ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION, SPELLING AND VOCABULARY(part 3)

UNIT 3

PRONUNCIATION AND SPELLING

Unit outline

		Unit objectives	28
3.1		The spelling of consonants	28
3.2		Vowel markers	29
3.3		Keeping a spelling constant	30
3.4		Silent letters	33
3.5		Homographs and homophones	34
3.6		Pronunciation and etymology	35
		Summary	36
		Key concepts	37
		Further reading	37
		SAA No. 2	37
		Answers to SAQs	38

After you have completed the study of this unit you should be able to:

• d
  Unit objectives
  iscriminate words or parts of words that are spelled exactly the same way but which are pronounced entirely differently.
• acquire the markers, pronunciation patterns and spelling rules provided in the unit

Ideally, the spelling system should closely reflect pronunciation, as is the case in Romanian, but not in English, which nevertheless presents many regularities between sound and written symbol. The problem in English is twofold – each sound is represented by more than one letter or by sequences of letters, and any letters represents more than one sound, or it may not represent any sound at all.

Think first! What group of letters corresponds to the // sound? Think of words such as ship, passion, ration, Asian, conscious, Confucian, issue, machine and luxury. ………….. Check your answer against the information given in section 3.1.

3.1 The spelling of consonants

• Consonants with a single spelling

Most consonants, at least some of the time, may have a single-letter 'alphabetic' spelling: <b, d, f, g, h, j, 1, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, y, z>; /k/ has a choice of <c> or <k>. But there is often 'divergence', where one speech-sound has several different spellings and spelling may stand for different speech-sounds.

• Consonants with multiple letter spelling

In spite of the available single-letter spelling <f>, the consonant at the beginning of foot has more complex spellings in physics, enough, offer. The <s> in easy represents /z/, the <u> in quick represents /w/ and the <f> in of represents /v/. The consonant at the beginning of yet, yellow can also be found as part of the vowel spelt <u(e)> in cue, cute, pure.

The most divergent consonant is /k/, which has different spellings in cool, chemistry, sack, accolade, chukker, key, quay, quite, and as part of the /ks/ in axe.

Six consonants, that is /Θ, ð  t ηdo not have a single-letter-spelling of their own and require at least two letters, such as <th>, <sh> or <ch>. These are the consonants found in the middle of the following words: method, bother, wishing, measure, patches and the consonant represented by <ng> in singer when no actual /gl is pronounced.

The main cause responsible for the departure of English spelling from the phonemic principle* is that conservative principles in orthography cannot keep pace with the phonetic changes in the language.

SAQ 1 Identify the graphs corresponding to /f/, /k/, /s/, /z/, /in the following words. The first has been done for you as an example: 1.saphhire: phh: /f/ 2. back …………………………… 3. acclaim …………………………… 4. biscuit …………………………… 5. school …………………………… 6. dress …………………………… 7. scene …………………………… 8. racing …………………………… 9. cousin …………………………… 10. dissolve …………………………… 11. dessert …………………………… 12. mission …………………………… 13. option …………………………… 14. ancient …………………………… 15. conscious …………………………… 16. ocean …………………………… Fill in the blanks with your answers and then check them with the suggested answers given at the end of this unit.

3.2 Vowel markers

Five pairs of vowels can have single-letter spellings: <a> in scrap, scraping, <e> in met, meter, <i> in pip, piper, <o> in cop, coping, <u> in rub, ruby. There is also <y> in cryptic, cry, which duplicates the <i> spellings. The examples given in each pair represent a 'short' and a 'long' vowel or diphthong.

For this letter-sharing to work, 'markers' are needed in some contexts to tell you which value the letter has.

• Final silent -e

To get the long value of <a> in a single-syllable word, you have to add a marker <-e>, as in scrape. The <-e> in bathe, breathe, loathe, wreathe not only marks the vowel as long but also marks the last consonant as 'voiced' rather than the 'voiceless'* one in bath, breath, loath, wreath. Other examples are lathe, lithe, swathe. Mouth and smooth used as verbs lack this marking.

The marker <-e> in browse, copse, lapse, please, tease, tense is used to prevent confusion with the plural forms brows, cops, laps, pleas, teas, tens. It marks the browse group as single units and as such is called 'lexical <-e>'.

• The double consonant rule

To get the short value before a suffix beginning with a vowel like <-ing>, you double a final consonant letter, as in scrapping.

Therefore, the double consonant rule says that a final consonant in a stressed syllable must be doubled to preserve the short pronunciation of the vowel when followed by a syllable beginning with a vowel. Note, for example, the difference in length between // and /əu/ in the pair hopping - hoping.

• The y to i rule

This rule states that final y preceded by a consonant becomes -i before a suffix (e.g. –ed, -s) not beginning with –i (e.g. -ing):

try – tried, tries hurry – hurries, hurried

but but

try – trying hurry – hurrying

SAQ 2 Can you give examples of a single vowel letter which can be used with two values, i.e. short and long, as in scrap - scrape, scrapping - scraping? Write your answers in the space provided below. Contrast them with the suggested answer given at the end of unit 3.

0. Keeping a spelling constant

Think first! Do you believe it would be a good idea if English spelling represented pronunciation more closely? Before you read the section below, think of possible disadvantages if English spelling were 100% phonemic. Check your answer against the information given in this section.

• The morphological principle

English spelling is based not only on the etymological principle* but also on the morphological principle, according to which spelling has to preserve unchanged the graphic form of every meaningful part of the word (morpheme) even its actual pronunciation changes, which happens when the given morpheme is combined with some other morphemes.

Well-known examples are the grammatical (bound) morphemes -s and -ed. For instance, the three homonymic morphemes representing (1) the third person singular present tense -(e)s, (2) the possessive case of nouns ’s and (3) the plural of nouns -(e)s may have three pronunciations, each depending on the phonetic environment:

1. /z/ when preceded by a vowel or a voiced consonant: stays, kills.
2. /s/ after a voiceless* consonant: takes.
3. /iz/ after consonants such as /s, z,  t d: sneezes, washes, watch, etc.

The verbal ending -ed sounds quite different in wished, begged, and wanted. If you think that they would be better spelt phonetically as * <wisht>, '’ <begd>, you are losing the advantage of a constant ­spelling for the regular past-tense ending. Therefore, -ed is pronounced:

• /d/ after vowels and voiced consonants: opened
• /t/ after voiceless* consonants: worked
• /id/ after /t/, /d/: wanted, divided

SAQ 3 What do you think of Mark Twain’s plans for the improvement of English spelling? Try to remake the etymological spelling of the words in italics and then rewrite the text. For example, in Year 1 that useless letter “c” would be dropped to be replased either by “k” or “s”, and likewise, “x” would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which “c” would be retained would be the “ch” formation, which will be dealt with later. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Year 2 might reform “w” spelling, so that “which” and “one” would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish “y” replasing it with “i” and iear 4 might fiks the “g/j” anomali wonse and for all. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez “c”, “y” and “x” – bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez – tu riplais “ch”, “sh”, and “th” rispektivli. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Compare your answer with the one given at the end of this unit

• Phonemic variation in derivatives

The morphological principle is also of great help in the case of derivatives. For example, one may think it awkward to have Is/ spelt differently in sent and cent. That may be, but the <c> spelling of both /k/ in electric and Is/ in electricity keeps the spelling of that unit constant.

Another good example of this principle is provided by the long and short pronunciations of single vowel letters seen in word pairs such as:

atrocious - atrocity

female - feminine

omen - omenous

austere - austerity

grateful - gratitude

reside – residual

chaste - chastity

legal - legislate

sole - solitude

crime - criminal

mine - mineral

supreme - supremacy

In these pairs the basic long vowel is shortened when it comes three syllables from the end of the word.

3.4 Silent letters

• Silent g, w, h and k

Keeping a constant spelling may involve the use of so-called 'silent' letters. The <g> does not represent /g/ in sign, but it does in derived forms resignation, signal, signature, signify. Similarly we have malign and malignant. Changing to "<sine>, "<maline> would spoil the visual link. Should we keep the <w> of two because twenty, twin, between are remotely related? Should shepherd be re-spelt as * <sheppard>, a regularized spelling when used as a name?

On the other hand the <g> of gnarled, gnat, gnash, gnaw, gnome and the <k> of knee, knife, knight, knock, know, knuckle are quite empty letters. They are the debris of history and are never pronounced in any derived word (except for acknowledge). It would be no loss to change to "<naded>, '"<nab, *<nife>, "<nuckle>, etc.

SAQ 4 Underscore all the silent letters in each of the following sentences, e.g.: The psychiatrist was knifed in the knee as he was walking home. The psychiatrist was knifed in the knee as he was walking home. He should have whistled as he fastened his sword to his belt. You should have left me half the Christmas cake on Wednesday. They sang a psalm to honour the memory of the world-famous psychologist as he was laid to rest in the family tomb. Compare your answer with the one in the key at the end of the unit.

• Other markers

Some marking is needed to sort out the two distinct consonants represented by <g>. Before <a, o, u> we have /g/, as in gap, got, gum and the consonant spelt <j> in jam before <i, e> in gin, gem. The problem is that there are some exceptions with /g/ before <i, e>: gear, geese, get, giddy, gild, gilt, gimmick, girl, give. Some words however have used the letter <u> as a marker for /g/ in guess, guest, guide, guild, guilt, guise, guitar. Its use is not very consistent, since guard, guarantee do not need any <u> marker (e.g. garden).

3.5 Homographs and homophones

• Definition

Words spelt the same but pronounced differently are called homographs*: <minute> may be an adjective (a really minute insect) or a noun (half a minute). A minute steak has to be interpreted by the reader: either a very small steak or one cooked for a minute.

Words pronounced the same but spelt differently are called homophones*: <vain>, <vane>, <vein>, or <foul>, <fowl> or <meat>, <meet>, <mete>. These variant vowel spellings clearly make it harder for the writer, but it is often claimed that such divergence is not always a bad thing for the reader, since different words should look different on the printed page.

Even so, a good number of words are both homographs* and homophones: sounding the same and looking the same. These are sometimes called homonyms. For instance, hamper represents two completely different unrelated words: either 'a basket' or 'to hinder'. Quarry means either 'a stone quarry’ or 'a hunted animal'.

SAQ 5 Give the correct pronunciation of the marked homographs in the following sentences. Write your answers in the spaces provided. 1 a The lead singer in the group is great. …. b Lead pipes are dangerous. …. 2 a The wind blew the tree down. …. b Don’t forget to wind your watch. …. 3 a Some students in Oxford spent more time learning to row well than studying. …. b They shared a flat for ages until they had a row over money and they split up. …. 4 a They live in a large old house. …. b The buildings house a library and two concert halls as well as a theatre. …. 5 a The sow has five piglets. …. b The farmers sow the weeds in spring. …. 6 a I bathed the baby this morning. …. b We bathed in the sea every day when we were on holiday. …. Check your answers against the ones given at the end of the chapter.

3.6 Pronunciation and etymology

• French loans

The Old English of the Anglo-Saxons has given the English their basic stock of words: life, death, earth, heaven, sun, moon, day, night, black, white, broad, narrow, teach, learn, seek, find, eat, drink, food, meat, fire, wood, tree, eye, knee, hand, foot and so on.

Words borrowed from French have sometimes been altered by anxious academics looking beyond the French spelling to the distant Latin original. The words debt, doubt, were medieval borrowings of French delle 'debt', doute 'doubt' without a <b>. The 'silent' <b> was inserted in the sixteenth century to resemble the original Latin debitum, dubit­are, and to draw attention to the shared meaning of related English words derived from the same roots, such as debit, dubitative.

The <c> spelling of the early French loan grocer is a regular English spelling (racer, slicer), so why not have gross spelt: <groce> on the lines of race, truce, slice? As it is, gross is the only English word in which <oss> does not sound as it does in boss, cross, doss, dross, floss. Ironically, the regular <groce> was a common medieval spelling that did not survive.

Since medieval times English has adopted cultural loanwords from French. The early ones included attach, certain, chance, conquer, cour­age, language, money, place, pleasant, royal, strange, sure, tender, value, and even a word as common now as very, which at first meant ‘true'. Modern loanwords from French come with their present French spelling and a close approximation to French pronunciation: collage, entourage, rage, piquant, pirouette.

SAQ 6 The list of words given below includes loans from Latin, Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and German. apparatus, avalanche, capricio, bourgeois, mosquito, chamois, banana, champagne, hurricane, chandelier, tobacco, charade, cruise, coup, mirage, landscape, etiquette, brochure, plunder, burlesque, catastrophe, connoiseur, critique, circus, climax, memoir, drama, nuance, exit, genre, genius, symphony, omen, glacier, pathetic, picnic, pneumonia, espionnage, scheme, chauffeur, chef, catastrophe, chic, restaurant, stanza, depot, umbrella, café, prairie, malaise, alligator, penchant, moto, essay, progress, atmosphere, , rendez-vous, moustache, debris, detail. Underscore recognizably French loan words and compare your choices with the suggested answers given at the end of this unit.

• Latin and Greek loans

Technical terms for use in science are often derived from Latin or Greek. For example, aqueduct, subaquatic are Latinate counterparts in meaning to ordinary English waterway, underwater. Similarly, Greek elements make up scientific terms such as photosynthesis, polyglot, pyromania. The <-rrh(o)ea> of diarrhoea ('through-How') recurs in other Greek­-based words such as catarrh ('down-flow'), seborrhoea ('grease-flow').

Scientists have to learn a mini-language of such elements. When such terms escape into common use they often cause spelling problems for the ordinary person. That leaves a whole array of loanwords that are variously ‘exotic': kayak is from Eskimo, felucca is from Arabic by way of Italian. The now familiar tobacco comes from Arawak, an American-Indian language.

These various subsystems are often marked by their own peculiar spelling correspondences. If you know a yucca to be an exotic plant, you will not spell it *yuker. The <ch> of chief, an early French loan, has the same sound as in native cheap, cheese. The modern loan chef retains its present French value of <ch> (like the <sh> of shop), as do chauffeur, charade. The spelling is not altered to * <shef>. This same <ch> will also spell /k/ in Greek-based words such as character, chemist, synchronic. Similarly, <ph> is a (Greek' spelling for If I, as in diaphragm, philosophy, phobia, symphony.

Borrowing foreign spellings along with foreign loanwords is not the only way of doing it. In Swedish, for example, foreign loans are usually spelt with ordinary Swedish spelling. So French loans coiffure, pirouette are spell in Swedish as <koaffyr> and <piruett.

Summary

In English a final silent e is said to make a vowel long and the last consonant voiced, whereas absence of this silent e makes the vowel of the word short and the last consonant voiceless: bath - bathe, breath - breathe.

The short pronunciation of a vowel is maintained before adding a suffix if the final consonant is doubled: hopping – hoping, scrapping – scraping.

English orthography transparently connects words related in form and meaning. For example, a regular pattern of alternation of long and short vowels is noticed when endings are added to stems: mine - mineral, supreme – supremacy.

Key concepts

• double consonant rule
• etymological principle
• final silent –e lexical –e
• homograph
• homonym
• homophone
• morphological principle
• phonemic principle
• silent letter
• vowel marker

Further reading

1. Carney Edward. 1998. “English Spelling is Kattastroffic”. In Bauer Laurie and Peter Trudgil. eds. Language Myths. London: Penguin Books, pp. 32-41.
2. Doboş Daniela. 2001. A Handbook of English Phonetics and Phonology. Iaşi: Casa Editorială Demiurg, pp. 174-196.
3. Makarenko, Tatiana. 1998. Contemporary English Phonetics. Cluj: Editura Echinox, pp. 32-45

SAA No. 2 After you have studied this unit, use the knowledge you acquired to do the following exercises: 1. What spelling differences correspond to these pronunciations? /tu:/ ………. /rait/ ………. /ail/ ………. /meil/ ………. /rein/ ……….. 2. Exemplify the reduction of these consonant clusters*: kn -> n ……… gn ->n ………. wr->r ………… mn->m ………. mb->m ………. 3. Give the transcription of these loan words: queue ………. buoy ………. silhouette ……….. Write your answers in the space provided. Send this assignment to your tutor. The maximum score for this assignment is 20 points: - 7 points for identifying the homophones correctly. - 10 points for exemplifying the reduction of the consonant clusters - 3 points for the correct phonemic transcription.

Answers to SAQs

Should your answer to SAQ 1 be different from the one suggested below, please reread section 3.1.

SAQ 1

ck (back), cc (acclaim), cu (biscuit), ch (school): /k/

ss (dress), sc (scene), c (racing): /s/

s (cousin), ss (dissolve, dessert): /z/

si (tension), ssi (mission), ti (option), ci (ancient), sci (conscious), ce (ocean): /

Should your answer to SAQ 2 be different from the one suggested below, please reread section 3.2.

SAQ 2

The letter o in hop - hope and hopping – hoping.

Should your answer to SAQ 3 be different from the one suggested below, please reread sections 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3.

SAQ 3

The fragment highlights the difficulties due to the discrepancies between spelling and pronunciation in English, where, in many instances, the same sound may be represented by a variety of spellings and the same spelling is used for different sounds.

What Mark Twain seems to suggest is the greater trouble the reader and speller might have if the English etymological spelling were reformed and turned into phonemic spelling.

Here is the etymological spelling of Twain‘s text:

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter “c” would be dropped to be replaced either by “k” or “s”, and likewise, “x” would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only case in which “c” would be retained would be the “ch” formation, which will be dealt with later.

Year 2 might reform “w” spelling, so that “which” and “one” would take the same consonant, while year 3 might well abolish “y” replacing it with “i” and year 4 might fix the “g/j” anomaly once and for all.

Generally, then, the improvement would continue year by year with year 5 doing away with useless double consonants, and years 6-12 or so modifying vowels and remaining voiced and unvoiced consonants. By year 15 or so, it would finally be possible to make use of the redundant letters “c”, “y” and “x” – by now just a memory in the minds of old dodders – to replace “ch”, “sh”, and “th” respectively.

Finally, then, after some 20 years of orthographical reform, we would have a logical, coherent spelling in use throughout the English-speaking world

Should your answer to SAQ 4 be different from the one suggested below, please reread section 3.4.

SAQ 4

1. The psychiatrist was knifed in the knee as he was walking home.
2. He should have whistled as he fastened his sword to his belt.
3. You should have left me half the Christmas cake on Wednesday.
4. They sang a psalm to honour the memory of the world-famous psychologist as he was laid to rest in the family tomb.

Should your answer to SAQ 5 be different from the one suggested below, please reread section 3.5

SAQ 5

1 a The lead /li:d/ singer in the group is great.

b Lead /led/ pipes are dangerous.

2 a The wind /wind/ blew the tree down.

b Don’t forget to wind /waind/ your watch.

3 a Some students in Oxford spent more time learning

to row /rəu/ well than studying.

b They shared a flat for ages until they had a row

/rau/ over money and they split up.

4 a They live in a large old house /haus/.

b The buildings house /hauz/ a library and two

concert halls as well as a theatre.

5 a The sow /sau/ has five piglets.

b The farmers sow /səu/ the weeds in spring.

6 a I bathed /bthe baby this morning.

b We bathed /beiðd/ in the sea every day when we

were on holiday.

Should your answer to SAQ 6 be different from the one suggested below, please reread section 3.6.

SAQ 6

avalanche, bourgeois, chamois, champagne, chandelier, charade, coup, mirage, etiquette, brochure, burlesque, connoiseur, critique, memoir, nuance, genre, symphony, glacier, picnic, espionnage, chauffeur, chef, chic, restaurant, depot, café, prairie, malaise, penchant, essay, progress, rendez-vous, moustache, debris, detail.