English Spelling and Pronunciation
Jerome K. Jerome says, “English spelling would seem to have been designed chiefly as a disguise
for pronunciation.”
Hedge (1983, p. 89) defines, “Writing is the way in which a writer puts together the pieces of text,
developing ideas through sentences and paragraphs within an overall structure.”
Hornby (2000) says “Spelling is a Linguistic process of phonemic orthography.”
Kenworthy (1990) said that the spelling system is considered in two different situations: the
situation of the reader and that of the writer.
In the words of Al-Hamash(1974-114,), "Spelling is necessary for composition and composition
writing strengthens the mastery of correct spelling" though spelling is different from
composition, sound, letters, word parts, word meaning, and word history are those elements
which play the important role in learning to spell the words of English language. Spelling is a
reflection of one's word knowledge.
Spelling is a linguistic unit of language referring to writing skill. It is defined as the act of
forming words correctly from individual letter. Spelling has its rules to form words in a correct
way in which letters should appear in proper sequence to be meaningful.
It is the study of learning pronunciation of words in a proper way to spell correctly. It is to
understand that spelling originated as transcriptions of sounds spoken language according to the
alphabetic principle. Pronunciation changes in due course in all languages for some reasons, but
spellings may resist change. Learners of English language should understand that words from
other language may be adopted without being adapted to the spelling system and different
meanings of a word or homophones may be deliberately spelled in different ways. The letters of
alphabet used are always inadequate to represent the sounds of the English language. For
example, the letter ’a’ makes many different sounds, such as ‘mat, lane, calm, any, tall, and,
watch’. So, it needs special notations, i.e. IPA symbols to understand the intelligibility of the
pronunciation and the spelling-designed of the English words.
According British Received Pronunciation, the sounds of English are represented by 44 symbols
called phonemes: 24 consonant sounds and 20 vowel sounds. The 44 sounds of the IPA or
International Phonetic Alphabet are very helpful since every phoneme represents only one sound.
Phonetic Symbols (44 Speech Sounds):
Vowel Sounds: 20 (12 pure vowels and 8 diphthongs) and Consonant Sounds: 24
Irregularities in English Orthography
“The irregularities in the English orthography have always been a subject of deep regret.”
(Webster, 1828)
The irregularity of English spelling is due to the fact that “there is no one – to – one
correspondence between sounds and letters"(Taylor, 1981:317).
English spelling is irregular as there is no one – to – one correspondence between sounds and
letters. The written symbols or letters in English do not always represent speech sounds. One
letter can stand for several sounds and the same sound can be used for more than one symbol.
Words are formed of spelling by using letters, orthographically. A word can be represented by a
combination of letters. Correct spelling is just as important in writing as correct pronunciation is
in speaking. The mastery of spelling demands the mastery of English spelling patterns for
reading and writing.
Study the following consonant sounds:
- some common spelling patterns based on letters or
groups of letters.
The letter ‘C’ sounds
(a) hard like /k/, when it is followed by a, o, u as in case, coat, cut, and soft like /s/ ,
before e, i, y as in cell, circle, cylinder.
(b) at the end of words it is always hard like /k/,
as in public, and before the vowels, e, i, the syllable slides into the sound of /ʃ / as in
cetaceous, gracious, social.
The letter string- ‘Ch’ is heard the sound of /ʧ/ in words of English origin, as in chip,
chain; the sound of /ʃ /in some words of French origin, machine, parachute; and some
words of Greek origin, the sound of /k/, as in chaos, chorus.
The letter string- ‘Sc’ is pronounced like /sk/, before a, o, u, r as in scale, scoff,
sculpture, scribe and it is soft /s/, before e, i, y, as in scene, science, scythe.
The letter ‘G’ has two sounds hard /g/ and soft /ȴ/,
(a) always it’s hard sound before
a, o, u, as in gate, got, gum, and before e, i, y, it has the same hard sound in some words
like, get, gear, give, gynaecology.
(b) the soft sound /ȴ/ is also heard as in the words,
gem, giant, gym, age, general. All these varieties of pronunciation are to be learnt only
by practice, observation, and a dictionary.
The letter string- ‘Gh’ sounds like /f/, as in laugh, cough, or silent as in bought, light.
The letter string- ‘Ph’ also sounds like /f/, as in phone, philosophy, except in the word,
Stephen, where it sounds like /v/, as in of, move.
The letter string- ‘Ng’- is a nasal sound of /ŋ/ , as in English, sing, bang.
The letter string- ‘Th’- produces two different sounds, / d/ as in then and /θ/ as in thin
Refrensi John Algeo, 2010, The Origins And Development Of The English Language, Sixth Edition, Wadsworth
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Center Street Boston, Ma 02210, USA
