Preceding Vowel Phoneme Is Short and Spelt
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To access digital resources including: blog posts videos online appendices and to purchase copies of this book in: hardback paperback ebook editions Go to: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/325 Open Book Publishers is a non-profit independent initiative. We rely on sales and donations to continue publishing high-quality academic works. Dictionary of the British English Spelling System Greg Brooks Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Sheffield http://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2015 Greg Brooks Version 1.1. Minor edits made July 2017 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work; to adapt the work and to make commercial use of the work providing attribution is made to the author (but not in any way that suggests that he endorses you or your use of the work). 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Digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at http://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/325#resources ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78374-107-6 ISBN Hardback: 978-1-78374-108-3 ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-78374-109-0 ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-78374-110-6 ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-78374-111-3 DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0053 Cover image: Spiegel by Jaume Plensa (2010). http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ Category:Yorkshire_Sculpture_Park#mediaviewer/File:YSP_11.jpg All paper used by Open Book Publishers is SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative), and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes) Certified. Printed in the United Kingdom and United States by Lightning Source for Open Book Publishers (Cambridge, UK). To Maxine Burton, for being such a patient and reliable native-speaker informant, and for tolerating my obsession for so long. Contents List of tables xvii About the author xxi Acknowledgments xxiii A 40-year gestation xxv How to use this book xxix 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Context 1 1.2 Aims 2 1.3 Some terminology 3 1.4 Phonemes 4 1.5 Long and short vowels 5 1.6 Graphemes 5 1.7 Consonant clusters and ‘blends’ 6 1.8 Split digraphs and ‘magic <e>’ 6 1.9 Stem words and derived forms 7 1.10 Positions within words 7 1.11 Open and closed syllables 9 1.12 ‘2-phoneme graphemes’ 9 1.13 ‘Regular’ correspondences 10 2. The phonemes of spoken English 13 2.1 Choosing an accent to analyse 13 2.2 How many phonemes? 14 2.3 The consonant phonemes of Received Pronunciation 15 2.4 The vowel phonemes of Received Pronunciation 16 2.5 Polysyllabic words and word stress 18 viii Dictionary of the British English Spelling System 3. The phoneme-grapheme correspondences of English, 1: 19 Consonants 3.1 The general picture: the regular spellings of English 19 consonant phonemes 3.2 Order of description 21 3.3 Frequencies 22 3.4 The main system and the rest 23 3.5 Consonants with doubled spellings which are rare in one- 24 syllable words: /b d g m n p t/, plus /r/ 3.5.1 /b/ as in by 24 3.5.2 /d/ as in dye 25 3.5.3 /g/ as in goo 27 3.5.4 /m/ as in my 29 3.5.5 /n/ as in nigh 32 3.5.6 /p/ as in pie 34 3.5.7 /t/ as in tie 35 3.5.8 /r/ as in rye 39 3.6 /r/-linking 41 3.7 Consonants with doubled spellings which are regular at 47 the end of one-syllable words after a short vowel spelt with one letter: /k ʧ f ʤ l s v z/ 3.7.1 /k/ as in coo 47 3.7.2 /ʧ/ as in chew 55 3.7.3 /f/ as in few 59 3.7.4 /ʤ/ as in jaw 62 3.7.5 /l/ as in law 66 3.7.6 /s/ as in sue 69 3.7.7 /v/ as in view 78 3.7.8 /z/ as in zoo 81 3.8 Consonants without doubled spellings: /h ŋ ∫ ʒ θ ð w j/ 86 3.8.1 /h/ as in who 86 3.8.2 /ŋ/ as in ring 87 3.8.3 /∫/ as in fission 89 3.8.4 /ʒ/ as in vision 94 Contents ix 3.8.5 /θ/ as in thigh 96 3.8.6 /ð/ as in thy 97 3.8.7 /w/ as in well 98 3.8.8 /j/ as in yell, union 103 4. How do you know when to write a consonant letter double? 109 4.1 The easy bits 109 4.1.1 Consonant letters are never doubled at the 109 beginning of a word 4.1.2 Some consonant letters are never or almost 110 never written double: <h, j, q, v, w, x, y> 4.1.3 Doubled consonant letters are very rare after 110 long vowels and diphthongs 4.2 The main consonant-doubling rule (Part 1 of ‘double, 111 drop or swop’ – see sections 6.4-5) 4.3 Other hints for writing a consonant letter double 115 4.3.1 Where the two parts of a compound word, or 115 an affix and a stem, have adjacent identical consonant letters, the consonant letter is written double 4.3.2 Monosyllabic content words with /VC/ structure 116 have a double consonant letter: the Three-Letter Rule 4.3.3 Consonant phonemes /b d f g k p t z/ are almost 118 always spelt with double letters before final /əl/ spelt <-le> where the immediately preceding vowel phoneme is short, stressed and spelt with a single letter 4.3.4 More generally, consonant letters are mostly 120 written double in the middle of two-syllable words where the immediately preceding vowel phoneme is short and written with a single letter 4.3.5 At the end of one-syllable words where the 123 preceding vowel phoneme is short and spelt with a single letter the following consonant phonemes are mostly written double: /k ʧ f ʤ l s z v/ x Dictionary of the British English Spelling System 4.4 Hints for not writing consonant letters double 123 4.4.1 At the end of one-syllable words where the 123 preceding vowel phoneme is short and spelt with a single letter the following consonant phonemes are mostly written single: /b d g m n p t/ 4.4.2 When do you not write consonant phonemes 124 /b d f g k p t z/ with double letters before final /əl/ spelt <-le>? 4.4.3 Digression: When do you not spell final /əl/ as 125 <-le>? 4.4.4 When do you not write doublable consonant 128 letters double in the middle of two-syllable words (other than those ending in /əl/)? 4.4.5 The third syllable from the end of a word rarely 128 ends in a doubled consonant letter 4.4.6 Doubled consonant letters are very rare 130 immediately before the endings <-ic(al), -id, -it, -ule> 4.4.7 When do you reduce <ll> to <l>? 131 4.5 Learn the rest 132 4.6 Consolation prizes 132 4.6.1 Consonant letters are never written triple 132 4.6.2 Final <CC> + <e> 133 5. The phoneme-grapheme correspondences of English, 2: Vowels 135 5.1 The general picture: the principal spellings of English 135 vowel phonemes 5.2 Order of description 138 5.3 The main system and the rest 139 5.4 Short pure vowels: /æ e ɪ ɒ ʌ ʊ ə/ 139 5.4.1 /æ/ as in ash 139 5.4.2 /e/ as in end 140 5.4.3 /ɪ/ as in ink 142 5.4.4 /ɒ/ as in ox 148 5.4.5 /ʌ/ as in up 150 Contents xi 5.4.6 /ʊ/ as in pull 151 5.4.7 /ə/ (the schwa vowel) as in the first sound in 153 about 5.5 Long pure vowels (other than /iː, uː/): /ɑː ɜː ɔː/ 167 5.5.1 /ɑː/ as in aardvark 167 5.5.2 /ɜː/ as in earl 170 5.5.3 /ɔː/ as in awe 173 5.6 Diphthongs (other than /eɪ, aɪ, əʊ/): /ɔɪ aʊ eə ɪə ʊə/ 179 5.6.1 /ɔɪ/ as in oyster 179 5.6.2 /aʊ/ as in ouch 180 5.6.3 /eə/ as in air 181 5.6.4 /ɪə/ as in ear 185 5.6.5 /ʊə/ as in rural 188 5.7 Letter-name vowels: /eɪ iː aɪ əʊ juː/, plus /uː/ 191 5.7.1 /eɪ/ as in aim 191 5.7.2 /iː/ as in eel 196 5.7.3 /aɪ/ as in ice 205 5.7.4 /əʊ/ as in oath 210 5.7.5 /juː/ as in union 214 5.7.6 /uː/ as in ooze 216 6. Some spelling rules for vowels 221 6.1 ‘<i> before <e> except after <c>’ 221 6.2 ‘To spell the names of letters <a, i, o, u> in one-syllable 222 words ending with a single consonant phoneme, write the vowel-name letter and the consonant letter and magic <e>’ 6.3 ‘In non-final syllables of stem words, spell letter-name 223 vowels with their name letters’ 6.4 <e>-deletion (Part 2 of ‘double, drop or swop’) 226 6.5 <y>-replacement (Part 3 of ‘double, drop or swop’) 229 6.6 <ie>-replacement, <y>-deletion and <e>-insertion 231 6.7 <-able/-ible> 232 6.8 <-ant/-ent, -ance/-ence, -ancy/-ency> 233 xii Dictionary of the British English Spelling System 6.9 Using related forms to spell schwa 234 6.10 Elided vowels 237 7.