/	failed, ordered
word-final -es morpheme**	/ɪz/	washes, boxes

* There is absolutely no way to tell if it is the morpheme or an integral part of the word. English pronunciation is divided into two main accent groups the rhotic (ˈroʊtɪk and non-rhotic, depending on when the sound typically represented In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. Compare snaked and naked.

** Same as above compare the two pronunciations of axes.

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/).

Consonants
IPA	spelling	example
/p/	p, pp, ph, pe, gh	pill, happy, Phuket, tape, hiccough
/b/	b, bb, bh, p (in some dialects)	bit, rabbit, Bhutan, thespian
/t/	t, tt, ed, pt, th, ct	ten, bitter, topped, pterodactyl, thyme, ctenoid
/d/	d, dd, ed, dh, th (in some dialects)	dive, ladder, failed, dharma, them
/g/	g, gg, gue, gh	go, stagger, catalogue, ghost
/k/	c, k, ck, ch, cc, qu, q, cq, cu, que, kk, kh	cat, key, tack, chord, account, liquor, Iraq, acquaint, biscuit, mosque, trekker, khan
/m/	m, mm, mb, mn, mh, gm, chm	mine, hammer, climb, hymn, mho, diaphragm, drachm
/n/	n, nn, kn, gn, pn, nh, cn, mn, ng (in some dialects)	nice, funny, knee, gnome, pneumonia, piranha, cnidarian, mnemonic, fighting
/ŋ/	ng, n, ngue, ngh	sing, link, tongue, Singh
/r/	r, rr, wr, rh, rrh	ray, parrot, wrong, rhyme, diarrh(o)ea
/f/	f, ph, ff, gh, pph, u, th (in some dialects)	fine, physical, off, laugh, sapphire, lieutenant (Br), thin
/v/	v, vv, f, ph	vine, savvy, of, Stephen
/θ/	th, chth, phth, tth	thin, chthonic, phthisis, Matthew
/ð/	th	them, breathe
/s/	s, c, ss, sc, st, ps, sch (in some dialects), cc, se, ce, z (in some 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
/ʃ/	sh, ti, ci, ssi, si, ss, ch, s, sci, ce, sch, sc	shin, nation, special, mission, expansion, tissue, machine, sugar, conscience, ocean, schmooze, crescendo
/ʒ/	si, s, g, z, j, zh, ti, sh (in some dialects)	division, leisure, genre, seizure, jeté, Zhytomyr, equation, Pershing
/tʃ/	ch, t, tch, ti, c, cz, tsch	chin, nature, batch, bastion, cello, Czech, Deutschmark
/dʒ/	g, j, dg, dge, d, di, gi, ge, dj, gg	magic, jump, ledger, bridge, graduate, soldier, Belgian, dungeon, Djibouti, exaggerate
/h/	h, wh, j, ch	he, who, fajita, chutzpah
/j/	y, i, j, ll	yes, onion, hallelujah, tortilla
/l/	l, ll, lh	line, hall, Lhasa
/w/	w, u, o, ou, wh (in most dialects)	we, queen, choir, Ouija board, what
/hw/	wh (in some dialects)	wheel

Vowels
IPA	spelling	example
/i/	e, ea, ee, e…e, ae, ei, i…e, ie, eo, oe, ie. . . e, ay, ey, i, y, oi, ue	be, beach, bee, cede, Caesar, deceit, machine, field, people, amoeba, hygiene, quay, key, ski, city, chamois, Portuguese
/ɪ/	i, y, ui, e, ee, ie, o, u, a, ei, ee, ia, ea, i. . . e, ai, ey, oe	bit, myth, build, pretty, been, sieve, women, busy, damage, counterfeit, sovereign, carriage, mileage, medicine, bargain, Ceylon, oedema
/u/	oo, u, o, u…e, ou, ew, ue, o…e, ui, eu, oe, ough, wo, ioux, ieu, ault, oup, w	tool, luminous, who, flute, soup, jewel, true, lose, fruit, maneuver, canoe, through, two, Sioux, lieutenant (US), Sault Sainte Marie, coup, cwm
/ʊ/	oo, u, o, oo. . . e, or, ou, oul	look, full, wolf, gooseberry, worsted, courier, should
/e/	a, a…e, ay, ai, ai. . . e, aig, aigh, ao, au, e (é), e. . . e, ea, ei, ei. . . e, eig, eigh, ee (ée), eh, et, ey, ez, er, ie, ae, eg	paper, rate, pay, rain, cocaine, arraign, straight, gaol (Br), gauge, ukulele (café), crepe, steak, veil, beige, reign, eight, matinee (soirée), eh, ballet, obey, chez, dossier, lingerie (US), reggae, thegn
/ə/	a, e, o, u, ai, ou, eig, y, ah, ough, gh, ae, oi	another, anthem, awesome, atrium, mountain, callous, foreign, beryl, Messiah, borough (Br), Edinburgh, Michael, porpoise
/o/	o, o…e, 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
/ɛ/	e, ea, a, ae, ai, ay, ea…e, ei, eo, ie, ieu, u, ue, oe	met, weather, many, aesthetic, said, says, cleanse, heifer, jeopardy, friend, lieutenant (Br), bury, guess, foetid
/æ/	a, ai, al, au, i	hand, plaid, salmon, laugh, meringue
/ʌ/	u, o, o…e, oe, ou, oo, wo	sun, son, come, does, touch, flood, twopennce
/ɔ/	a, au, aw, ough, augh, o, oa, oo, al, uo, u	fall, author, jaw, bought, caught, cord, broad, door, walk, fluorine (Br), sure (some accents)
/ɑ/	o, a, eau, ach, au, ou	lock, watch, bureaucracy, yacht, sausage, cough
/aɪ/	i…e, i, y, igh, ie, ei, eigh, uy, ai, ey, ye, eye, y…e, ae, ais, is, ig, ic, ay, ui	fine, Christ, try, high, tie, eidos, height, buy, aisle, geyser, dye, eye, type, maestro, aisle, isle, sign, indict, tayra, guide
/ɑr/	ar, a, er, ear, a…e, ua, aa, au, ou	car, father, sergeant, heart, are, guard, bazaar, aunt, our (some accents)
/ɛr/	er, ar, ere, are, aire, eir, air, aa, aer, ayr, ear	stationery, stationary, where, ware, millionaire, heir, hair, Aaron, aerial, Ayr, bear
/ɔɪ/	oi, oy, aw, uoy oy…e, eu	foil, toy, lawyer, buoy, gargoyle, Freudian
/aʊ/	ou, ow, ough, au, ao	out, now, bough, tau, Laos
/ər/	er, or, ur, ir, yr, our, ear, err, eur, yrrh, ar, oeu, olo, uer	fern, worst, turn, thirst, myrtle, journey, earth, err, amateur, myrrh, grammar, hors d'oeuvre, colonel, Guernsey
/ju/	u, u…e, eu, ue, iew, eau, ieu, ueue, ui, ewe, ew	music*, use, feud, cue, view, beautiful*, adieu*, queue, nuisance*, ewe, few, * in some dialects, see Yod dropping

Diacritics

Main article: English words with diacritics

English includes some words that can be written with accent marks. The phonological history of English consonant clusters is part of the Phonological history of the English language in terms of changes in the Phonology of Consonant Some English language Words have letters with Diacritical 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 pâté 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.

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 and the New Yorker magazines still use it. Time (trademarked in capitals as TIME) is a weekly American Newsmagazine, similar to Newsweek and The New Yorker is an American Magazine that publishes reportage commentary criticism essays fiction satire cartoons and poetry For some words such as "soupçon" however, the only spelling found in English dictionaries (the Oxford English Dictionary and others) uses the diacritic. The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED) published by the Oxford University Press (OUP is a comprehensive Dictionary of the English

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. In Typography, italic type /ɪˈtælɪk/ or /aɪˈtælɪk/ refers to cursive Typefaces based on a stylized form of calligraphic Handwriting. Crème brûlée (or Crème brulée in L'Orthographie 1990) ( French for "burnt cream" ˌkrɛm bruːˈleɪ in English, kʁɛm bʁyˈle Pièce de résistance is a French term ( Circa 1839) translated into English Literally as "piece of resistance" Über or ueber ( comes from the German language. It is a Cognate of both Latin super and Greek ὑπέρ ( hyper) as well as The Übermensch ( German; English: Overman, Superman) is a Concept in the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. In English The most common use of the phrase in English means 'with regard to' or 'in relation to'

It was formerly common in English to use a diaeresis mark to indicate a hiatus: for example, coöperate, daïs, reëlect. Diaeresis or trema See also Diaeresis History Historically the diaeresis mark or trema is far older than the umlaut mark Hiatus (Latin "yawning" (haɪˈeɪtəs in Linguistics is the separate pronunciation of two adjacent Vowels sometimes with an intervening Glottal stop One publication that still uses a diaeresis for this function is the New Yorker magazine. The New Yorker is an American Magazine that publishes reportage commentary criticism essays fiction satire cartoons and poetry 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.

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. Drama is the specific mode of Fiction represented in Performance. 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.

In certain older texts (typically British), the use of ligatures is common in words such as archæology, diarrhœa, and encyclopædia. British English or UK English ( BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the Such words have Latin or Greek origin. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Nowadays, the ligatures have been generally replaced in British English by the separated digraph "ae" and "oe" ("encyclopaedia", "diarrhoea"; but usually "economy", "ecology") and in American English by "e" ("encyclopedia", "diarrhea"; but usually "paean", "amoeba", "oedipal", "Caesar"). Phonology North American English regional phonology In many ways compared to English English, North American English is conservative in its Phonology. ^[2]

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). 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 (“Royal Spanish Academy” the RAE, is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. The Accademia della Crusca is an Italian institution that brings together scholars and experts in Italian linguistics and Philology. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people L'Académie française, or the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. Many languages have undergone spelling reform, where a deliberate often officially sanctioned or mandated change to spelling takes place

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. Noah Webster (October 16 1758 &ndash May 28 1843 was an American Lexicographer, textbook author Spelling reformer word enthusiast and editor American and British English spelling differences are one aspect of American and British English differences. (Other differences, such as -ize/-ise in realize/realise etc, came about separately. 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. In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος dialektos) is a variety of a Language that is characteristic of a particular group of In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract 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". A digraph, bigraph, or digram is a pair of characters used to write one Phoneme (distinct sound or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond The voiced dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic In English the digraph 〈th〉 represents in most cases one of two different Phonemes the Voiced dental fricative /ð/ (as in th is The voiceless alveolar fricatives are Consonantal sounds The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a

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. This article deals with the European species named "Ptarmigan" known in North America as the Rock Ptarmigan Some are just randomly changed: for example, 'score' used to be spelled 'skor'.

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"). A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation Polish ( język polski, polszczyzna) is the Official language of Poland. Old Norse is the North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age 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. A ski is a long flat device worn on the feet designed to help the wearer slide smoothly over snow Norwegian ( norsk) is a North Germanic Language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language 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.

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. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic 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. A Hindu ( Devanagari: हिन्दू is an adherent of the philosophies and scriptures of Hinduism, a set of religious, Philosophical 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. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time.

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: /ə/ in "famous", /ɜː/ in "journey", /aʊ/ in "loud", /ʊ/ in "should", /uː/ in "you", /aʊə/ in "flour", /ɔː/ in "tour"; and the vowel sound /iː/ in "me" can be spelt in at least ten different ways: "paediatric", "me", "seat", "seem", "ceiling", "people", "chimney", "machine", "siege", "phoenix". (These examples assume a more-or-less standard non-regional British English accent. Other accents will vary. )

Sometimes everyday speakers of English change a counterintuitive pronunciation simply because it is counterintuitive. Changes like this are not usually seen as "standard", but can become standard if used enough. An example is the word "miniscule", which still competes with its original spelling of "minuscule", though this might also be because of analogy with the word "mini".

"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 a combination in the English language. In Middle English where the spelling arose it was probably pronounced with a back rounded vowel and a velar fricative Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7 1907 – May 8 1988 was an American Novelist and Science fiction Writer. The Door into Summer is a Science fiction Novel by Robert A Heinlein, originally serialized in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Ough is in fact a word in its own right; it is an exclamation of disgust similar to "ugh".

• 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. English is a West Germanic language which originated from the Anglo-Frisian Dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers 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. The Great Vowel Shift was a major change in the Pronunciation of the English language that took place in the south of England between 1200 and Second, relatively recent loan words from other languages generally carry their original spellings, which are often not phonetic in English. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation Phonetics (from the Greek φωνή ( phonê) "sound" or "voice" is the study of the physical sounds of human speech The Romanization of languages (e. In Linguistics, romanization (or latinization, also spelled romanisation or latinisation) is the representation of a Word or 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. In Linguistics, prescription can refer both to the codification and the enforcement of rules governing how a language is to be used

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. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people 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. Middle English is the name given by Historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of Geoffrey Chaucer (c 1343 – 25 October 1400? was an English author poet Philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and Diplomat. However, these were generally much better guides to pronunciation than modern English spelling can honestly claim.

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. In Palaeography, a minim is a short vertical stroke used in handwriting In Palaeography, a minim is a short vertical stroke used in handwriting ) 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. Middle English is the name given by Historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of

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. The Great Vowel Shift was a major change in the Pronunciation of the English language that took place in the south of England between 1200 and 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 Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt

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. A dictionary is a book of alphabetically listed Words in a specific language with definitions etymologies pronunciations and other information or a book of alphabetically

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• Sampson, Geoffrey. (1985). Writing systems: A linguistic introduction. London: Hutchinson.
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• Venezky, Richard L. (1999). The American way of spelling. New York: Guildford Press.
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See also

• Alternative political spellings
• American and British English spelling differences
• Apostrophe
• Basic Roman spelling of English
• Classical compound
• Disc or disk (spelling)
• English language
• English phonology
• English plural
• English spelling reform
• Ghoti
• I before E except after C
• Initial-stress-derived noun
• International Phonetic Alphabet for English (or the condensed IPA chart for English)
• Internet spelling
• List of English homographs
• List of English words containing a Q not followed by a U
• List of names in English with counterintuitive pronunciations
• List of the longest English words with one syllable
• List of unusual English words
• Long S
• Longest word in English
• Misspelling
• Sensational spelling
• Spelling bee
• Three letter rule
• Weak form and strong form

References

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
• Free spelling information and Free spelling lessons in QuickTime movie format at The Phonics Page.

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