Spelling and Pronunciation

by

Alkhima M. Macarompis

OUTLINE

1. Definition of Terms

1.1 Spelling

- The written trace of word.

- The use of letters to form words.

1.1 Pronunciation

- The way in which a sound, word, or language is articulated, especially in conforming to an accepted standard.

2. Spelling

2.1 Examples of different spellings for the same sound

2.2 Examples of The same spellings for different sounds

2.3 Examples of Silent letters

2.4 Examples of missing letters

2.5 Middle English Period

2.6 Modern English Period

2.7 The Great Vowel Shift

3. Spelling Pronunciation

If writing represented the spoken language perfectly, spelling reformers would never have

arisen. The irregularities between graphemes (letters) and phonemes have been cited as one reason

‘why Johnny can’t read’. Different spellings for the same sound, the same spellings for different sounds,

‘silent letters’, and ‘missing letters’ – all provide fuel for the flames of spelling-reform movements. Here

are examples:

Same sound, Different sounds, Silent letters Missing lettersdifferent spelling same spelling

aye thought listen use/juz/

buy though debt fuse/fjuz/

die gnosis

hi know

Thai psychology

Height right

Guide sword

At the beginning of the Middle English period, which dates from the Norman Conquest of 1066,

the language was still quite highly inflectional. By the end of the period the relationship between the

elements of the sentence depended basically on word order. As early as 1200 the three or four

grammatical case forms of nouns in the singular had been reduced to two, and to denote the plural the

noun ending (e)s had been adopted.

In the early part of the Modern English period the vocabulary was enlarged by the widespread

use of one part of speech for another and by increased borrowings from other languages.

The many changes that have occurred in the sound system of English, like The Great Vowel Shift,

were not always reflected in changes in the spelling of the words that were affected. When the printing

press was introduced in the fifteenth century, not only were archaic pronunciations ‘frozen’, but the

spelling did not always represent even those pronunciations, because many of the early printers were

Dutch and were unsure of English pronunciation.

During the Renaissance, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, many scholars who revealed

Classical Greek and Latin became ‘spelling reformers’. Unlike the later reformers who wished to change

the spelling to conform to pronunciation, these scholars changed the spelling of English words to

conform to their etymologies- the ‘original’ Latin, or Greek, or French spellings. Where the Latin had a b,

they added a b even if it was not pronounced; and shown by these few examples:

Middle English Spelling “Reformed Spelling”

Indite indict

dette debt

receit receipt

oure hour

Modern English orthography does not always represent what we know about the phonology of

the language. The disadvantage is partially offset by the fact that the writing system allows us to read

and understand what people wrote of years ago without the need for translations.

Today’s language is no more static that was yesterday’s; it would be impossible to maintain a

perfect correspondence between pronunciation and spelling. We do not mean to say that certain

reforms would not be helpful. Some ‘respelling’ is already taking place; advertisers often spell though as

tho, through as thru, and night as nite. For a period of time the old Nation Review used some modified

spellings and ceases using capitals for proper nouns. Other publications did not follow suit, however.

Spelling habits are hard to change.

In the case of homophones, it is helpful at times to have different spellings for the same sounds,

as in the following pair:

The book was red. The book was read.

There are also reasons for using the same spelling for different pronunciations. It was shown

that a morpheme may be pronounced differently when it occurs in different contexts, and that in most

cases the pronunciation is ‘regular’; that is, it is determined by rules that apply throughout the language.

The identical spelling reflects the fact that the different pronunciations represent the same morpheme.

Similarly, the phonetic realizations of the vowels in the following forms are ‘regular’.

divine/divinity serene/serenity sane/sanity

sublime/sublimate obscene/obscenity profane/profanity

sign/signature clean/cleanse humane/humanity

The spelling of such pairs thus reflects our knowledge of the sound pattern of the language and

the semantic-morphological relations between the words.

Other examples provide further evidence. The b in ‘debt’ may remind us of the related word

debit, in which the b is pronounced.

It is doubtful that anyone would suggest that the plural morpheme should be spelled s in cats

and z in dogs. The sound of the morpheme is determined by rules, in this case as in other cases.

There is another important reason why spelling should not always be tied to the phonetic

pronunciation of words. Different dialects of English have divergent pronunciations. While dialectal

pronunciations differ, the common spellings represent the fact that we understand each other. It is

necessary for the written language to transcend local dialects. If each dialect were spelt according to its

own pronunciation, written communication among the English-speaking peoples of the world would

suffer more than the spoken communication does today.

Despite the primacy of the spoken over the written language, the written word is often regarded

with excessive reverence. The stability, permanency, and graphic nature of writing cause some people to

favor it over ephemeral and elusive speech. Writing has however affected speech only marginally, and

most notably in the phenomenon of spelling pronunciation. Since the sixteenth century, we find that

spelling has to some extent influenced standard pronunciation. The most important of such changes

stem from the eighteenth-century under the influenced and ‘decrees’ of the dictionary-makers and the

schoolteachers. The struggle between those who demanded that words be pronounced according to the

spelling and those who demanded that words be spelt according to their pronunciations generated

great heat in the century. The ‘preferred’ pronunciations were given in the many dictionaries printed in

the eighteenth century, and the ‘supreme authority’ of the dictionaries influenced pronunciation in this way.

Spelling also has influenced pronunciation in words that are infrequently used in normal daily

speech. Many words that were spelt with an initial h were not pronounced with any /h/ sound as late as

the eighteenth century. Thus, at that time no /h/ was pronounced in honest, hour, habit, heretic, hotel,

hospital, herb. Frequently used words like honest and hour continued to be pronounced without the /h/,

despite the spelling but all those other words were given a ‘spelling pronunciation’. Because people did

not hear them often, when they saw them written they concluded that they must begin with an /h/.

Although the written language has some influence on the spoken, it does not change the basic

system – the grammar—of the language. The writing system, conversely, reflects, in a more or less

direct way, the grammar that every speaker knows.