Chapter 3: Spellings and Speech Sounds PDF

CHAPTER 3 SPELLINGS AND SPEECH SOUNDS Does spelling represent the pronunciation of words? The gh in the word enough is pronounced as /f/!!!!! Enough announce-much-fat...what do you notice?? The spelling does not represent the units of sound that make up the spoken word in a straightforward way...

CHAPTER 3 SPELLINGS AND SPEECH SOUNDS Does spelling represent the pronunciation of words? The gh in the word enough is pronounced as /f/!!!!! Enough announce-much-fat...what do you notice?? The spelling does not represent the units of sound that make up the spoken word in a straightforward way. When these sounds occur in other words, they can be represented by other letters. Does spelling represent the pronunciation of words? ◦Spelling - Sound system is different in Italian ◦We say basta...what do you notice? ◦The letters of basta represent the sounds of the spoken word. ◦Unlike Italian, English spelling is not always PHONEMIC. ◦There is no simple one-to-one correspondence between phonemes and the letters that represent them. ◦Was this the case since the time of Old English???????? This was not so true of spelling in the Old English period Consider the old Eng. spelled words twa ('two’) & lang ('long’). The w of twa was originally pronounced, and thus, unlike today, each letter of the spelling corresponded to a phoneme of the spoken word. Also, the final g of lang was pronounced, so that the pronunciation of the word would be [laηg]. Indeed, the final g of this word and of others (e.g. tongue, ring) is still pronounced in some west central areas of So...what happened ??? ◦generally, Old English spelling did not contain 'silent letters’. ◦Why has the spelling system become less phonemic? ◦Why is it now so complicated? ◦History, as we shall see, can provide an explanation. The 1st problem! The first problem was that English adopted the Roman alphabet, in other words, the alphabet of another language - Latin. Today we have over 40 phonemes in English, but only 26 letters by which to represent those phonemes. we have about 20 vowel sounds in English, but only 5 vowel letters. What does this tell you???what is the problem? -The number of letters is less than the number of sounds. -A basic problem then is that there are not enough letters to represent phonemes on a one-to-one basis.  Even in Old English the Latin alphabet on its own was not enough...They added consonants from other languages In addition to Latin consonant letters, the Runic 'thorn' þ and the Irish Gaelic 'eth' ð were used, fairly interchangeably, for the phonemes [ð] and [θ] that we now represent with th. Some Old English phonemes were represented by pairs of letters, which we call diagraph -(digraph is a term meaning two letters used to represent one sound) For example, sc was used to represent the first phoneme in the Old English word scep 'sheep', and cg was used for the last phoneme [d3] in the Old English word ecg 'edge’. In addition to Latin vowel letters,... the letter 'ash' æ was developed by combining a and e 'ash' æ was used for the phoneme [æ] that we now represent with a. Also, the digraphs ea and eo were used, as in the Old English words eare 'ear' and beor 'beer'. The 2 nd problem then is that -a number of oddities in spelling were introduced by Middle English scribes, particularly the Normans, and later by the early printers who adapted spelling to suit French spelling conventions.. Digraphs promoted by Middle English scribes include: sh replacing sc in words like OE scip 'ship’. qu replacing cw in words like OE cwen 'queen’. gh replacing h in words like OE riht 'right’. ch replacing c in words like OE cin 'chin'. Digraphs promoted by Middle English scribes include: wh replacing hw in words like OE hwæt 'what’.\ c replacing s in words like OE is 'ice'. (Consider the pronunciation of c in French words such as Citroen.) ou replacing u in words such as OE wund 'wound'. (Consider the pronunciation of ou in French words such as vous.) However, some of these innovations were advantageous...why??? 1- Until the adoption of ch, c had represented two phonemes: the first sounds of the words chin (OE cin) and king (OE cyning). Thus, ch helped make a useful distinction. Some of these innovations were advantageous... The adoption of ou helped to indicate a long vowel without having to use double u. [uu] u was legibility...why? The problem with double The characters u, uu, i, n, and m were all written with straight down-strokes and were thus in danger of being confused. In fact, to make things clearer, scribes sometimes wrote O for u and y for i. Thus, the word love was once spelt luve, a spelling  Standardisation The advent of printing with William Caxton in 1476 was a step towards the STANDARDISATION of spellings. Printing was most economic if one set of spelling conventions reflecting one dialect was chosen....which Caxton has accomplished. For now, let's note that printing made possible the production of a vast amount of reading material using one set of spelling conventions: it could promote a 'standard' in spelling. Standardisation This is not to suggest that the early printers entirely agreed on what the standard should be or were consistent in applying it. In some respects the printers added to the oddities of spelling. Many of the early printers were Dutch. Sometimes Dutch spellings influenced English words. For example, the word ghost in Old English was spelt gast, but the Dutch printers added an h, presumably influenced by the Flemish Standardisation Thus non-Latin letters, such as 'thorn' , were not well represented. In fact, a [y] was chosen to represent 'thorn’ A remnant of this can be seen in the sign Ye Olde Tea Shoppe, where Ye is equivalent to The. Standardisation This sign also illustrates other characteristics of Early Modern English spelling, which printers were at least partly responsible for Printers often added 1-a superfluous e (e.g. Olde), 2-doubled up consonants (e.g. Shoppe), 3-used y instead of i because they took up more space. This was done in order to increase the length of a line so that it would match the others of a text. All this added to the general variability in spelling. Line justification today, as in this very text, is automatically achieved on a word processor without varying the spelling.  In Etymological respellings the 16 century, there was particular interest in the th classical languages Latin and Greek, and these had much prestige. It was fashionable to respell words in order to make them look more like the originals, although this meant adding 'silent letters’.  debt These ETYMOLOGICAL RESPELLINGS include: ME  (Latin ME langage > language (Latin lingua) dette debitum) ME  receipt receit  (Latin e receptum) ME  salmon However, sometimes the respellers got their etymology wrong. For example, it was assumed that ME iland came from French isle, and thus an s was added to make island. In fact, iland was an Old English word, and has Germanic roots. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, many words entered English from languages such as French (e.g. grotesque, colonel), Latin (e.g. necessary, relaxation), Greek (e.g. chaos, pneumonia), Italian (e.g. piazza, piano) Spanish (e.g. canoe, tobacco). The important consequence is that English spelling contains the spelling conventions of other languages: it is an amalgam of various spelling systems. This process of borrowing from other languages has continued throughout the development of English. More recently, the spelling of the word khaki - the colour - reflects the fact that it is borrowed from............................ Urdu, and the spelling of kamikaze (Special Attack Unit) reflects the fact that it is borrowed from.................... Japanese. However, sometimes the respellers got their etymology wrong. For example, it was assumed that ME iland came from French isle, and thus an s was added to make island. In fact, iland was an Old English word, and has Germanic roots. In the 16th and 17th centuries, many words entered English from languages such as; French (e.g. grotesque, colonel), Latin (e.g. necessary, relaxation), Greek (e.g. chaos, pneumonia), Italian (e.g. piazza, piano) Spanish (e.g. canoe, tobacco). Many people in the 16th century were highly critical of the tremendous variation in spelling, the addition of superfluous letters and so on. Also, from this time onwards dictionaries started to appear which people could consult for an authoritative spelling. Coupled with printing, all this had the effect of fixing or standardising spellings. In fact, very few spellings have changed since Dr Johnson's dictionary of 1755. Unfortunately, spellings were fixed at a time of great confusion. Not only was there a great influx of words from other languages, but the language was also experiencing  Great Vowel Shift We have already seen how certain consonants ceased to be pronounced. Even more dramatic changes occurred in the pronunciation of long vowels, the so-called Great Vowel Shift The vowel of sweet /swe:t/ used to be pronounced like the vowel of the word set /set/ except that it was longer, as indeed the double e suggests. During the Great Vowel Shift vowels articulated at the front Changes since the 18th century have mainly been to do with attitudes towards the spelling system that emerged. The old tolerance of spelling variation evaporated, and spelling came to be seen as an indicator of education and even intelligence. This century a number of attempts have been made to simplify spelling, the most famous campaigner for spelling reform being George Bernard Shaw. However, spelling reform has so far failed to produce any changes in British English spelling. In American English, spelling reform – promoted in particular by Noah Webster – has achieved a measure of success, leading to such spellings as color and center.  Summary - Spelling has become less phonemic over the years. - A basic problem is that there are not enough letters to represent phonemes on a one-to-one basis. - A number of oddities in spelling were introduced by Middle English scribes, particularly the Normans, and later by the early printers. - Etymological respellings have added to the number of 'silent letters'.  Summary - English spelling is complicated by the fact that it contains the spelling conventions of other languages. - Beginning in the fifteenth century, a standard spelling system had fully evolved by the eighteenth century. But spellings were fixed when great changes were occurring in pronunciation. - Much social prestige is now attached to conforming with the standard.