English orthography

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English orthography is the orthography used in writing the English language, including English spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word
breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Like the orthographic systems of most world languages, it has a broad degree of standardization. However, unlike
most languages, English provides more than one way to spell nearly every phoneme, and most letters and letter-combinations can stand for different
pronunciations depending on context and meaning. This is largely due to the complex history of the English language[1] together with the absence of
systematic spelling reforms. In general, modern English spelling, much of which was devised originally for the phonetic spelling of Middle English, does not
reflect the sound changes that have occurred since the late fifteenth century (such as the Great Vowel Shift).[2] There are somevariations in English
orthography by global regions, some of which resulted from spelling reform efforts that succeeded only partially and only in certain regions.
Contents
[hide]

1 Function of the letters

o 1.1 Phonemic representation
o 1.2 Word origin
o 1.3 Homophone differentiation
o 1.4 Marking sound changes in other letters
o 1.5 Multiple functionality
o 1.6 Underlying representation
2 Diacritics
3 Ligatures
4 Phonic irregularities
5 Spelling irregularities
o 5.1 History
o 5.2 "Ough" words
6 Spelling patterns
o 6.1 Spelling-to-sound correspondences
6.1.1 Vowels
6.1.2 Combinations of vowel letters
6.1.3 Consonants
6.1.4 Combinations of vowel letters and "r"
6.1.5 Combinations of other consonant and vowel letters
o 6.2 Sound-to-spelling correspondences
6.2.1 Consonants
6.2.2 Vowels
7 See also
o 7.1 Orthographies of English related languages
8 References
9 Bibliography
10 External links

Function of the letters[edit]

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[edit]
Further information: Phonemic orthography
Letters in English orthography usually represent a particular sound (phoneme). For example, the word cat /kt/ consists of three letters c, a, and t, in
which crepresents the sound /k/, a the sound //, and t the sound /t/.
Sequences of letters may perform this role as well as single letters. Thus, in the word ship (pronounced /p/), the digraph sh (two letters) represents the
sound //. In the wordditch, the three letters tch represent the sound /t/.
Less commonly, a single letter can represent multiple successive sounds. The most common example is the letter x, which normally represents the
consonant cluster /ks/ (for example, in the word six, pronounced /sks/).
The same letter (or sequence of letters) may be pronounced in different ways when it occurs in different positions within a word. For instance, the
digraph gh represents the sound /f/ at the end of some words, such as rough /rf/. At the beginning of syllables (i.e. the syllable onset), the
digraph gh is pronounced //, as in the word ghost(pronounced /ost/). Conversely, the digraph gh is never pronounced /f/ in syllable onsets and is
almost never pronounced // in syllable codas (the proper name Pittsburghis an exception).
Some words contain silent letters, which do not represent any sound in modern English pronunciation. Examples include the b in doubt, debt, dumb, etc.,
the p inpsychology and pneumatic, and the commonly encountered silent e (discussed further below).

Word origin[edit]
See also: Hard and soft C, Hard and soft G, Silent k and Palatalization (phonetics)
Another type of spelling characteristic is related to word origin. For example, when representing a vowel, the letter y represents the sound // in some
words borrowed fromGreek (reflecting an original upsilon), whereas the letter usually representing this sound in non-Greek words is the letter i. Thus, the
word myth /m/ is of Greek origin, whilepith /p/ is a Germanic word. Other examples include ph pronounced /f/ (which is usually spelt f),
and ch pronounced /k/ (which is usually spelt c or k) the use of these spellings for these sounds often mark words that have been borrowed from
Greek.
Some researchers, such as Brengelman (1970), have suggested that, in addition to this marking of word origin, these spellings indicate a more formal level
of style or register in a given text, although Rollings (2004) finds this point to be exaggerated as there would be many exceptions where a word with one of
these spellings, such as ph for /f/ (liketelephone), could occur in an informal text.

Homophone differentiation[edit]
Spelling may also be useful to distinguish between homophones (words with the same pronunciation but different meanings), although in most cases the
reason for the difference is historical and was not introduced for the purpose of making a distinction. For example, the words heir and air are pronounced
identically in most dialects, but in writing they are distinguished from each other by their different spellings. Another example is the pair of
homophones pain and pane, where both are pronounced /pen/ but have two different spellings of the vowel /e/. Often this is because of the historical
pronunciation of each word where, over time, two separate sounds become the same but the different spellings remain: pain used to be pronounced
as /pain/, with a diphthong, and pane as /pen/, but the diphthong /ai/ merged with the long vowel /e/ in pane, making pain and panehomophones (pane
pain merger). Later /e/ became a diphthong /e/.
In written language, this may help to resolve potential ambiguities that would arise otherwise (cf. He's breaking the car vs. He's braking the car).
Nevertheless, many homophones remain that are unresolved by spelling (for example, the word bay has at least five fundamentally different meanings).

Marking sound changes in other letters[edit]

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

Multiple functionality[edit]
A given letter or (letters) may have dual functions. For example, the letter i in the word cinema has a sound-representing function (representing the
sound //) and a pronunciation-marking function (marking the c as having the value /s/ opposed to the value /k/).

Underlying representation[edit]
Like many other alphabetic orthographies, English spelling does not represent non-contrastive phonetic sounds (that is, minor differences in pronunciation
which are not used to distinguish between different words). Although the letter t is pronounced by some speakers with aspiration [t] at the beginning of
words, this is never indicated in the spelling, and, indeed, this phonetic detail is probably not noticeable to the average native speaker not trained in
phonetics. However, unlike some orthographies, English orthography often represents a very abstract underlying representation (or morphophonemic form)
of English words.[3]
[T]he postulated underlying forms are systematically related to the conventional orthography ... and are, as is well known, related to the underlying forms of
a much earlier historical stage of the language. There has, in other words, been little change in lexical representation since Middle English, and,
consequently, we would expect ... that lexical representation would differ very little from dialect to dialect in Modern English ... [and] that conventional
orthography is probably fairly close to optimal for all modern English dialects, as well as for the attested dialects of the past several hundred years.[4]
In these cases, a given morpheme (i.e. a component of a word) has a fixed spelling even though it is pronounced differently in different words. An example
is the past tense suffix-ed, which may be pronounced variously as /t/, /d/, or - in some accents - /d/ (for
example, dip /dp/, dipped /dpt/, boom /bum/, boomed /bumd/, loot /lut/, looted /lutd/). As it happens, these different pronunciations of -ed can be
predicted by a few phonological rules, but that is not the reason why its spelling is fixed.
Another example involves the vowel differences (with accompanying stress pattern changes) in several related words. For instance, the
word photographer is derived from the word photograph by adding the derivational suffix -er. When this suffix is added, the vowel pronunciations change
largely owing to the moveable stress:
Spelling
photograph

Pronunciation
/fotrf/ or /fotrf/

photographer /ftrfr/
photographical /fotrfkl/
Other examples of this type are the -ity suffix (as in agile vs agility, acid vs acidity, divine vs divinity, sane vs sanity). See also: Trisyllabic laxing.
Another such class of words includes sign /san/ and bomb /bm/ with "silent" letters g and b, respectively. However, in the related
words signature and bombard these letters are pronounced /sntr/ and /bmbrd/, respectively. Here it could be argued that the underlying
representation of sign and bomb is |san| and |bmb|, in which the underlying || and |b| are only pronounced in the surface forms when followed by
certain suffixes (-ature, -ard). Otherwise, the || and |b| are not realized in the surface pronunciation (e.g. when standing alone, or when followed by
suffixes like -ing or -er). In these cases, the orthography indicates the underlying consonants that are present in certain words but are absent in
other related words. Other examples include the t in fast /fst/ and fasten /fsn/, and the h in heir /r/ and inherit /nhrt/.
Another example includes words like mean /min/ and meant /mnt/. Here the vowel spelling ea is pronounced differently in the two related words.
Thus, again the orthography uses only a single spelling that corresponds to the single morphemic form rather than to the surface phonological form.
English orthography does not always provide an underlying representation; sometimes it provides an intermediate representation between the
underlying form and the surface pronunciation. This is the case with the spelling of the regular plural morpheme, which is written as either -s (as
in tick, ticks and mite, mites) or -es (as in box, boxes). Here the spelling -s is pronounced either /s/ or /z/ (depending on the environment,
e.g. ticks /tks/ and pigs /pz/) while -es is usually pronounced /z/ (e.g. boxes /bksz/). Thus, there are two different spellings that correspond to
the single underlying representation |z| of the plural suffix and the three surface forms. The spelling indicates theinsertion of // before the /z/ in the
spelling -es, but does not indicate the devoiced /s/ distinctly from the unaffected /z/ in the spelling -s.
The abstract representation of words as indicated by the orthography can be considered advantageous since it makes etymological relationships more
apparent to English readers. This makes writing English more complex, but arguably makes reading English more efficient.[5] However, very abstract
underlying representations, such as that of Chomsky & Halle (1968) or of underspecification theories, are sometimes considered too abstract to
accurately reflect the communicative competence of native speakers. Followers of these arguments believe the less abstract surface forms are more
"psychologically real" and thus more useful in terms of pedagogy.[6]

Diacritics[edit]
Main article: English terms with diacritical marks
See also: British and American keyboards and keyboard layouts
English has some words that can be written with accent marks. These words have mostly been imported from other languages, usually French.[citation
needed]
As imported words become increasingly naturalised, there is an increasing tendency to omit the accent marks, even in formal writing. For
example, words such as rle and htel were first seen with accents when they were borrowed into English, but now the accent is almost never used.
The words were originally considered foreign and some people considered that English alternatives were preferable but today their foreign origin is
largely forgotten. Words most likely to retain the accent are those atypical of English morphology and therefore still perceived as slightly foreign. For
example, caf and pt both have a pronounced final e, which would otherwise be silent under the normal English pronunciation rules.
However caf is now sometimes facetiously pronounced "caff", while in pt, the acute accent is helpful to distinguish it from pate.
Further examples of words sometimes retaining diacritics when used in English are: ngstrm (partly because the scientific symbol for this unit of
measurement is ""), appliqu,attach, blas, bric--brac, Brtchen,[7] clich, crme, crpe, faade, fianc(e), flamb, nave, navet, n(e), papiermch, pass, piata, protg, rsum, risqu, ber-, voil.Italics, with appropriate accents, are generally applied to foreign terms that are
uncommonly used in or have not been assimilated into English: for example, adis, crme brle,pice de rsistance, raison d'tre, ber, vis--vis,
and belles-lettres.
It was formerly common in American English to use a diaeresis mark to indicate a hiatus: for example, coperate, das, relect. The New
Yorker and Technology Reviewmagazines still use it for this purpose, even though it is increasingly rare in modern English. Nowadays the diaeresis is
normally left out (cooperate), or a hyphen is used (co-operate). It is, however, still common in loanwords such as nave and Nol.
Written accents are also used occasionally in poetry and scripts for dramatic performances to indicate that a certain normally unstressed syllable in a
word should be stressed for dramatic effect, or to keep with the metre of the poetry. This use is frequently seen in archaic and pseudoarchaic writings
with the -ed suffix, to indicate that the e should be fully pronounced, as with cursd.

Ligatures[edit]
See also: American and British English spelling differences ae and oe
In certain older texts (typically British), the use of the ligatures and is common in words such as archology, diarrha, and encyclopdia. Such
words have Latin or Greekorigin. Nowadays, the ligatures have been generally replaced in British English by the
separated digraph ae and oe (encyclopaedia, diarrhoea); but usually economy, ecology,and in American English by e (encyclopedia, diarrhea; but
usually paean, amoeba, oedipal, Caesar). In some cases, usage may vary; for instance, both encyclopedia andencyclopaedia are current in the UK.

Phonic irregularities[edit]
See also: English spelling reform
Partly because English has never had any formal regulating authority for spelling, such as the Spanish Real Academia Espaola or the
French Acadmie franaise, English spelling, compared to many other languages, is quite irregular and complex. Although French, among other
languages, presents a similar degree of difficulty when encoding(writing), English is more difficult when decoding (reading), as there are clearly many
more possible pronunciations of a group of letters. For example, in French the [u] sound (as in "food"), can be spelled ou, ous, out, or oux (ou, nous,
tout, choux), but the pronunciation of each of those sequences is always the same. In English, the /u/ sound can be spelled in up to 18 different ways
(see the Sound-to-spelling correspondences section below), including oo, u, ui, ue, o, oe, ou, ough, and ew (food, truth, fruit, blues, to, shoe, group,
through, grew), but all of these have other pronunciations as well (e.g. as in flood, trust, build, bluest, go, hoe, grout, rough, sew). The Spelling-tosound correspondencessection below presents a summary of pronunciation variations. Thus, in unfamiliar words and proper nouns the pronunciation
of some sequences, ough being the prime example, is unpredictable to even educated native English speakers.

Spelling irregularities[edit]
Attempts to regularize or reform the spelling of English have usually met with failure. However, Noah Webster popularized more phonetic spellings in
the United States; such asflavor for British flavour, fiber for fibre, defense for defence, analyze for analyse, catalog for catalogue and so forth. These
spellings already existed as alternatives, but Websters dictionaries helped make them standard in the US.[8] See American and British English spelling
differences for details.
Besides the quirks the English spelling system has inherited from its past, there are other idiosyncrasies in spelling that make it tricky to learn. English
contains, depending ondialect, 2427 separate consonant phonemes and 1420 vowels. However, there are only 26 letters in the modern English
alphabet, so there cannot be a one-to-one correspondence between letters and sounds. Many sounds are spelled using different letters or multiple
letters, and for those words whose pronunciation is predictable from the spelling, the sounds denoted by the letters depend on the surrounding letters.
For example, the digraph th represents two different sounds (the voiced dental fricative and thevoiceless dental fricative) (see Pronunciation of
English th), and the voiceless alveolar sibilant can be represented by the letters s and c.
It is, however, not the shortage of letters which makes English spelling irregular. Its irregularities are caused mainly by the use of many different
spellings for some of its sounds, such as the sounds /u/, /i/ and /o/ (too, true, shoe, flew, through; sleeve, leave, even, seize, siege; stole, coal,
bowl, roll, old, mould), and the use of identical sequences for spelling different sounds (over, oven, move).
Furthermore, English no longer makes any attempt to anglicise the spellings of loanwords, but preserves the foreign spellings, even when they employ
exotic conventions like thePolish cz in Czech (rather than *Check) or the Norwegian fj in fjord (although fiord was formerly the most common spelling).
In early Middle English, until roughly 1400, most imports from French were respelt according to English rules (e.g. bataille - battle, bouton - button, but
not double, trouble). Instead of loans being respelled to conform to English spelling standards, sometimes the pronunciation changes as a result of
pressure from the spelling. One example of this is the word ski, which was adopted from Norwegian in the mid-18th century, although it did not become
common until 1900. It used to be pronounced /i/, which is similar to the Norwegian pronunciation, but the increasing popularity of the sport after the
middle of the 20th century helped the /ski/ pronunciation replace it.[citation needed]
There was also a period when the spelling of a small number of words was altered in what is now regarded as a misguided attempt to make them
conform to what were perceived to be the etymological origins of the words. For example, the letter b was added to debt (originally dette) in an attempt
to link it to the Latin debitum, and the letter s in island is a misplaced attempt to link it to Latin insula instead of the Old English word land, which is
the true origin of the English word. The letter p in ptarmigan has no etymological justification whatsoever, only seeking to invoke Greek despite being a
Gaelic word.
The spelling of English continues to evolve. Many loanwords come from languages where the pronunciation of vowels corresponds to the way they
were pronounced in Old English, which is similar to the Italian or Spanish pronunciation of the vowels, and is the value the vowel symbols [a], [e], [i],
[o], and [u] have in the International Phonetic Alphabet. As a result, there is a somewhat regular system of pronouncing "foreign" words in English,[citation
needed]
and some borrowed words have had their spelling changed to conform to this system. For example, Hindu used to be spelled Hindoo, and the
name Maria used to be pronounced like the name Mariah, but was changed to conform to this system.
Commercial advertisers have also had an effect on English spelling. They introduced new or simplified spellings like lite instead of light, thru instead
of through, smokey instead ofsmoky (for "smokey bacon" flavour crisps), and rucsac instead of rucksack. The spellings of personal names have also
been a source of spelling innovations: diminutive versions of women's names that sound the same as men's names have been spelled
differently: Nikki and Nicky, Toni and Tony, Jo and Joe.
As examples of the idiosyncratic nature of English spelling, the combination ou can be pronounced in at least four different
ways: // in famous, /a/ in loud, // in should, /u/ inyou; and the vowel sound /i/ in me can be spelt in at least nine different
ways: paediatric, me, seat, seem, ceiling, people, machine, siege, phoenix. (These examples assume a more-or-less standard non-regional British
English accent. Other accents will vary.)
Sometimes everyday speakers of English change a counterintuitive pronunciation simply because it is counterintuitive. Changes like this are not
usually seen as "standard", but can become standard if used enough. An example is the word miniscule, which still competes with its original spelling
of minuscule, though this might also be because of analogy with the word mini.[citation needed] A further example is the modern pronunciation of tissue.[specify]

History[edit]
Inconsistencies and irregularities in English pronunciation and spelling have gradually increased in number throughout the history of the English
language. There are a number of contributing factors. First, gradual changes in pronunciation, such as the Great Vowel Shift, account for a
tremendous number of irregularities. Second, relatively recent loan words from other languages generally carry their original spellings, which are often
not phonetic in English. The Romanization of languages (e.g., Chinese) using alphabets derived from the Latin alphabet has further complicated this
problem, for example when pronouncing Chinese proper names (of people or places).
The regular spelling system of Old English was swept away by the Norman Conquest, and English itself was supplanted in some spheres by Norman
French for three centuries, eventually emerging with its spelling much influenced by French. English had also borrowed large numbers of words from
French, which naturally kept their French spellings as there was no reason or mechanism to change them. The spelling of Middle English, such as in
the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer, is very irregular and inconsistent, with the same word being spelled in different ways, sometimes even in the same
sentence. However, these were generally much better guides to the then pronunciation than modern English spelling is.
For example, the sound //, normally written u, is spelled with an o in son, love, come, etc., due to Norman spelling conventions which prohibited
writing u before v, m, n due to the graphical confusion that would result. (v, u, n were identically written with two minims in Norman handwriting; w was
written as two u letters; m was written with three minims, hence mm looked like vun, nvu, uvu, etc.) Similarly, spelling conventions also prohibited
final v. Hence the identical spellings of the three different vowel sounds in love, grove andprove are due to ambiguity in the Middle English spelling
system, not sound change.
There was also a series of linguistic sound changes towards the end of this period, including the Great Vowel Shift, which resulted in the i in mine, for
example, changing from a pure vowel to a diphthong. These changes for the most part did not detract from the rule-governed nature of the spelling
system; but in some cases they introduced confusing inconsistencies, like the well-known example of the many pronunciations
of ough (rough, through, though, trough, plough, etc.). Most of these changes happened before the arrival of printing in England. However, the arrival
of the printing press froze the current system, rather than providing the impetus for a realignment of spelling with pronunciation. Furthermore, it
introduced further inconsistencies, partly because of the use of typesetters trained abroad, particularly in the Low Countries. For example,

the h in ghost was influenced by Dutch.[9] The addition and deletion of a silent e at the ends of words was also sometimes used to make the right-hand
margin line up more neatly.[9]
By the time dictionaries were introduced in the mid 17th century, the spelling system of English had started to stabilise. By the 19th century, most
words had set spellings, though it took some time before they diffused throughout the English-speaking world. In The Mill on the Floss (1860), English
novelist George Eliot satirized the attitude of the English rural gentry of the 1820s towards orthography:
Mr. Tulliver did not willingly write a letter, and found the relation between spoken and written language, briefly known as spelling, one of the most
puzzling things in this puzzling world. Nevertheless, like all fervid writing, the task was done in less time than usual, and if the spelling differed from
Mrs. Glegg's,why, she belonged, like himself, to a generation with whom spelling was a matter of private judgment.
The modern English spelling system, with its national variants, spread together with the expansion of public education later in the 19th century.

"Ough" words[edit]
Main article: Ough (combination)
The most notorious group of letters in the English language, ough, is commonly pronounced in at least ten different ways, six of which are
illustrated in the construct, Though the tough cough and hiccough plough him through, which is quoted by Robert A. Heinlein in The Door into
Summer to illustrate the difficulties facing automated speech transcription and reading. Ough[pronunciation?] is in fact a word in its own right; it is an
exclamation of disgust similar to ugh.

though: /o/ as in toe (other examples: dough)

tough: /f/ as in cuff (other examples: rough, enough, and the name (but not the word) Hough)
cough: /f/ as in off (other examples: trough, Gough (name, some pronunciations))
hiccough (a now uncommon variant of hiccup): /p/ as in up (unique)
plough: /a/ as in cow (other examples: sough, drought, bough, doughty, and the names Slough and Doughty)
through: /u/ as in blue
nought: // as in caught (other examples: ought, sought, thought, brought)
lough: /x/ with a velar fricative like the ch in loch
borough: // (other examples: thorough, names ending in -borough)
hough: /k/ (more commonly spelt "hock" now)

The place name Loughborough uses two different pronunciations of ough: the first ough has the sound as in cuff and the second rhymes
with thorough.

Spelling patterns[edit]
See also: Help:IPA for English

Spelling-to-sound correspondences[edit]
Vowels[edit]
In a generative approach to English spelling, Rollings (2004) identifies twenty main orthographic vowels of stressed syllables that are grouped into
four main categories: "Lax", "Tense", "Heavy", "Tense-R". (As this classification is based on orthography, not all orthographic "lax" vowels are
necessarily phonologically lax.)
General American

Received Pronunciation (British)

Letter

Lax

Tense Heavy Tense-R

Letter

Lax

Tense Heavy Tense-R

//
man

/e/
mane

/r/
mar

/r/
mare

//
man

/e/
mane

//
mar

/r/
mare

//
met

/i/
mete

/r/
her

/r/
here

//
met

/i/
mete

/r/
her

/r/
here

//
win

/a/
wine

/r/
fir

/ar/
fire

//
win

/a/
wine

/r/
fir

/ar/
fire

//
mop

/o/
mope

//
mop

/o/
mope

//
hug

/ju/
huge

/r/
cur

/jr/
cure

//
hug

/ju/
huge

/r/
cur

/jr/
cure

//
push

/u/
rude

/r/
sur

/r/
sure

//
push

/u/
rude

/r/
sur

/r/
sure

/r/
for, fore

//
for, fore

For instance, the letter a can represent the lax vowel //, tense /e/, heavy //, or (often allophonically) [] before |r|. Heavy and tense-r vowels
are the respective lax and tense counterparts followed by the letter r.
Tense vowels are distinguished from lax vowels with a "silent" e letter that is added at the end of words. Thus, the letter a in hat is lax //, but
when the letter e is added in the word hate the letter a is tense /e/. Similarly, heavy and tense-r vowels pattern together: the letters ar in car are
heavy /r/, the letters ar followed by silent e in the word care are /r/. The letter u represents two different vowel patterns, one being //, /ju/, //,
/j/, the other //, /u/, //. There is no distinction between heavy and tense-r vowels with the lettero, and the letter u in the /-u-/ pattern does not
have a heavy vowel member.
Besides silent e, another strategy for indicating tense and tense-r vowels, is the addition of another orthographic vowel forming a digraph. In this
case, the first vowel is usually the main vowel while the second vowel is the "marking" vowel. For example, the word man has a
lax a pronounced //, but with the addition of i (as the digraph ai) in the word mainthe a is marked as tense and pronounced /e/. These two
strategies produce words that are spelled differently but pronounced identically, as in mane (silent e strategy), main(digraph strategy)
and Maine (both strategies). The use of two different strategies relates to the function of distinguishing between words that would otherwise be
homonyms.

Besides the 20 basic vowel spellings, Rollings (2004) has a reduced vowel category (representing the sounds /, /) and a miscellaneous category
(representing the sounds /, a, a, a/ and /j/+V, /w/+V, V+V).
Combinations of vowel letters[edit]
To reduce dialectal difficulties, the sound values given here correspond to the conventions at Wikipedia:IPA for English. This table includes H, W
and Y when they represent vowel sounds. If no information is given, it is assumed that the vowel is in a stressed syllable.
Deriving the pronunciation of an English word from its spelling requires not only a careful knowledge of the rules given below (many of which are
not explicitly known even by native speakers: speakers merely learn the spelling of a word along with its pronunciation) and their many exceptions,
but also:

a knowledge of which syllables are stressed and which are unstressed (not derivable from the spelling: compare hallow and allow)
which combinations of vowels represent monosyllables and which represent disyllables (ditto: compare waif and naif, creature and creator)

Spelling

before multiple
consonants
final vowel in word
followed by 2 or
more
unstressed syllables
next syllable
contains //
before final -nge, -ste
before single
consonant
before cons + (-le or
r+vowel)
before heterosyllabic
vowel

Major
value
(IPA)

//

Examples of major
value

hatchet, banner, tally

acrobat, cat
national, camera, reality
acid, granite, palace
.

Minor
values

/e/

//

/e/

//
range, exchange, haste
gave, opaque, savor, status
table, hatred, April
//
chaos, aorta, mosaic
.

before final r or r + cons.

(and in derived terms)

//

bar, cart
barred, marring

before r + vowel

/()/

area, care, garish, wariness

word-final (stressed)

//

bra, cha-cha, schwa, spa

after /w/ except

before /k/, //, //

// (//)*

want, watch, quality,

squash
swamp, wapiti, swastika,
wallet

after /w/ before final r or

r + cons.
(and in derived terms)

//

war, award, dwarf,

warning,
quarter, warring

Examples of minor
value

Exceptions
[clarification needed]

ache, ancient, chamber,

pastry
bass
nationhood, scathingly
basis, aphasic
father (RP: aft, ask, dance,
past)

// yacht
// advocate (n), hurricane (RP)

flange, caste (GA)

have, plaque, manor,
statue
macle, sacrifice, theatrical
debacle, melange
gala, lava, slalom, sonata

// many, any
/a/ naive

// scarce

//
//

arid, parish, mariners,

caraway
aria, are, safaris, faraway

// (//)*
//
/()/
/e/

wash, wasp, quarantine

water, wall, walnut, waltz
// qualm, suave, swami
aware, square, wary,
// swam, aquatic (RP)
// was, what (GA)
antiquarian
persuade, wastage, swathe

// quarantine (GA)
// waratah

// jaguar (GA), quark

// warrior (RP)
artistically, ordinary,
necessary
chocolate, purchase,
solace,
probate, folate, kinase

/i/ karaoke, bologna

// retard (n), canard (RP)

/e/ teenage

unstressed

//

about, an, salary, woman,

blancmange, opera, via

// to
//
/e/

unstressed, in -age

//

damage, forage, garbage

//

(RP):

//

baa, aardvark, blah

//

Aaron

/e/ Quaalude

usually

/i/

encyclopaedia,
paediatrician

//

aesthetic

/e/ reggae, sundae, gaelic

/a/ maestro
// Michael, polkaed

before r

//

aerial, aeroplane

//

chimaera

// anaerobe

stressed

/e/

daisy, laid, paisley, regain,

waif

/a/
//
/e /

aisle, bonsai, daimon, krait

said, again, against
dais, laic, mosaic, papain

// plaid, plaited, daiqiri

/ai/ naif, caique
/i / archaism

before r

//

cairn, millionaire, dairy

unstressed

//

bargain, mountain

//

certain, coxswain, spritsail

gaol
kaon, chaos
aorist, kaolin
extraordinary

aa, ah

ae

garage, barrage

ai
/a/ hetaira, zaire

ao

/a/

cacao, miaow, Taoism

/e/
/e/
/e/
//

au

//

aura, cause, chauffer,

slaughter

because, laurel, sausage

//
aunt, draught, laughter
// (//)**
degauss, graupel,

/o/ pharaoh
/e/ aorta
/eo/ baobab
/o/ karaoke
/e/ gauge
/a/ gaur

Major
value
(IPA)

Spelling

Examples of major
value

Minor
values

/a/
/o/
aw

//

awed, flaw, hawk, tawny

ay

/e/

bayonet, essays, grayer,

hayride

/i/

receding, detail, gene

metre, secret
be, she
simile, catastrophe
neon

before single
consonant
before cons + (-le or
r+vowel)
final, only vowel in
word
final, Greek loans
before heterosyllabic
vowel
before multiple
consonants
final vowel in word
bef. 2+ unstressed
syllables
next syllable
contains //

before final r or r + cons.

(and in derived terms)

trauma (GA)
chauffeur, gauche, mauve

Exceptions
[clarification needed]

// because (GA)
// aurora, meerschaum
// awry

/a/
//

/e/
//

aye, bayou, kayak, papaya

mayor, prayer, says

/i/ cay, quay, parlay

/j/ gayal

ukulele, cafe, crepe,

seance
ever, lemon, metal, venom
treble, discretion
vineyard, awesome

//

better, fetch, merry

get, watershed
legacy, elegant, delicate
crevice, epicness

/i/

egret, lethal, reflex

feces, axes (plural of axis)
legally, devious
evil, scenic, strategic

//

herd, kerb, referral

//

clerk, sergeant
compere, there, werewolf
derelict, heresy, perish,
very
derail, reremind

// pretty

before r + vowel

//

here, series, reremice,

stereo

//
//
/i/

word-final

mate, discipline, starve,

plague

/i/

recipe

unstressed

//

hatchet, target, poet

//

taken, decency, moment

usd, before heterosyllabic

vowel

/i/

create, area, atheism,

video

/e/

sceance, fideism, rodeo

/e/
//
//
/i/
/ie/

break, eagre, great, yea

hydrangea, likeable, ocean
idea, ideal, real, realty
urea, cereal, fealty,
laureate
creating, protease, reagent

// orgeat, // poleax
// ealderman
// mileage, /i/ lineage
// yeah, /e/ seance
/i/ beatify, caveat, reality

// were, weregild

// erase, erect
/e/ cafe

usually

/i/
//

dreams, read, cleans, leaf,

zeal
dreamt, read, cleanse,
deaf, zealot

before r + cons.

//

pearly, hearse,
yearning, earth

//

hearken, hearty, hearth

// beard, peart
/e/ bearnaise, /i'/ rearm

before final r or r + vowel

(and in derived terms)

//

dearly, hears, yearling,

tear

//
/i/

tear, bears, wearing

linear, nuclear, stearin

// heard
/i/ tearoom

/o/

bureau, plateau, tableau

/ju/

beauty

// bureaucracy
// bureaucrat

matinee, fiancees, nee

bungee, coffee

// breeches, been (GA)

/i/ freest, weest
/i/ reecho, /i/ reelect

ea

eau

usually

/i/

bee, breech, feed, trainee

/e/
/i/

before r

//

cheering, beer, eerie

/i/

freer, seers

/i/
/a/
/i/

caffeine, seize, key, geyser

either, height, heist,
heinie, eye
albeit, being, cysteine,
deist

ee

ei, ey

Examples of minor
value

// heifer, leisure, seigneur

// reveille, serein
/e / fideist, /ia/ deice

usually

/e/

veil, weight, heinous, obey

after c

/i/

deceive, ceiling, conceit

before r

//

heir, madeira, their

//

weird, weir, eyrie

/a/ oneiric, eirenic

unstressed

//

foreign, counterfeit, forfeit

//
/i/

mullein, villein
volleyed

// ageist, herein, ogreish

/a/ walleyed

// ceinture, enceinte
/e/ glaceing /i/ haecceity

Spelling

unstressed, word-final

eo

usually bisyllabic

usually

eu(e),
after /r/, //, //, /j/, cons.
ew(e),
+ /l/
ieu,
iew
before r

unstressed before r

before single
consonant
before cons + (-le or
r+vowel)
before -nd, -ld, -gh, gn
word-final
before heterosyllabic
vowel
before multiple
consonants
final vowel in word
bef. 2+ unstressed
syllables
next syllable
contains //
before cons. + e/i +
vowel

Major
value
(IPA)

Examples of major
value

/i/
/io/
/i/

eon, geology, reoffer,

teleost
creole, geode, leonine,
video
galleon, leotard, peon,
theory

//
/i/
//

feoffee, jeopardy, leopard

feoff, people
luncheon, pigeon,
embraceor

/o/ yeoman, // ceorl

/ju/ feodary, /ui/ geoduck
/eo/ rodeo, teosinte

/ju/

deuce, feudal, queue,

dew, ewe, view

//
/u/
/i/

berceuse, danseuse
leukemia, lewd, lieu (sic)
museum, pileus

/o/ sew, shew

/f/ lieutenant (RP), /j/ milieu
/iu/ reuse, /i/ reutters
// pileup, fauteuil

/u/

rheumatism, sleuth, jewel,

blew

/i/

nucleus

/j/

euro, liqueur, neural

//

masseur, voyeur

/ju()/

eurhythmic, neurotic

/j/
//

aneurism, derailleur,
grandeur
amateur, chauffeur

/a/

cited, dive, mica, rise,

polite, shine
idle, trifle, nitrous, mitres
sighed, signage, wilder,
remind
alumni, alibi, radii
vial, quiet, prior, pious

//

dissent, mislaid, slither

kiss, sic, bit, inflict, hint,
plinth
litany, liberal, chivalry,
misery
finish, spirit, minute
hideous, position, Sirius

//

bird, fir, stirrer

before r + vowel

/a/

hire, firing, enquiry

unstressed

//

livid, typical

usd, before heterosyllabic

vowel

/i/

familiar, alien, radii, idiot

finally

/a/

/e/ survey (n)

//

/a/

belie, die, untie, vie

/i/

goalie, oldie, auntie, movie

/e/ lingerie (GA), /ie/ kyrie

allied, pied, skies

client, diet, science, sliest
ambient, alien, oriel,
ugliest
orient (v), acquiesce

// sieve, mischief, kerchief

// friend, hygienic (GA)
/a/ biennial, /i/ clientele
/ii/ medieval, /i/ lien

shier, fiery, hierarchy, plier

busier, rapier, glacier,
hosiery

/i()/ concierge, premiere

/ie/ atelier, bustier, dossier
/i/ skier

won, monkey, front

gross, comb, wonted, both
brokenly, probity, tonicity
meiosis, aerobic
tomb, womb

// wolf
/w/ once
// (GA) long, broth

moral, proper, shone

to, who, move, bosom,
doable
come, love, done, colander
purpose, Europe

// woman
// women
/w/ one
colonel, sophomore (some

//

cashier, fierce, frontier,

pier,

/a()/
/i/ to /j/

// or //

doctor, torrent, donkey

dot, bomb, wonk
opera, colonise, cooperate
topic, solid, promise

/o/

business

before r

before single
consonant
before cons + (-le or
r+vowel)
word-final

// meringue /i/ artiste,

chenille
/i/ skis, chic, ambergris

pencil, cousin

field, siege, rabies, skied

/i/ police, elite, machine

/i/ litres, in vitro
/i/ chignon, Monsignor
/i/ ski
/i/ clientele, lien, skiing

//

/i/

dissect, island, blithely

indict, pint, ninth
irony, libelous, rivalry,
miserly
whitish, writing
shinier, tidied

// pleurisy, /i/ theurgy

// menhir

medially

city, give, vicar, risen

triple, citrus, giblets
pighead, signal, bewilder,
rescind
.

/a/
/a/
/i/ to /j/
/i/

before multiple
consonants
final vowel in word
followed by 2 or
more
unstressed syllables
next syllable
contains //

Exceptions
[clarification needed]

monkey, curtsey, jersey

before final r or r + cons.

(and in derived terms)

Examples of minor
value

/i/

ie

Minor
values

omen, grove, total

noble, cobra
banjo, go
boa, poet, stoic
cooperate

//
/o/

/u/

//
/u/
//
//

dialects)

Spelling

Major
value
(IPA)

Examples of major
value

//

ford, boring, more

//

forest, borrow, moral

// whorl
// borough

after w, before r

//

word, work, worst

//

worn, sword, swore

// worry

unstressed

//

eloquent, wanton, author

usually

/o/

boat, coal, load, coaxing

before r

//

boar, coarse, keyboard,

soaring

/i/

amoeba, coelacanth,
foetal, phoenix

/o/
/u/
/o/

doeskin, woeful
shoelace, canoeing
poetic, soever, orthoepic

// foetid, roentgen
/oi/ coeval, noesis
/o/ coerce
/o/ poetry, orthoepy

shoes, canoe
coed, noel, phloem
goer, loess, poem

// does
/u/ doeth, doer
// foehn
/oi/ diploe, kalanchoe
/u/ hoopoe

/o/
/o/
/oe/

boa, inchoate
coaxial, ogdoad
oasis, cloaca

// broad
/u/ doable
/o/ koala
// cupboard, starboard
/o/ coarctate

final vowels

/o/

foe, goes, toed, woe

unstressed

//

oedema, oesophagus

/o/

aloe, echoed, oboes,

soloed

/u/

manoeuvre

//

oeuvre
going, egoist, heroin, stoic
bourgeois, coiffeur, patois
connoisseur, porpoise,
tortoise

/u/ doing
/i/ chamois
/oa/ ghettoise, oroide

oeu

usually

//

boing, moist, coin, envoi

/o/
/w/
//

before r

/w/

reservoir, memoir, moire,

soiree

//

coir, loir, Moira

/wa/ choir
// avoirdupois

usually

/u/

cool, sooth, boot,

goosebumps

//

wool, soot, foot,

gooseberry

/o/ brooch
/o / coopt, zoology

before k, d

//

cook, shook, wood, stood

/u/

kook, spook, food, brood

// flood, blood

before r

//

door, flooring

//

poor, moor, roorback

// whippoorwill
/o / coordinate

out, aloud, bough

/u/
//
/o/

soup, you, through

touch, trouble, country
soul, dough, boulder

// could, should
// cough, fount (printing)
/ju/ ampoule, coupon (GA)

hour, flour, scours

journey, courtesy, scourge // encourage, flourish
tour, courier, gourd, velour

oi

stressed

/a/

stressed before r

//

four, courtesan, discourse

/a/
//
/()/

unstressed

//

camouflage, labour,
nervous

/u/
//

entourage, bivouac,
bedouin
potpourri, detour

// hiccough
/w/ ratatouille, ouabaine

stressed

/a/

owl, bow, row, sow, allow

/o/

own, bow, row, sow, alow

// acknowledge, rowlock

before r

/a/

dowry, cowries

/o/

cowrites, showroom

unstressed

/o/

yellow, teabowl,
landowner

/a/

peafowl, sundowner

/w/ cassowary, toward (RP)

//

boy, doyenne, foyer,

voyage

/wa/

voyeur, noyade

/oj/ oyez
/a/ coyote (GA)

before multiple
consonants
final vowel in word

//

budding, cuckold,
mullet, usher
but, gull, Dutch, hush, fuss

//

pudding, cuckoo, bullet,

/u/ truth, ruthless, brut
cushion
/ju/ butte, debut, fuchsia, tulle
put, full, butch, shush, puss

before single
consonant

/ju/

mute, student,
puny, union, fuses
bugle, hubris, nutrient (RP)

oy

// neuron

/u/
/o/
/o/

oe

ow

Exceptions
[clarification needed]

before r

usually

ou

Examples of minor
value

before heterosyllabic
vowel
(inc. unstressed)

oa

oo

Minor
values

//
/u/

study, punish, bunion,

buses
butler, cutlery, subrogate

// busy, business

Major
value
(IPA)

Spelling

before cons + (-le or

r+vowel)
before heterosyllabic
vowel
word-final

Examples of major
value

duo, nuance, pursuant,

ensuing
menu, emu,
impromptu (RP)

Minor
values

Exceptions
[clarification needed]

super, lunar, absolute,

revolution
suet, lucrative, lugubrious
hindu, tutu, tofu

/u/

rule, chute, June, recluses

scruples, rubric
truant, fluent, cruelty
flu, guru

//

pluses, runaway, truculent

runlet, clubroom,
rumrunner

// sugar
/ju/ overuse, underused

before final r or r + cons.

(and in derived terms)

//

turn, occur, curdle, burr

furry, demurral, blurred,
recurring

//

recurrent, occurrence

/()/ langur

before r + vowel

/j()/

lure, purity, curing

/()/

allure, guru, Silurian

// bury, burial

above after /r/,//,//,/j/,

cons.+/l/

/()/

rural, jury, plural

//

sure, assurance [10]

after g, before a vowel

guard, guest, guide,

vaguer, languor

/w/

language, segue,
distinguish

after q

/w/

quail, conquest, banquet,

quite

quay, conquer, bouquet,

mosquito

//

support, industry, useful,

medium

/ju/
/u/
/j/
//

annual, evaluate, arduous,

debut
influence, plurality, fruition
// minute, lettuce
accurate, failure, tenure
guffaw, unruly, upend,
vulgarity

after g

league, tongue, vaguely,

intrigued

/ju/
//
//

ague, argued
guest, guessed, baguette
guerrilla, beleaguered

/we/ segued, /w/ guenon

/w/ unguent, /wi/ ungues
/ju/ arguer, /e/ merengue
/i/ dengue, Portuguese

after r or cons. + l

/u/

true, clue, gruesome, blues /u/

influence, cruel, fluent,

bluest

/u/ cruet, /u/ unfluential

fuel, constituent, rescuer

innuendo, statuesque,
minuet
Sue, snafued (GA: due,
revenue)
GA: duel, pursuer

/u/ suet, /u/ muezzin

/jui/ tenues, /jue/ habitue
/j/ puerile, // muenster
/we/ suede, Venezuelan
/w/ pueblo, /w/ desuetude

guide, guise, beguile

guild, guitar, intriguing,
roguish

/i/ beguine, /wi/ linguine

/ju/ arguing, aguish
/ju/ contiguity, /ui/ GUI

above after /r/,//,//,/j/,

cons.+/l/

unstressed

ue

ui

Examples of minor
value

/ju/ jaguar (RP), ambiguity

elsewhere (except after q) /ju/

virtue, cue, valued, hue,

muesli

/ju/
/ju/
/u/
/u/

after g

/w/

anguish, penguin, linguist,

sanguine

/a/
//

after j, r, or cons. + l

/u/

juice, cruise, sluice, fruiting /u/

fruition, fluid, ruin, druid,

truism

/u/ incongruity, /uj/ alleluia

// Cruickshank

conduit, cuing, genuine,

Buick, circuitous, Jesuit
build, circuit, biscuit,
pursuivant

/u/
/ju/
/ju/
/u/

suit, suitable, nuisance (GA)

intuitive (RP), promiscuity
nuisance (RP), puisne
suicide, tui, Inuit, Hinduism

/a/ duiker, // circuitry

/w/ cuisine, suint
/wi/ suite, ennui, tuille
/ua/ sui generis

/ju/
elsewhere (except after q)
//

uu

/ju/

continuum, residuum

/u/

menstruum

/u/ duumvir
/ju/ vacuum
/u/ muumuu

uy

/a/

buy, buyout, guyed

/i/
/wi/

guyot, cliquy, plaguy

tuyere, obsequy, soliloquy

/j/ toluyl
/uj/ thuya, gruyere

//

myth, cryptic, system,

symbol
cylinder, typical, pyramid,
dynasty
cynic, lyric, lytic, syringe

/a/

cyclone, hyphen, psyche,

python
hydrogen, dynasty (GA)
cyclist, hybrid, psychic,
typist

/a/

typing, style, paralyze,

nylon
cycle, cypress, hydrate,

//

byzantine, synod,
synagogue,
Cypriote, sycophantic
.

before multiple
consonants
bef. 2+ unstressed
syllables
next syllable
contains //
before single
consonant
before cons + (-le or
r+vowel)
word-final, stressed

Spelling

Major
value
(IPA)

Examples of major
value

Minor
values

Examples of minor
value

Exceptions
[clarification needed]

lycra
awry, by, deny, sky, supply
before final r or r + cons.
(and in derived terms)

//

myrtle, myrrh

before r + vowel

/a/

lyre, tyrant, gyrate

//

syrup, Pyrenees

unstressed

//

bicycle, oxygen, polymer,

dyslexia, physique,
synonymous

//
/a/
/i/

sibyl, martyr, pyjamas

dynamics, hypothesis,
typhoon
anyway, everything

unstressed, word-final

/i/

any, city, happy, only,

supply (adv)

// pyrrhic

/a/ ally (n)

In many if not most North American accents /r/ and /r/ are merged into the latter pronunciation.
* The LOT and CLOTH lexical sets, pronounced with // or //, respectively in GA, but merged in // in RP.
** Pronounced // in GA.
Consonants[edit]
See also: Digraph (orthography)
Notes:

In the tables, the hyphen has two different meanings. A hyphen after the letter indicates that it must be at the beginning of a syllable, e.g. j- in
jumper and ajar. A hyphen before the letter indicates that it cannot be at the beginning of a word, e.g. -ck in sick and ticket.
More specific rules take precedence over more general ones, e.g. "c- before e, i or y" takes precedence over "c".
Where the letter combination is described as "word-final", inflectional suffixes may be added without changing the pronunciation, e.g.
catalogues.
The dialect used is RP.
Isolated foreign borrowings are excluded.
Major
value
(IPA)

Spelling

Examples of major value

Other
values

Examples of other values

usually

/b/

bit, rabbit, obtain

bdellium, debtor, subtle, combe

finally after m
(and in derived terms)

iamb, climb, combover, numbing

/b/

iambic, nimb

before e, i, y, ae, or oe

/s/

cellar, city, cyst,

face, prince, nicer
caesium, coelacanth

/t/
//
/k/
/ts/

cello, vermicelli
special, liquorice
Celts, chicer, syncing
letovicite

initially before n, t

cnidarian, ctenoid

elsewhere

/k/

cat, cross

victual, indict

before e, i or y

/ks/

accept, eccentric, occidental

/k/
/t/
/s/

soccer, recce, siccing

bocce, breccia, cappuccino
flaccid

elsewhere

/k/

account, accrue, occur, yucca

ached, anchor, leprechaun

machete, pistachio, welch
chutzpah
sandwich, Greenwich
loch, Reich
yacht, Crichton

drachm

b, bb

cc

usually

/t/

chase, chin, attached, chore

/k/
//
/h/
/d/
/x/

Greek-derived words

/k/

chasm, chimera, chord, lichen

ch

Major
value
(IPA)

Spelling

Examples of major value

Examples of other values

/k/
/t/

chemist, choir, machination

chassis, cheque, chowder, niche (GA)

/d/

graduate, gradual (both also /dj/ in

RP)
Wednesday, handsome, sandwich

fine, off

/v/

of

/d/

gel, pager, gin, algae (GA)

gentle, rage, gigantic, regimen

//
//

get, eager, gig, algae (RP)

genre, barrage, gigue, regime

in gm or gn

phlegmy, diaphragm
gnome, signed, poignant, reign

//
//

pigmy, signet, indignant

judgment

elsewhere

//

go, great, guest, leg, margaric

/d/

margarine, gaol

//

dagger, smuggest, staggering

/d/
/gd/

agger, suggest, exaggerate

suggest (GA)[11]

//

ghost, ghastly, ghetto

burgh
lough, saugh
laughter, trough, draught, roughage
burgher, ogham, yogh
leghorn, pigheaded
hiccough

French-derived words

//

chaise, machine, cached, parachute

ck

/k/

tack, ticket

d, dd, dh

/d/

dive, ladder, jodhpurs

-dg- before e, i, or y

/d/

lodger, pidgin, edgy

f, -ff

/f/

before e, i, y, ae, or oe

Other
values

gg

initially

elsewhere

daughter, through, fraught, brougham

eight, higher, straight, sighed

// or /o/
/x/ or /k/
/f/
//
/h/
/p/

usually

/h/

honey, heist, house, manhandle

doohickey, vehicular

honest, heir, hours, piranha

annihilate, vehicle, dinghy

final or after r or ex

oh, rhubarb, rhyme, exhibit, exhaust

/h/

exhale, exhume (in RP)

/d/

jump, ajar

/j/
//
/h/

Hallelujah
bijou, jongleur, julienne
jalapeno, fajita
marijuana

usually

/k/

key, bake, trekking, sheikh

reknit, camiknicks

initially before n

knee, knife, knock

/k/

knish

/l/

line, valve, valley

/j/

halve, balk, salmon

tortilla

usually

/m/

mine, hammer

initially before n

mnemonic

gh

k, kk, kh

l, ll

m, mm

Major
value
(IPA)

Spelling

Examples of major value

Other
values

Examples of other values

usually

/n/

nice, funny, anchovis

damnable

//

anxiety
monsieur, condemner, damningly

before /k/ or //

//

inkling, bangle, anchor

/n/

incline, vanguard, mankind

finally after m

hymn, autumn, solemn

finally and in terms

derived from ng-final
words

//

long, kingly, singer, clingy

//
/nd/

longer, strongest
stingy (ungenerous)

medially otherwise

//
/nd/

congress, singly, finger, language

binging, wharfinger, dingy, engaol

/n/
//
/n/

congrats, engage, vanguard

hangar, lingonberry, tongue
ingenue, lingerie

usually

/p/

pill, happy, soup, corpse, script

corps, coup, raspberry, receipt

initially before n, s, t

pneumonia, psyche, ptomaine

/p/

psst

ph, pph

/f/

photograph, sapphire

/v/
/pf/

Stephen
camphor

q (not before u)

/k/

Iraq, Iqaluit

usually

/r/

ray, parrot, rhyme, diarrhoea

iron

in nonrhotic
dialects like
RP

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

myrrh

is, lens, raspberry

sugar, tension
vision, closure
islet, aisle, debris, mesne

n, nn

ng

p, pp

r, rr, rh,
rrh

before consonant
finally
before final e

See below for combinations of vowel letters and the letter r

usually

/s/

song, ask, misled

/z/
//
//

-s- between vowel sounds

(see also "se" below)

/z/

phrases, prison, pleasing

/s/

bases, bison, leasing

word-final -s morpheme
after a voiceless sound

/s/

pets, shops

word-final -s morpheme
after a lenis sound

/z/

beds, magazines

sc- before e, i or y

/s/

scene, scepter, scissors, scythe

/sk/
//
/z/

sceptic, scirrhus
fascism
crescent (RP)

sch-

/sk/

school, scheme, schizo

//
/s/

schedule (in RP,

otherwise: /sk/), schist
schism (in RP, otherwise: /sk/)
mishap, mishit
hogshead
tranship
threshold
tissue, aggression
dessert, dissolve, scissors
disseat, misspell, missort

sh

//

shin, fashion, wish,

Lewisham, foreshore, kinship

/s h/
/z h/
/s /
/ h/

ss

/s/

boss, assign,
dresser, dissent, aggressors,
finesse

//
/z/
/s s/

Major
value
(IPA)

Spelling

Examples of major value

Other
values

Examples of other values

/sw/

swore, swan, swift

/s/
/zw/

sword, answer
menswear
coxswain

usually

/t/

ten, bitter, etiology,

nastier, attune, piteous,
cation,
softer, wallet, gristmill,
haste, dishearten

//
/t/
//

/d/

ration, martial, cautious

bastion, nature, fortune, righteous
equation
soften, ballet, Christmas, mortgage
kindergarten (GA)

in -sten and -stle

hasten, listens, rustling, thistles

/t/

tungsten, listless

/t/

batch, kitchen
/t/
/t/
/th/
/t/

thyme
eighth
outhouse, potherb (RP)
posthumous (GA)
asthma

two, sword, answer, gunwale

cwm
Weltanschauung

sw

t, -tt

-tch

th

//
//

thin, both, north, absinthe

the, bother, smooth, soothe

v, -vv

/v/

vine, heavy, savvy, reveled, revved

/w/

sward, swerve, wale

/u/
/v/

usually

/w/ [12]

wheel

/f/

whew (RP)

before o

/h/ [12]

who, whole

/w/

whopping, whorl

/r/ [13]

wrong, wrist

/z/

xylophone, xenon, xenophobia

example, exist, exotic, exult

Alexander, auxiliary

/ks/
/z/
//, /k/

taxation, tuxedo, proximity,

exogenous
anxiety
luxurious

/ks/

boxes, exercise, expect,

jinxed, next, six, taxi

/gz/
//
/k/
/z/

existential, exultation, exit

luxury (GA)
anxious, luxury, sexual (GA)
plateaux, chateaux
faux-pas, roux

xc before e or i

/ks/

excellent, except, excited

xh

/gz/

exhaust, exhibit
exhilarating, exhortation

/ks/
/ksh/

exhibition, Vauxhall
exhale, exhume, foxhole

y-

/j/

yes, young

/z/

gazump, seized, crazier,

rhizophagous, pizzazz,
zoo, quiz

//
/ts/

azure, seizure, brazier (GA)

schizophrenic, pizzas
rendezvous

wh-

wrinitially

before stressed vowel

/z/

elsewhere

z, -zz

Nearly 80% of Americans pronounce "luxurious" with /g/, while two thirds of Brits use /k/. Half the American speakers pronounce "luxury"
as /lg ri/, the rest says /lk ri/[14]
About half of both British and American speakers say /kst/, the other half says /gzt/.[14]
Combinations of vowel letters and "r"[edit]
This section
requires expansion.(April 2014)

Spelling

ayer, ayor

Major value
Minor values
Examples of major value
Examples of minor value Exceptions
(IPA)
(IPA)

/e[][r]/

owr, ower /a[][r]/

layer, mayor

dowry, tower, flowery

Combinations of other consonant and vowel letters[edit]

Major
value
(IPA)

Spelling

Minor
values
(IPA)

Examples of major value

Examples of minor value

Exceptions

ah

//

blah

al

/l/

pal, talcum, algae, alp

/l/

bald, falcon (also: /l/)

alf

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

calf, half

/l/

alfalfa, malfeasance

/lf/ palfrey

alk

/k/

walk, chalking, talkative

/lk/

alkaline, grimalkin

/lk/ balkanise

all

/l/
/l/

call, fallout, smaller

shall, callus, fallow

/l/
/()l/

wallet, swallow
allow, dialled

/l/ (GA) marshmallow, pallmall

palmate, salmonella, talmud

almanac, almost , instalment

/m/ salmon, /m/ halm

/lm/ almond (GA)*
/lm/ signalment

alto, shalt, saltation

altar, asphalt

/lt/ gestalt (GA)

/lt/ royalty, penalty

alm

/m/

alms, balmy, calm, palmistry

/lm/
/lm/

alt

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

alter, malt, salty, basalt

/lt/
/lt/

final -ange

/end/

arrange, change, mange,

strange

/nd/

flange, phalange

/n / melange
/nd/ blancmange
/nd/ orange

final -aste

/est/

chaste, lambaste, paste, taste

/st/

cineaste, caste (GA), pleonaste

/st/ (out)caste (RP)

/ste/ namaste

unstressed ci- before a

vowel

//

special, gracious

/si/

species

-cqu

/kw/

acquaint, acquire

/k/

lacquer, racquet

final -ed after /t/ or /d/

/d/

loaded, waited

final -ed after

a voiceless sound

/t/

piped, enserfed, snaked

/d/

biped, underfed

final -ed after

a lenis sound

/d/

limbed, enisled, unfeared

/d/

imbed, misled, infrared

eh

/e/

eh, prehniet, tempeh

//

yeh

final -es after a fricative

/z/

mazes, washes, axes, bases,

pieces

/iz/

axes, bases, feces, oases

unstressed ex- before

vowel or h

/z/

exist, examine, exhaust

/ks/

exhale

gu- before a

/w/

bilingual, guano, language

//

guard, guarantee

final -le after non-l

consonant

/l/

little, table

/l/

orle, isle

final -(a)isle

/al/

aisle, isle, enisle, lisle

/d/ naked

// feh //, keffiyeh

/le/ boucle

final -ngue

//

tongue, harangue, meringue

/e/

merengue, distingu

/i/ dengue

oh, final or before a

consonant

/o/

oh, kohlrabi, ohm, pharaoh

//

demijohn, johnny

// bohrium
// matzoh

old

/old/

blindfold, older, bold

/ld/

scaffold, kobold (also /ld/

olk

/ok/

yolk, folklore

/lk/

polka (RP), kolkhoz

/olk/ polka (GA)

oll

/l/

dollhouse, pollen, trolley, holly

/ol/

tollhouse, swollen, troller, wholly

// atoll (GA), // cholla

/l/ caroller, collide

olm

/lm/

olm, dolmen

/olm/

enrolment, holmium

/om/ holm (oak)

ong

//
/g/

songstress, along, strong,

wronger
congress, jongleur, bongo,
conger

/nd/
//
/g/
//
/nd/

congeries, longevity, pongee

tonger, bong, dugong, tongs
longer, strongest, elongate
monger, humongous, mongrel
sponger, longe, spongy

// among, tongue
/ng/ ongoing, nongraded
/ng/ congratulate, lemongrass
/nd/ congeal, congestion
/n/ allonge /on/ cong (GA)

qu-

/kw/

queen, quick

/k/

liquor, mosquito

final -que

/k/

mosque, bisque

/ke/

manque, risqu

final -re after a

consonant

/r/

timbre, acre, ogre, centre

/re/, /ri/
/r/

cadre (GA), compadre, emigre

genre, oeuvre, fiacre

final -ron after a vowel

/rn/

neuron, moron, interferon,

aileron

/rn/

baron, heron, environ

/(r)n/ iron
/ron/ chaperon

/i/ conscientious (RP),

fasciated
/s/ (RP) omniscient, prescience

unstressed sci- before a

vowel

//

conscience, luscious, prosciutto /sai/

sciatica, sciamachy, sciential

-scle

/sl/

corpuscle, muscle

/skl/

mascle

final -se after a vowel

(noun)

/s/

house, excuse, moose, anise,

geese

/z/

prose, nose, tease, guise,

compromise

final -se after a vowel

(verb)

/z/

house, excuse, choose, arise,

please

/s/

grouse, dose, lease, chase,

promise

unstressed -si before a

vowel

//

vision, occasion, explosion,

illusion

//
/zi/

pension, controversial,
compulsion
easier, enthusiasm, physiological

unstressed -ssi before a

vowel

//

mission, passion, Russia,

session

/si/

potassium, dossier, messier

unstressed -sure

/r/

leisure, treasure

/r/

tonsure, censure

/t/
/ti/
/i/

question, Christian, suggestion

patios, consortia, fiftieth,
courtier
ratios, minutia, initiate,
negotiate

unstressed -ti before a

vowel

//

cautious, patient, inertia,

initial, ration

unstressed -ture

/tr/

nature, picture

/kju/ barbeque
/ki/ pulque

/si/ tarsier, Celsius

/ta/ cation, cationic

// equation
/tj/ rentier (GA)

* According to the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 75% of Americans pronounce "almond" as /lmnd/.
Where GA distinguishes between // and // in the letter combination ong, RP only has the vowel //

Sound-to-spelling correspondences[edit]
The following table shows for each sound the various spelling patterns used to denote it, starting with the prototypical pattern(s) followed by others
in alphabetical order. Some of these patterns are very rare or unique (such as "gh" for /p/, "ph" for /v/, "i" for //). The symbol "" stands for an
intervening consonant.
Consonants[edit]
In order of the IPA consonant tables
Consonants

IPA

Spelling

Examples

/m/

m, mm, chm, gm, lm, mb, mbe, me, mh, mme, mn

mine, hammer, drachm, phlegm, salmon, climb, combe, forme, mho, femme, autumn

/n/

n, nn, cn, dn, gn, gne, kn, ln, mn, mp, nd, ne, nh, nne,
pn, sne

nice, inn, cnidarian, Wednesday, gnome, coigne, knee, Lincoln, mnemonic, comptroller,
handsome, borne, piranha, tonne, pneumonia, mesne

//

ng, n, nc, ngh, ngue

sing, link, charabanc, dinghy (GA), tongue

/p/

p, pp, gh, pe, ppe

pill, apps, hiccough, thorpe, shoppe

/b/

b, bb, be, bh, pb

bit, ebb, barbe, bhang, cupboard

/t/

t, tt, bt, cht, ct, ed, ght, pt, te, th, tte, tw

ten, sett, doubt, yacht, victual, dressed, lighter, pterodactyl, forte, thyme, cigarette, two

/d/

d, dd, de, dh, ed, ld, t, tt (in some dialects)

dive, odd, bdellium, horde, dharma, abandoned, solder, kindergarten (GA), (flatter)

/k/

c, k, cc, ch, ck, cq, cqu, cque, cu, ke, kh, kk, lk, q, qu,
que, x

cat, key, account, chord, tack, acquire, lacquer, sacque, biscuit, burke, khaki, trekker, polkadotted,quorum, liquor, mosque, excitement

//

g, gg, gge, gh, gu, gue

gig, egg, pogge, ghost, guard, catalogue

/s/

s, ss, c, cc, ce, ps, sc, sce, sch (in some dialects), se, sse, st,
sth, sw, tz, z

song, mess, city, flaccid, ounce, psalm, scene, coalesce, (schism), horse, finesse, listen,
asthma(RP), sword, waltz (RP), quartz

/z/

z, zz, cz, s, sc, se, ss, sth, ts, tz, x, ze, c (in some dialects)

zoo, fuzz, czar, has, crescent (UK)*, tease, dissolve, asthma (GA), tsarina, tzar, xylophone,
breeze, (electricity)

//

sh, c, ce, ch, che, chi, chsi, ci, s, sc, sch, sci, she, shi, si, shin, speciality, ocean, machine, quiche, marchioness, fuchsia, special, sugar,
ss, ssi, ti
crescendo, schmooze, conscience, galoshe, cushion, expansion, tissue, mission, nation

//

g, ge, j, s, si, ti, z, zh, zi

genre, beige, bijou, leisure, division, equation, seizure, zhoosh, brazier

/f/

f, ff, fe, ffe, gh, lf, ph, phe, pph, (u)

fine, chaff, carafe, gaffe, laugh, half, physical, ouphe, sapphire, (lieutenant (RP))

/v/

v, vv, f, ph, lve, ve, w

vine, savvy, of, Stephen, halve, have, weltanschauung

//

th, the, chth, phth, tth, fth (in some dialects)

thin, absinthe, chthonic, phthisis, Matthew, (twelfth)

//

th, the

them, breathe

/j/

y, i, j, ll

yes, onion, hallelujah, tortilla

/x/

ch (in Scottish English)

loch

/h/

h, wh, j, ch, x

he, who, fajita, chutzpah, Quixote

//

In some dialects (see flapping):

/r/

r, rr, l, re, rh, rre, rrh, rt, wr

fur, burr, colonel, forewarn, rhyme, murre, myrrh, mortgage, wrong

/l/

l, ll, le, lh, lle

line, shall, aisle, pelham, gazelle

/w/

w, u, o, ou, we, wh (in most dialects)

we, persuade, choir, Ouija board, awesome, what

//

wh (in some dialects)

wheel

/t/

ch, tch, c, cc, che, chi, cz, t, tche, te, th, ti, tsch, tsh

chop, batch, cello, bocce, niche (GA), falchion, Czech, nature, escutcheon, righteous,
posthumous(GA), bastion (GA), putsch, Wiltshire

/d/

g, j, ch, d, dg, dge, di, dj, ge, gg, gi

magic, jump, sandwich (RP), graduate, judgment, bridge, soldier, adjust, barge, suggest,
Belgian

/ks/

x, cc, chs, cks, cques, cs, cz, kes, ks, lks, ques, xc, xe,
xs, xsc, xsw

sax, accent, tachs, backs, sacques, sacs, eczema, burkes, yaks, caulks, toques, excel, axe,
exsert, exscind, coxswain

tt, dd, t, d

better, daddy, united, Cody

* According to Longman (page 196) the majority of Brits, and the great majority of younger ones, now pronounce "crescent" as /krznt/.
According to Longman (page 301) 64% of Americans and 39% of Brits now pronounce "February" as /fb ju r i/
Vowels[edit]
Sorted more or less from close to open sounds in the vowel diagram.
Vowels

IPA

Spelling

Examples

/i/

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

be, cede, ski, machine, bologna, algae, quay, beach, bee, deceit, people, key, volleyed, field,
hygiene, amoeba, chamois, dengue, beguine, guyot, city

//

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

bit, myth, orange, chocolate, bargain, pretty, mileage, breeches, counterfeit, medicine,
carriage, sieve, shiitake, women, oedema, busy, minute (RP), build

/u/

u, u...e, oo, eu, ew, ieu, ioux, o, oe, oe, oeu, ooe,
ou, ough, ougha, oup, ue, ui, uo, w, wo

tutu, flute, too, sleuth, yew, lieu, Sioux, to, lose, shoe, manoeuvre, cooed, soup, through,
brougham, coup, true, fruit, buoy (GA), cwm, two

//

oo, u, o, or, ou, oul

look, full, wolf, worsted, courier, should

/e/

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

bass, rate, quaalude, reggae, rain, cocaine, arraign, straight, palais, Ralph (Br.), gaol, gauge,
hay, played, ukulele (caf), crepe, steak, matinee (soire), thegn, eh, veil, beige,
reign, eight, weighed, dossier, espaliered, demesne, ballet, crocheted, they, obeyed, chez,
lingerie (GA), boehmite (GA), merengue, bouquet

//

a, e, i, o, u, y, a...e, ae, ah, ai, au, ea, eau, eh, ei, eig,
eo, eou, eu, gh, ie, o...e, oa, oe, oh, oi, oo, ou, ough,
u...e, ua, ue, ui, uo

tuna, oven, pencil, icon, opus, beryl, gunwale, anaerobe, Messiah, mountain, aurora,
Eleanor, bureaucrat, keffiyeh, mullein, foreign, truncheon, timeous, amateur (RP), burgh,
mischievous (GA), awesome, starboard, biocoenosis, matzoh, porpoise, whipoorwill, callous,
borough (RP), minute (GA), piquant, guerillla, circuit (GA), languor

/o/

o, oe, aoh, au, eau, eaue, eo, ew, oa, oe, oh, oo,
ou, ough, oughe, ow, owe

so, bone, pharaoh, mauve, beau, plateaued, yeoman, sew, boat, foe, oh, brooch, soul,
though, furloughed, know, owe

//

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

met, many, aesthetic, said, says, there, deaf, heifer, jeopardy, friend, lieutenant (RP), bury,
guess, foetid

//

a, aa, ah, ai, al, au, ea, ei, i

hand, Aaron, Fahrenheit, plaid, salmon, laugh (GA), poleax, enceinte, meringue

//

u, o, oe, oe, oo, ou, wo, au (some dialects)

sun, son, come, does, flood, touch, twopence, (because)

//

o, a, al, au, au...e, augh, aughe, aw, awe, eo, oa, oh,
oo, ou, ough, u, uo

flora, bald, talk, author, cause, caught, overslaughed, jaw, awe, ealdorman, broad,
bohrium, flooring, pouring, bought, surest (RP) fluoridate (RP)

/(r)/

or, ore, aor, ar, aur, aure, oar, oare, oor, oore, our,
oure, owar, ure

or, fore, extraordinary, war, dinosaur, roquelaure, oar, soared, bohrium, door, floored,
four, poured, toward (GA), sure (RP)

//

o, a, ach, au, eau, oh, ou, ow

lock, watch, yacht, sausage, bureaucracy, demijohn, cough, acknowledge

//

a, a...e, aa, aae, aah, aahe, ah, au, e, ea, i, o

father, garage, salaam, baaed, aah, aahed, blah, aunt (RP), sergeant, heart, lingerie (GA),
lot (GA)

/(r)/

ar, aar, are, arr, arre, arrh, ear, er, uar, our (some

car, bazaar, are, parr, bizarre, catarrh, heart, sergeant, guard, (our)

/a/

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

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

//

oi, oy, awy, eu, oll, oye, uoy, uoye

avoid, toy, lawyer, Freudian, cholla, enjoyed, buoyant, buoyed (RP)

/a/

ou, ow, ao, aow, aowe, au, ough, oughe, owe, (eo)

out, now, cacao, miaow, miaowed, gauss, bough, ploughed, vowed, (Macleod)

/(r)/

are, aer, air, aire, ar, ayer, ayor, ayre, e'er, eah, ear,
eir, eor, er, ere, err, erre, ert, ey're

bare, aerial, hair, millionaire, scarce, prayer, mayor, fayre, ne'er, yeah, bear, heir, ceorl,
moderne, where, err (variant), parterre, couvert, they're

/(r)/

ere, aer, e're, ea, ear, eare, eer, eere, eir, eor, er,
ers, ier, iere, ir, oea

here, chimaera, we're, idea (RP), ear, feared, beer, peered, weird, theory (RP), series, revers,
pier, premiere, souvenir, diarrhoea (RP)

/r/
//

er, ir, ur, ear, ere, err, erre, eur, eure, irr, irre, oeu,
olo, or, ore, our, ueur, urr, urre, yr, yrrh

defer, fir, fur, earl, were, err, interred, voyeur, chauffeured (GA), birr, stirred, hors d'oeuvre,
colonel, worst, wore, adjourn, liqueur, purr, murre, myrtle, myrrh

/ju/

u, ue, ew, eau, eo, eu, ewe, ieu, iew, ou, ue, ueue,
ui

music, use, few, beauty, feodary, feud, ewe, adieu, view, ampoule, cue, queue, nuisance

dialects)

Identical to previous vowel in non-rhotic dialects like RP.

See also[edit]

English language
False etymology
Spelling bee
List of English homographs
Conventions

English plural
I before E except after C
Three letter rule
Variant spelling

American and British English spelling differences

Misspelling
Satiric misspelling
Sensational spelling
Spelling of disc
Graphemes

Apostrophe
Eth
Long s
Thorn (letter)
Phonetic orthographic systems

English spelling reform

Interspel

English scripts

English alphabet (Latin script)

American manual alphabet
Two-handed manual alphabets
English braille
American braille
New York Point
Shavian alphabet
Words in English

Lists of English words

Classical compound
Ghoti
English phonology

Regional accents of English

IPA chart for English dialects
Stress and vowel reduction in English
Initial-stress-derived noun
Traditional English pronunciation of Latin

Orthographies of English related languages[edit]

Germanic languages

Dutch
German
Icelandic
Romance languages

French
Italian
Milanese
Portuguese
Spanish
Celtic languages

Irish
Scottish Gaelic
Welsh
Historical languages

Latin
Old Norse
Artificial languages

Esperanto

References[edit]
1. Jump up^ A short history of English spelling
2. Jump up^ English language. (2010). In Encyclopdia Britannica. Retrieved November 23, 2010, from Encyclopdia Britannica
Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/188048/English-language
3. Jump up^ Rollings 2004: 16-19; Chomsky & Halle 1968; Chomsky 1970
4. Jump up^ Chomsky & Halle 1968:54
5. Jump up^ Chomsky 1970:294; Rollings 2004:17
6. Jump up^ Rollings 2004:1719
7. Jump up^ Included in Webster's Third New International Dictionary,1981
8. Jump up^ Algeo, John. "The Effects of the Revolution on Language", in A Companion to the American Revolution. John Wiley & Sons, 2008. p.599
9. ^ Jump up to:a b Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Twisted Story of English Spelling, by David Wolman. Collins, ISBN 978-006-136925-4. [1]
10. Jump up^ According to the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, a majority of younger speakers in England pronounce "sure" and "assure" and
derivatives. as //, //, etc.
11. Jump up^ Accroding to Longman, 77% of Americans pronounce "suggest" as /sg dst/
12. ^ Jump up to:a b or /hw/ in Hiberno-English and Southern American English
13. Jump up^ /wr/ in Scottish
14. ^ Jump up to:a b J.C. Wells Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd edition, Pearson Education Limited, Harlow, 2008

Bibliography[edit]
Albrow, K. H. (1972). The English writing system: Notes towards a description. Schools Council Program in Linguistics and English Teaching, papers series 2 (No. 2).
London: Longmans, for the Schools Council.
Aronoff, Mark. (1978). An English spelling convention. Linguistic Inquiry, 9, 299303.
Bell, Masha (2004), Understanding English Spelling, Cambridge, Pegasus.
Bell, Masha (2007), Learning to Read, Cambridge, Pegasus.
Bell, Masha (2009), Rules and Exceptions of English Spelling, Cambridge, Pegasus.
Brengelman, Fred H. (1970). Sounds and letters in American English. In The English language: An introduction for teachers (pp. 7798). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall.
Brengelman, Fred H. (1970). Generative phonology and the teaching of spelling. English Journal,59, 11131118.
Brengelman, Fred H. (1971). English spelling as a marker of register and style. English Studies,52, 201209.
Brengelman, Fred H. (1980). Orthoepists, printers, and the rationalization of English spelling.Journal of English and German Philology, 79, 332354.
Carney, Edward. (1994). A survey of English spelling. London: Routledge.
Chomsky, Carol. (1970). Reading, writing and phonology. Harvard Educational Review, 40 (2), 287309.
Chomsky, Noam; & Halle, Morris. (1968). The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper and Row. (Particularly pp. 46, 4849, 69, 80n, 131n, 148, 174n, 221).
Cummings, D. W. (1988). American English spelling: An informal description. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801879566
Derwing, Bruce; Priestly, Tom; Rochet, Bernard. (1987). The description of spelling-to-sound relationships in English, French and Russian: Progress, problems and
prospects. In P. Luelsdorff (Ed.), Orthography and phonology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Dixon, Robert. (1977). Morphographic spelling program. Eugene, OR: Engelman-Becker Press.
Emerson, Ralph. (1997). English spelling and its relation to sound. American Speech, 72 (3), 260288.

Hanna, Paul; Hanna, Jean; Hodges, Richard; & Rudorf, Edwin. (1966). Phoneme grapheme correspondences as cues to spelling improvement. Washington, D.C.: US
Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
Jespersen, Otto. (1909). A modern English grammar on historical principles: Sounds and spellings(Part 1). Heidelberg: C. Winter.
Luelsdorff, Philip A. (1994). Developmental morphographemics II. In W. C. Watt (Ed.), Writing systems and cognition (pp. 141182). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic
Publishers.
McCawley, James D. (1994). Some graphotactic constraints. In W. C. Watt (Ed.), Writing systems and cognition (pp. 115127). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Mencken, H. L. (1936). The American language: An inquiry into the development of English in the United States (4th ed.). New York: A.A. Knopf.
Rollings, Andrew G. (1998). Marking devices in the spelling of English. Atlantis, 20 (1), 129143.
Rollings, Andrew G. (1999). Markers in English and other orthographies. In L. Iglesias Rbade & P. Nuez Pertejo (Eds.), Estudios de lingstica contrastiva (pp. 441449).
Universidad de Santiago.
Rollings, Andrew G. (2003). System and chaos in English spelling: The case of the voiceless palato-alveolar fricative. English Language and Linguistics, 7 (2), 211233.
Rollings, Andrew G. (2004). The spelling patterns of English. LINCOM studies in English linguistics (04). Muenchen: LINCOM EUROPA.
Sampson, Geoffrey. (1985). Writing systems: A linguistic introduction. London: Hutchinson.
Seymour, P. H. K.; Aro, M.; & Erskine, J. M. (2003). Foundation literacy acquisition in European orthographies. British Journal of Psychology, 94 (2), 143174.
Simpson, J. A.; & Weiner, E. S. C. (Eds.). (1989). Oxford English dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Steinberg, Danny. (1973). Phonology, reading and Chomsky and Halle's optimal orthography.Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 2 (3), 239258.
Stubbs, Michael. (1980). Language and literacy: The sociolinguistics of reading and writing. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Venezky, Richard L. (1967). English orthography: Its graphical structure and its relation to sound.Reading Research Quarterly, 2, 75105.
Venezky, Richard L. (1970). The structure of English orthography. The Hague: Mouton.
Venezky, Richard L. (1976). Notes on the history of English spelling. Visible Language, 10, 351365.
Venezky, Richard L. (1999). The American way of spelling. New York: Guildford Press.
Weir, Ruth H. (1967). Some thoughts on spelling. In W. M Austin (Ed.), Papers in linguistics in honor of Leon Dostert (pp. 169177). Janua Linguarum, Series Major (No.
25). The Hague: Mouton.

External links[edit]

Rules for English Spelling: Adding Suffixes, QU Rule, i before e, Silent e, 'er' vs. 'or'
Hou tu pranownse Inglish describes rules which predict a word's pronunciation from its spelling with 85% accuracy
Free spelling information and Free spelling lessons in QuickTime movie format at The Phonics Page.
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